Chronicle Editor
Michelle Nyanzira, Business Reporter
THE Ministry of Mines and Mining Development should set up a “Safety Fund” to enhance protection of workers through purchasing and hiring equipment to use in mine rescue and body retrieval operations.
In order to create more jobs and increase small-scale miners’ contribution to the growth of the economy, there is need to scale up formalisation of the sector and enhance a safer mining environment.
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Mining Development has proposed the establishment of the Safety Fund in response to increased mining accidents especially in the artisanal and small-scale mining sector.
According to the committee’s recent report, mining-related accidents have been on the rise since 2018. Last year major accidents were recorded in Esigodini, Mutare Premier Mine and Mazowe Mine.
More than one million people are directly involved in artisanal and small-scale mining and the majority of them are unregistered, said the committee.
In order to ensure the safety of workers in the sector, the Government should, starting January 2022, facilitate the establishment of a rapid response unit which is adequately resourced to deal with mining accidents in each mining district. Beefing up miners’ safety is critical for a sector that accounts for about 60 percent of the country’s export receipts, said the committee.
The committee however, said the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development should continue playing its role in all mining accidents in line with Statutory Instrument 109 of 1990 Mining (Management and Safety). “This responsibility should not be delegated to other State agencies such as the Civil Protection Unit or Local Government authorities because disasters work with a command kind of structure,” it said.
The committee said to prevent more accidents, the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development officials that include mine engineers and inspectors need to be adequately capacitated on their roles and responsibilities vis-a-viz mining accidents through periodic training.
It said ministry should regularly conduct training on mining safety and regulations especially to small-scale miners starting January 2022.
The committee said there is also a need for Government mine engineers to work closely with experts in assessing the impact of mine accidents as this will enable the State and other stakeholders to take proper measures in the rescue or retrieval of bodies buried underground.
“The Ministry of Mines and Mining Development should by end of April 2022, come up with a plan with mandatory timeframes in which trapped bodies should be retrieved from underground,” said the committee.
It said there are several bodies buried for years underground at different mines and as such families and friends of these departed persons need closure.
“A simple, safe and timeous response procedure inclusive of these issues should be developed.”
The Committee said by April 2022, the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development should have finalised formalising the artisanal and small-scale mining sector as this will make it easy for the sector to get training on safe mining regulations. — @michieroxy.
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