ZIMBABWE: THE GOLD RUSH,CHAOS AND CRIMINALS

 

The International Crisis Group has just published a report called All That Glitters is Not Gold: Turmoil in Zimbabwe’s Mining Sector that delves into illicit mines of the country and particularly those toiling for gold and what the government should do to ensure the mineral wealth stays in Zimbabwe while its miners are cared for. 

As the country’s economy continues to weaken, especially following the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the majority of those of working age can be found in the artisanal mines, scrimping out a living, especially with the hopes of finding gold. A surge of attacks linked to Zimbabwe's growing artisanal mining sector has killed hundreds of miners. Zimbabwe’s economy has been in desperate straits for a long time now; this is evident in any of the small towns dotted around the country which have been hit by endemic unemployment, the chronic cash and fuel shortages and the ever-rising inflation rate which hit 838% in July 2020. Unfortunately, the country's economic crisis is expected to continue deepening amid a weakening currency on the back of the global covid-19 pandemic, together with the government's inability to deliver economic reforms and persistent shortages of food due to successive poor harvests. Zimbabwe’s artisanal miners, popularly known as 'makorokoza', risk their lives to make a decent living. 

Vividly, the economy is becoming increasingly dependant on its mining industry with gold leading the charge and this has never been more apparent to the Zimbabweans on the bottom rung of the economy who face stark economic choices in order to provide shelter and food for their families. With the unemployment rate as high as 95%, this includes a proportion of people who are working in the informal industry, which is characterised by low ways, poor working conditions or no social security. With high unemployment figure and no prospect of earning a living except by subsistence farming thousands of youths whose access to education has been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic and women who in the past have been prevented from mining are now joining men in the exodus from the towns to the gold mining regions.

In the absence of any formal employment potential in present-day Zimbabwe, gold mining offers the potential of good returns for very little risk. In particular, when compared to the risks of punishment for engaging in wildlife trafficking with a mandatory 9-year jail sentence, or in illegal diamond mining the risks associated with artisanal mining and the accompanying illicit gold trade are minimal. The Gold Trade Act has a provision of a maximum 5-year sentence for illegal possession of gold; however, the “no-ques­tions-asked” recently adopted by the government has relaxed this legal requirement in practice although artisanal mining is not without its hazards as the recent tweet below shows: 

In August 2020 Stephen Tsoroti and Ankita Anand visited the artisanal miners on the eastern shore of the Mazowe sam near Harare- this was the chosen site of former first lady 'Gucci Grace' Mugabe who used to send heavily armed Zimbabwe Republic Police[ZRP] who came and burnt down houses belonging to the indigenous small scale farmers at the Manzou Estate. As journalist drove closer to the mine site, they encountered men, women and boys by the roadside in threadbare clothes carrying the crude tools of their trade including hammers and rock drills bits who looked at them suspiciously when they said they had come to report on the life and work of artisanal miners. 

The official regulators are not the only ones harassing the artisanal miners who are also raided by ‘shurugwis’ the local name for gangsters and thieves who raid the miners to steal any gold they have extracted. Violence and lawlessness is very much part of the lives of artisanal miners and there have been killings as rival gold barons with political connections vie for promising gold sites. These crimes often go unreported as the reporters themselves may be arrested for illegal mining.