SMALL-SCALE women miners in Manicaland have accused top
Zanu PF officials in the province of hijacking the Women’s Development Fund to
only benefit ruling party supporters.
This came out during a media sensitisation workshop on
artisanal miners organised by the Centre for Natural Resource Governance in
Mutare on Friday.
The miners said the fund, meant to capacitate women to
meaningfully contribute to the country’s economy, was only benefiting mining
groups linked to Zanu PF.
The funds were distributed through the Women Affairs,
Gender and Community Development ministry.
“We have realised that known Zanu PF supporters were the
only beneficiaries. We submitted papers to the Ministry of Mines offices for
consideration, but we only discovered that those who were aligned to Zanu PF
were the only ones that got the funds. I was openly told that I would not be
allocated the funds because I am a known MDC supporter,” a small-scale miner,
who refused to be named for fear of victimisation, said.
“Some of us submitted papers to the ministry long back, but
others, known to be Zanu PF supporters, have their papers processed within a
very short period of time through the influence of top Zanu PF officials.”
It is alleged that most of the women groups that received
the funds had no proper mining equipment and the money was directed to other
uses outside mining.
Contacted for comment yesterday, Women Affairs, Gender and
Community Development minister Nyasha Chikwinya said the distribution of the
funds was done above board.
“There is nothing like that. Everything was above board. We
verified and scrutinised the papers fairly and we considered everyone
regardless of party affiliation,” she said.
Chikwinya said her ministry this year distributed $260 000
in all the provinces.
“Let me also emphasise that those who benefited will be
strictly monitored. We want to ensure that those who have received the funds
must put them to good use. They should then be able to repay because it is a
revolving fund,” she said. Newsday
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