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Marvelous Moyo Gwanda Correspondent
THE government will soon set up a mining service centre for women miners in Matabeleland South as part of efforts to empower the female gender and boost gold production output.
The proposed centre is expected to be a multi-functional service provider for women in mining.
The facility will be established at Colleen Bawn.
The government and its development partners such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have pledged to provide requisite support to ensure the project becomes a success.
The matter was discussed during a consultative meeting between government representatives and women miners in Gwanda last week.
Women miners said they needed such a centre to foster effective contribution to economic turnaround.
They complained that lack of such facilities was a major barrier since they did not have requisite mining equipment.
“We’re really struggling because we use picks and shovels to dig for gold since we don’t have machinery for our mining activities. We lose a lot of profit to private millers because we don’t have stamp mills and we also hire compressors,” said Sithembile Ndlovu, chairperson of Mthandazo Women in Mining.
“As a result the returns we realise fall because of these costs. We need our own machinery so that our business becomes viable because we’ve the potential to produce more.”
She said several women miners were spending hours at private stamp mills waiting for the processing of their gold ore.
“If the service centre is established, we’re confident that the economy of Gwanda and Matabeleland South will be transformed,” Ndlovu said.
The women said they needed tractors, jaw crushers, ball millers, jack hammers, water pumps and generators.
UNDP programme analyst, Wadzanai Madombwe said their organisation had an agreement with the government to provide required support for women empowerment programmes.
“Today we’re here to get first hand testimony on what you’re doing. The most important thing is for you to be organised and have structures,” he said.
Provincial administrator Midard Khumalo said women had shown commitment in participating in the economy hence the need to support them.
“Women are taking their appropriate position in terms of economic development of this country. We want to ensure a sustainable support network that will boost and sustain the performance of women in mining.
“They’ve come together to enhance their efforts to ensure that there’s meaningful sustainable development in terms of the mining arena. They also need to be considered and not forgotten,” he said.
Matabeleland South provincial development officer in the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development, Merjury Sikhundla urged the miners to continue working hard to uplift the economy.
In 2007, women miners received support from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in the form of infrastructure and fencing at designated sites.
The site in Gwanda would be developed into a service centre where women would be provided with mining services.
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