Hurungwe Villagers Protest "Irregular" Establishment Of Chinese-owned Cement Factory
Disgruntled villagers in Hurungwe, Mashonaland West province, have lodged an urgent appeal with the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Wildlife to stop the establishment of a cement manufacturing plant by Labenmon Investments.
The villagers, from Chasara and Kapere villages in Magunje located under Hurungwe Rural District Council, claim that Labenmon Investments began pegging and fencing off land in July 2024 without their consent, affecting their grazing fields and farming land.
According to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), the villagers want Environment, Climate and Wildlife Minister Sithembiso Nyoni to stop Labenmon Investments, a Chinese-owned mining company, from pursuing plans to establish a cement manufacturing plant in Ward 11 in Katenhe in Magunje, located in Hurungwe.
The villages allege that Labenmon Investments, descended on the two villages sometime in July 2024 and began pegging and fencing off the area in Magunje and the affected area included the grazing fields and farming land of several villagers.
They later learnt that Labenmon Investments was going to establish a cement manufacturing plant in the pegged area and they were prohibited from accessing their grazing fields and farming land by the mining company.
On 3 October 2024, the villagers became aware through a newspaper article published in the state-run Herald newspaper that Labenmon Investments had been issued with an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Certificate to establish a cement manufacturing plant in the area that had been pegged in Magunje.
The villagers allege they were not consulted during the EIA process and engaged Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights to appeal the issuance of the EIA Certificate.
They then engaged Tinashe Chinopfukutwa and Kelvin Kabaya of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, who filed an appeal with Nyoni recently, asking her to withdraw and cancel an EIA Certificate Licence No. L10000034346 issued on 3 September 2024 by the Director General of the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) to Wih-Zim Construction Investments Cement Manufacturing, which is linked to Labenmon Investments, as the issuance was erroneous and invalid.
In the appeal, Kabaya and Chinopfukutwa argued that the Director-General of EMA erred by issuing an EIA Certificate to Labenmon Investments before receiving the company’s EIA Report, violating sections 100(1) and 100(2) of the Environmental Management Act.
The lawyers contended that the Director-General imposed an unlawful special condition on the EIA Certificate, requiring Labenmon Investments to submit the EIA Report after the certificate’s issuance, which also violated the same sections of the Act.
They asserted that the Director-General should have reviewed Labenmon Investments’ EIA Report before issuing the EIA Certificate.
The appeal argued that the Director-General failed to adhere to principles of natural justice, including prior informed consent and public participation, which are protected under various sections of the Environmental Management Act and other legal frameworks.
The lawyers argued that several procedural rights related to natural justice were violated during the process of granting the EIA Certificate, referencing specific legal provisions and the Constitution’s right to administrative justice.
Kabaya and Chinopfukutwa pointed out that Labenmon Investments did not conduct any public consultations with the affected villagers regarding the proposed cement manufacturing plant, further violating section 136 of the Environmental Management Act.
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