President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s office has distanced the Zanu PF leader from the bloody clashes over the control of one of Manicaland’s richest gold mines.
Pedzai Scott Sakupwanya, a gold dealer considered to be
close to the first family, is accused of terrorising Redwing Mining Company
(RMC) workers and members of the local community in Penhalonga using
Mnangagwa’s name.
Redwing is located 20km northeast of Mutare in Mutasa
district and 265km southeast of Harare.
The workers, community members and artisanal miners who are
not happy with Sakupwanya’s Betterbrands Mining Company operating at the
embattled RMC gold mine say the businessman, who has often been seen in the
company of Mnangagwa’s sons, boasts that he is above the law.
Some claimed that he boasted that the gold claims he was
alleged to have grabbed from RMC belonged to Mnangagwa, who allegedly mills the
precious mineral at his Precabe farm in Kwekwe.
Sakupwanya allegedly
hired illegal gold miners — commonly known as Mashurugwi for their violent
behaviour — from Kwekwe, the president’s home town, to terrorise the RMC
workers, informal miners and villagers after a decision to kick Betterbrands
off the Redwing mine had been made.
Recently, a video emerged of the MaShurugwi using thick
sticks to beat up informal miners,who lay face down on the ground, accusing
them of having stolen gold from Betterbrands.
Sakupwanya donated 100 tonnes of maize to Mnangagwa last
year.
Mnangagwa’s spokesperson
George Charamba has came out guns blazing and directly challenged
Sakupwanya to prove his business links with Mnangagwa.
“It’s actually very unseemly for anyone to confine him
(Mnangagwa) to any particular mining proposition,” Charamba told The Standard.
“There has been a serious level of name-dropping by people,
who are trying to ride rough-shod over the law in the name of the leadership.
“We take a very dim view of such personalities and in the
event that we catch up with them, those guys will rot in jail.”
He continued: “Tell that Sakupwanya that, really, he must
look at his articles of association and see if the president is a shareholder
(in Betterbrands),”
Sakupwanya, did not respond to calls and WhatsApp messages
sent to him despite reading them.
The controversial gold seeker caught public attention last
year when he posed in photographs with gold ingots worth millions of dollars,
amid speculation that he was a gold smuggler.
Fidelity Printers, the government-owned unit that buys,
processes and markets the mineral, however, defended him as a legitimate gold
producer.
The flamboyant Sakupwanya,
who drives around in flashy cars, was among prominent people who bought
many copies of Mnangagwa’s biography, A Life of Sacrifice, which was authored
by former opposition leader, Eddie Cross at its launch in August this year.
Some eight months ago, Sakupwanya looked like he would be
arrested for illegally grabbing 132 gold mining blocks from RMC through
Betterbrands.
He was accused of having connived with the then judicial
manager of the troubled mine, Cecil Madondo, to fraudulently transfer the gold
claims to Betterbrands.
While Madondo was arrested and taken to court over the
case, Sakupwanya — a ruling Zanu PF loyalist who is understood to harbour the
ambition to run as a councillor in Harare’s Mabvuku suburb in the 2023
elections — has remained scot-free.
A rival miner, Probadek Investments, was awarded the same
blocks in October 2020 and reportedly invested US$300 000 into the gold project
at RMC, which needed a rescue plan through a new investor.
Betterbrands, according to court records, mysteriously
signed for the same claims two months later and reportedly paid only US$50 000
instead of the US$3 million agreed with Madondo, whose case is still pending.
This double-allocation is what has caused the most recent
tiff between Betterbrands, and RMC shareholders dominated by its workers and
the local community who all want Sakupwanya’s company out.
James Mupfumi, the director of Centre for Resource
Development, estimated that ongoing gold mining activities by artisanal miners
at Redwing had resulted in the creation of 5 000 open pits even though
extraction of the mineral must be underground.
Betterbrands commenced the harmful surface mining in late
2020 after RMC was put under care and maintenance.
Subsequently, a decision was made to put it under a
corporate rescue plan, after which Probadek signed for the claims that were
then grabbed by Betterbrands on a seven-year lease.
Recently, the police visited Redwing to quell clashes
between the Sakupwanya-backed informal miners on one hand and the RMC workers
and community members on the other, but the MaShurugwi militias defied the law
enforcers, allegedly claiming that Mnangagwa had authorised then to mine in the
area.
Winstone Makoni, the Penhalonga Residents and Rate Payers
Trust chairperson confirmed that Betterbrands employees hid behind the
president’s name. He also complained that they were causing extensive damage to
the environment.
“They (militia miners) are committing crimes, saying we are
untouchable.
“There is a notorious group moving around in a Honda Fit
that is not registered and it is terrorising people here,” he said.
On September 28 this year, the hired machete gangsters
stabbed three Penhalonga youths, but no arrests were made.
Clington Masanga, the Penhalonga Youth Development Trust
director, said: “Our youths are being attacked.
“If you try to talk to the gangsters, they drop the names
of top people in government.”
Two days later, RMC workers and shareholders protested
against Betterbrands, closing the entrance into the mine.
The police arrested 11 of them and took them to court but
they are now out on free bail after the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
stepped in with legal assistance.
Peter Zheke, the RMC workers’ committee chairperson said a
creditors meeting on September 9 resolved that Betterbrands must leave as it
was failing to honour its pledge to pay the employees, who he said were owed
some US$7 million.
At its peak RMC, which was owned by Metallion Gold,
produced between 30kg to 50kg of gold a month.
Kingstone Chitotombe, the Environmental Management Agency’s
Manicaland provincial manager confirmed that they had received complaints of
serious land degradation caused by operations of Betterbrands.
“We have had complaints on land degradation and we are
engaging them. We are trying to establish facts on the ground,” he said.
In a letter dated
October 1, 2021 addressed to Sakupwanya, Knowledge Hofisi, the interim
corporate rescue manager ordered that operations at the mine be suspended for
14 days.
“Disturbances at the mine is degenerating to unsustainable
levels… On September 9, 2021, creditors and shareholders of Redwing Mining
Company passed a resolution to rescind post-commencement agreements.
“We write to advise that mining operations have been
suspended with immediate effect for the next 14 days…” reads part of the
letter.
Minutes of the
September 9 meeting held in Highlands, Harare, confirmed the position.
The minutes showed that 100% of creditors had voted in
favour of cancelling the agreements that made Betterbrands proceed with mining
operations at the Redwing mine.
However, investigations revealed that the Betterbrands
management had from October 7, 2021 started deploying artisanal miners from
Kwekwe onto the mine at night while name dropping Mnangagwa.
In an interview, Hofisi refused to comment on the alleged
name-dropping. “As a creature of the High Court, at law I am obliged to pursue
the rescue plan agreed on,” he said.
“Issues of name-dropping may arise, but I cannot dwell on
them.”
He confirmed there was a decision to stop Betterbrands
operations in Penhalonga but urged negotiations between the warring parties.
Standard
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