The broadsides were fired after Chitando, who last week
came under fire from the President’s Office to act on a sea of disagreements
over minerals claims, ruled on Monday that the gold mine at the heart of
confrontations between mining executive Jack Murehwa’s G&P Industries and
Ran Mines and businesswoman, Angeline Munyeza’s Blackgate Investments belonged
to the Murehwa consortium.
“The ground that Blackgate pegged was not open to
prospecting and pegging according to Section 31 of the Mines and Minerals Act
at the time that Blackgate purports to have repegged and subsequently
registered the claim known as Kimberley 18, which belongs to Ran Mine and
G&P Industries,” Chitando said in the determination, which came over a
decade after the parties began fighting over the goldfields.
“In light of these findings, the certificates issued to
Blackgate Investments were issued in error. I hereby cancel certificates of
registration numbers 36 375 and 37 353 respectively,” Chitando said.
But yesterday, an angry Munyeza rejected the ruling. She
accused Chitando of avoiding slipping into contempt by avoiding a key Supreme
Court order in coming up with the determination.
She said the dispute over Ran Mines was fraught with
irregularities from the start when “your ministry adamantly stood by the
fraudulent ‘letter’ produced by Jack Murehwa in a hearing held on February 6,
2020.
“Your determination has made us question the constitutional
adherence of your office as this action is detrimentally ground-breaking and
unheard of. It implies the precedence of a minister overturning an order from
the highest court in the land, thus depicting your office as a supposed
superior arm of the law which acts above the law itself.
“It is rather baffling that a whole minister can use the word
‘error’ to adjudicate a dispute that has been ensuing for more than a decade
and deem it as conclusive. We are a business which was built on a patriotic
mantra and we believe that your decision could only be equivalent to staging a
coup d’etat . . . this is appalling in professional conduct for a minister to
overturn a ruling made by an esteemed bench of judges that sits in the highest
court in the land. In culmination from our assertion your determination is
unlawful in the sense that you have not fulfilled the Supreme Court order hence
it renders the Ministry of Mines in contempt of court and continues to be the
instigator of this never-ending spiral of injustice that prejudices the nation
of the much-needed development,” Munyeza said.
Fighting reached a tipping point two weeks ago when G&P
Industries said it was pressing ahead to extract its first bullion at the mine
in 22 years, while rivals at Blackgate Investments warned that sinking shafts
at the operation was illegal until the government makes a determination over
ownership.
Documents seen by the Zimbabwe Independent indicated that
Blackgate holds permits demonstrating ownership to the goldfields, which have
now been cancelled.
The Independent reported last week that in a 76-page letter
submitted to President Mnangagwa in December, Blackgate claimed that G&P
Industries had warned them to tread carefully as the asset belonged to the
feared late strongman, Robert Mugabe and his family. The letter claimed that
after Mugabe unceremoniously left power in 2017, G&P somersaulted and
claimed that Mnangagwa had taken over the asset, which collapsed in 1999 before
attracting armies of artisanal miners.
G&P has indicated that it has a US$6,5 million war
chest to rebuild Ran Mines, which made headlines in November, after its shafts
collapsed under heavy flooding as torrential rains swept through Zimbabwe.
In her letter to Mnangagwa, Munyeza said Zimbabwe lost
about US$500 million in potential gold exports during the prolonged dispute.
She said Blackgate identified Ran Mines after previous owners left, but ran
into problems after being swamped with complaints that it had intruded into
G&P claims. She said in November the government took the warring to the
mine, but she was shocked when G&P said she must “keep quiet because the
mine belongs to the first family”. Munyeza is seeking clarity if it was true
that Ran Mines’ ownership had transferred from Mugabe to Mnangagwa.
“It is in your best interest that I bring your attention to
an issue of paramount importance that if left derelict, could derail and negate
the efforts that are being made towards establishing a US$12 billion mining
industry by 2023 — fighting the scourge of corruption that could ultimately
result in the perpetuation of the abuse of your name and family by cunning,
unscrupulous individuals within society,” Munyeza said.
“The dispute in question has been a prolonged one . . .
emanating in 2008 . . . characterised by alarming levels of corruption within
the Ministry of Mines and gross abuse of the name of the late President Robert
Gabriel Mugabe as well as yours and your family members. These occurrences have
led us to seek clarity . . . and . . . impartial recommendation as this matter
infringes negatively on your reputation and integrity as you are the chief
steward of the country,” Munyeza said.
Last week, presidential spokesman, George Charamba said
there was a worrying trend of conflicts over claims that the Mines ministry has
failed to address.
“I cannot confirm that we have received the letter as the
President’s Office,” Charamba said.
“Maybe it is still on its way, but this is a clear message
to the Ministry of Mines that the whole regime of assigning titles to claims
must be tided up. I am sure there is a need for intervention from the high
office,” Charamba told the Independent.
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