eBusiness Weekly
Ishemunyoro Chingwere
The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has called on chrome miners who benefited from Government’s decision for indigenous miners to get title of chrome rich deposits they used to mine under tributary arrangements to abide by terms of their contracts amid a rise in ownership disputes.
The call was made by the Officer Commanding Police, Minerals Flora and Fauna — Chief Superintendent Kumboyedza Mavhaku, when he spoke at the Minerals and Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) stakeholder consultative meeting for the chrome sector.
Although noting the support the Police is getting from the mining sector, Chief Superintendent Mavhaku said there is a worrying trend of cases of mining operations being intermittently being disturbed by disputes particularly from miners who are mining on tributary deposits.
In 2015, Government directed the chrome smelting duo of ZimAlloys and Zimasco to cede 50 percent of their chrome claims to miners as a means to boost a wider and more independent participation of locals in the chrome sector.
Government also indicated that miners who were mining the claims under tributary arrangements be given the right to first refusal in the distribution of the claims.
However, some unscrupulous miners disregarded the directive and moved in to claim title in areas they had not previously operated thus feeding into the scourge of mine disputes and affecting production in the process.
It is against this background that making a presentation at the MMCZ stakeholder conference, Chief Superintendent Mavhaku appealed to miners not to waste productive time in needless disputes.
“It is true that for us to be more productive, we need a conducive environment for production. An environment that is free of crime,” said Chief Superintendent Mavhaku.
“. . . the objective is to curb mineral leakages in order to ensure the economic growth of our beloved Zimbabwe.
“There are challenges that are obtaining on the ground, challenges that we continue to face from time to time as we enforce the law.
“. . . that tributary arrangement is giving us a bit of challenges here and there because there are disputes and counter disputes.
“So you find that these disputes sometimes end up in courts and when they are pending determination at courts, you find that production is affected, so we encourage the powers that be to speedily resolve such disputes.
“We are handling a lot of cases relating to the theft of chrome ore. If you take a closer look at such cases you realise that it’s emanating from these disputes that I have highlighted,” he said.
Chief Superintendent Mavhaku said the police are also handling cases of people who are illegally exporting chrome ore using names of established chrome industry players and thus negatively impacting on Government’s quest to mineral beneficiation.
