The ructions relating to the Beifa project in Dinde are
bringing ruling Zanu PF factionalism in the area to the fore.
Since December 2019, the 10 000 Tonga and Nambya villagers
of Dinde, about 40km east of Hwange, have been fighting against the
establishment of a coal mine and coal-fired power generation station amid fears
that they will be evicted to make way for the coal mine.
The villagers have expressed fears of water, air, noise and
environmental degradation and pollution among other potential impacts of the
coal mine. In meetings with several government delegations sent to talk them
into submission, they have stated that they do not even want Beifa Investments
to begin exploration in their area.
However, traditional leader Chief Nekatambe — who stays
outside the affected area — has turned against his own people and teamed up
with government officials to threaten them with forced eviction if they
continue resisting the project.
Community members allege that in several meetings held to
discuss the coal mine, Chief Nekatambe was adamant that they should let the
Chinese company explore for coal and discuss issues around eviction and
compensation later.
He allegedly threatened to haul those opposed to the
project before his traditional court for disrespecting his authority. However,
community members believe Chief Nekatambe is compromised because he has
previously bragged that the Chinese company promised to build him a palace and
a traditional court if the project went ahead.
On April 14, Beifa Investments began core drilling for coal
halfway between the Dinde Community Hall and the community cattle sales pen.
The drilling inflamed community anger, leading to clashes that culminated in
the arrest and detention of Dinde Residents’ Association chairman Never Tshuma.
He made his second appearance at the Hwange Magistrates
Court last week charged with inciting the community to commit crimes of
violence and arson against the Chinese investor. He was not asked to plead and
remanded out of custody on Z$10 000 bail to June 17.
When Information for Development Trust — a non-profit
organisation supporting the media to probe corruption and bad governance —
visited Dinde this week, the Chinese exploration team was not on the site,
which was guarded by three locals.
Across the site, there are at least four piles of
pipe-sized material intersected during the drilling. These include
un-mineralised top-soils while further drilling appears to have intersected
some layers of coal.
“From what they said, there is coal in a radius which
covers the community hall, the dip-tank and cattle sales pen. They believe the
belt runs under several homesteads nearby and further into the mountains to the
north. However, they complained that it is of poor quality and unsuitable for
power generation.
“On April 26, they vacated the site for fear of community
retribution in case Chuma, who was due to go on trial, was imprisoned. They
know that the community blames them for his persecution. They have been
treading carefully since his arrest,” said a worker who declined to be named
for personal security reasons.
Dinde Residents’ Association secretary Christopher Dube
said the exploration team returned to Dinde a week ago and had since shifted to
a second peg with drilling underway along a tributary of the Nyantue River. The
river is the only perennial source of water for livestock and the people of
Dinde.
“Initial drilling took place within 200 metres of critical
community-owned infrastructure and assets that include the hall, some churches
and a dip-tank. All the material they have now was drilled from a hole less
that 50 metres away from the cattle sales pen loading bay. We are more
concerned now that the drilling is moving towards our only reliable water
source, Nyantue River,” Dube said.
He said they have started preparing a consolidated petition
that will give the exact number of households, people, livestock and community
infrastructure and assets that will be affected by the proposed coal mine.
“We reject the coal mine and we reject the government order
to allow this to go on because by doing so, we will be signing our own eviction
notice. We wish to stay on the legal side, but are prepared to fight if this
come to evictions. Our message to the outside world is that for the second time
in less than a century, we, the indigenous people of Dinde, who were evicted
from Sinamatela to make way for Hwange National Park 84 years ago, are once
again facing forced eviction to make way for a Chinese coal mine,” Dube said.
Unlike most typical Zimbabwean land-use and ownership
disputes in which ruling Zanu PF activists often acted as enforcers of
unpopular government policies, the war in Dinde is a factional contest.
In this battle, the Zanu PF Hwange Central constituency
chapter is up against its boss, Richard Moyo, who is the Matabeleland North
provincial chairman and minister.
The resistance is led by the ruling party’s Dinde chairman,
Never Chuma, and Reeds Dube, a member of
the Zanu PF provincial executive who contested the Hwange Central parliamentary
seat and lost to the MDC Alliance in 2018.
