Monday, 19 May 2025

GOLD DEALER MP BUILDS SERVICE STATION IN RECORD TIME


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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