A Chegutu-based gold miner Mambo Jenami has said that he was involved in an accident that saw him bound to the wheelchair for about three years.
He told the Standard that during that period, he failed to pay statutory fees for the mine and when he finally recovered, he approached Ministry of Mines and Mining Development offices only to learn that his mine had been given to someone else.
Jenami said that, surprisingly, no one had come to the mine to claim it adding that no inspection had been done to prove that someone was now using it. He lamented:
I lost my marriage, I lost income, I lost everything and now it’s the claim itself, which I have invested heavily in, including hammer mills, which I bought but never used.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Zimbabwe Miners’ Federation (ZMF), Wellington Takavarasha, said that those statutory fees are supposed to be paid by all miners adding that the organisation was trying to assist Jenami “from a humanitarian point of view” to recover his mine.
Gold is one of Zimbabwe’s top earners of foreign currency and is, under the strategic road map for the mining sector launched by president Mnangagwa in 2019, expected to contribute US$4 billion.
More: The Standard