Sources said Dube wants the community to kick out the
Chinese in order to fail the project and exact revenge on Moyo, whom he blames
for engineering his failed bid for the constituency in 2018.
Moyo remains at the forefront of government efforts to
coerce the people of Dinde to make way for the coal mine. In one such attempt
on April 1, Moyo said Beifa Investments was one of the companies invited
personally by President Emmerson Mnangagwa to come and invest in Zimbabwe. He
said the president wants the mine and expected the people of Dinde to support
it.
Insiders said apart from using the row over the mining
project to win support ahead of the elections, Dube fears the evictions could
cost him a critical support base ahead of parliamentary elections due in 2023.
“He fears that any relocation will decimate his power base.
He believes that with only two years to the elections, evictions will stoke
public anger and that Zanu PF candidates like him will be punished for
government policy blunders when the elections come,” said a Zanu PF insider.
Bad blood between Moyo and Dube was evident during the
acrimonious meeting held between the minister and the community on April 1. After
Moyo’s speech which glorified the mining project as Mnangagwa’s quick-fix solution to perennial
poverty and unemployment in Hwange, Dube said while the people welcome
investments, they were concerned that Beifa Investments had not engaged them,
but instead resorted to threats and coercion to cover up its failure to hold
proper consultations.
“In implementing such projects, we must ensure that
investors have the consent of the local people, which must be obtained legally.
In this case, the company is not on talking terms with the people. Its EIA
(Environmental Impact Assessment) was obtained through fraudulent means. I
fully support President Mnangagwa’s drive for investment, but I also know that
he does not want to lose votes to officials bulldozing his projects into
unwilling communities,” Dube said to public applause.
Since then, Dube and Tshuma have led various community
protests against the drilling project clad in Zanu PF regalia using party
resources. Their actions have left Beifa Investments fuming at Zanu PF’s
failure to rein in its officials.
In a letter dated April 15, 2021, Beifa Investments project
manager Zhang Zhou Qiao appealed to the Zanu PF Hwange district coordinating
committee (DCC) and Richard Moyo to reprimand the Zanu PF Hwange Central
constituency for sending Dube and Tshuma to unlawfully disrupt its coal
exploration programme in Dinde.
“The shadow MP introduced himself as Reeds Dube and he was
in the company of Never Chuma who introduced himself as Zanu PF Dinde chairman.
They came driving the Zanu PF Hwange Central constituency vehicle (registration
number AEN-7737). Dube said he was sent by the speaker of Parliament (Jacob
Mudenda), who is sending the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mining to
Dinde in the near future.
“The two Zanu PF officials incited the community to resist
our site mobilisation. Dube told the people to beat up the investor and burn
the tent. We are surprised that while government granted us a Special Grant to
carry out the project, the same ruling party sends its officials to resist its
implementation,” Zheng Qiao said.
On April 22, Zanu PF responded with a scathing reprimand of
Dube and Tshuma, painting them as corrupt officials who abused the party name
to disrupt investments in order to “earn kickbacks and line their own pockets”.
In a statement, Moyo said the party would not allow any
officials to abuse its name and their positions to frustrate investors.
“Party members who deviate from the party constitution will
face disciplinary action and the vehicles used for criminal activities will be
impounded. As government, we support the company (Beifa Investments). They are
bringing development and creating employment. We cannot have a lawless
society,” Moyo fumed.
Within days of Zhou’s complaint, Tshuma was arrested in
what community members believe was a move orchestrated to scare them into submission.
Since then, relations between the investor and host community have soured to a
point where the two parties are no longer talking.
The plight of Dinde has since attracted widespread
condemnation of the government’s disregard of local people and concerns when
implementing investment and development projects.
In a statement, human rights advocacy group Zimbabwe Peace
Project (ZPP) said the handling of the coal mine project in Dinde demonstrated
government’s insensitive approach and lack of proper consultation with local
communities when it comes to investment and development.
“By imposing decisions on communities, government creates
unnecessary conflict and the investors find themselves caught up in the melee,
a situation which could have been avoided if government had done the right
thing in the first place.
“We call on the government to stop the eviction of the
Dinde community and to allow for proper consultations where a win-win situation
is realised, unnecessary suffering averted and conflict abated,” said ZPP
director Jestina Mukoko. Standard
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