The traditional leader said the situation had robbed the
country of a lot of revenue accrued from
the sale of mineral resources.
Speaking this week at an emotionally-charged workshop in
Mutare on decentralisation organised by Centre for Research for Peace and
Development in Africa in partnership with the Centre for Natural Resource Governance,
Chief James Mutasa said there were crooks in the mining sector who hung around
Mnangagwa giving him wrong information and advice.
He said these crooks were taking advantage of their
positions to enrich themselves in the process.
“I am not against any mining activities in Zimbabwe at all.
Mutasa district has large gold deposits, but, to my surprise so many miners are
mining in the area and they take away the gold. It pains me that the people
from Mutasa are not benefiting at all from their gold,” he said.
“You come and take the gold and build mansions in Harare.
You drive beautiful and expensive cars all the way, but you have forgotten the
people from Mutasa.”
“I have poor families in my area and why can’t you build
them houses through corporate social responsibility programmes? People from
Mutasa have nothing to show and they honestly deserve this benefaction,” the
chief said.
“Most of those gold claims are owned by people who are not
from Mutasa, why? The mining in Mutasa is being controlled by people who are
not from Mutasa and they are taking the riches away from us.”
Expressing more disappointment over how he and his subjects
have been treated in terms of mineral revenue benefaction, he added: “I am the
custodian of the land; I know everything happening on the ground. There are
some people who have engaged the Chinese to do the mining while my people with
the potential of mining are denied the opportunity because of corruption within
the system.
“I report direct to the President and these are some of the
things that I am going to highlight to him. The mining processes are fraught
with irregularities. We need proper corporate social responsibility in the
community so that everyone benefits.”
He urged miners in Mutasa district to form Mutasa Miners
Association to tackle issues affecting them.
The meeting was attended by small-scale miners,
community-based organisations operating in mining areas, other stakeholders and
the media. Newsday
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