Masvingo residents are in awe after GTS firm took a record five weeks to complete construction of a service station close to Mucheke River and get it operational.
The service
station is the first and only structure in the piece of land pegged out for
Masvingo’s new CBD and smart city.
Zanu PF
Mberengwa Central MP and gold dealer, Tinashe Shumba refuted allegations that
the service station is his and told Masvingo Mirror that instead he is just a
contractor at the construction site.
Ironically the
controversial MP’s name is Tinashe Shumba which could stand for the TS in the
name of the service station. His nickname is Goga which completes the jigsaw
puzzle; Goga Tinashe Shumba (GTS).
A Chronicle
article confirms that Shumba is indeed the owner of GTS service stations.
Construction of
the service station which is on Mucheke River valley and the first such
infrastructure in the the new CBD across the river was stopped by the
Environmental Management Authority (EMA) for failure to comply with
environmental regulations. EMA waved the project on a few days later in March
and by May 12 (Monday) 2025 the service station was serving clients on its
pumps.
EMA provincial
spokesperson, Munyaradzi Mtisi confirmed that GTS was once ordered to stop
construction of the service station because it had no certificate of
development from the authority.
“The new GTS
service station does comply with all environmental statutes. When EMA issued an
order to stop construction work on 11 February 2025 it was because the
proponent at that time had not been issued with an EMA certificate of
development,” said Mtisi in a statement to Masvingo Mirror.
Last year,
Deputy Judge President, Justice Garainesu Mawadze gave an order barring Shumba
and Kubatana Mining Syndicate from evicting villagers in Mberengwa from their
ancestral land to prospect for gold.
The villagers
told the court that Shumba had goons roaming their homesteads armed with guns
and Shumba claimed that he was powerful and no one would stop him.
A recent
Newshawks report says Shumba was once involved in mining in the sacred Janasi
Mountain in Mberengwa. The stripping of minerals in that mountain was not
sanctioned by EMA and according to Newshawks, Shumba led a Zanu PF cartel in
the project which raised the ire of the Zimi Machingamidze Clan.
A Chronicle
report says Shumba (42), is an example of a success story of Government
empowerment. He was a security guard with Safeguard in the late 90s’ in Gokwe.
He then worked as a gold miner for a certain company in Mberengwa before
registering his name for youth empowerment. He registered for a claim which was
once owned by whites. Now Shumba has more than four claims.
“The mine used
to be owned by whites and they abandoned it at the height of the land reform
programme. They had tried to conceal the mining activities that were going on
there,” Sibanda told The Chronicle.
The Chronicle
says Shumba’s wealth spread from gold and now owns GTS service stations in
Mberengwa and Kwekwe. Masvingo Mirror
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