Chronicle EditorGeorge Maponga Masvingo Bureau
A storm is brewing at Chasiya-tende business centre in Nemauzhe communal lands of Chivi District where more than 20 businesspeople at the service centre are at loggerheads with a gold mining syndicate whose activities are threatening their premises. The business centre serves more than 30 000 people in rural Nemauzhe. Scores of shops, grinding mills and bottle stores, among other structures at the business centre, are facing collapse owing to continued gold mining activities by Chikanda Mining Syndicate.
The syndicate, owned by Messers Jacob Jakuvose and Norman Chikanda, is allegedly operating without an Environmental Impact Assessment certificate from the Environmental Management Agency.
Chasiyatende Business Centre was established before independence.
Staff at Chasiyatende Primary and Secondary Schools together with the newly commissioned Chasiyatende Cinic that was constructed by the Zimbabwe Defence Forces under the Community Assistance programme, also depend on the business centre.
The other nearest business centre in the area is located about 15km away at Razi.
Business people at Chasiyatende appealed for Government intervention to stop the gold mining syndicate from imperiling their structures.
Spokesperson for the local business community Mr Pankrasio Mavhima said the Chikanda Gold Mining Syindicate posed a serious threat to the future of the business centre.
“We are worried that we will wake up the next morning to find our structures having curved in or collapsed in underground shafts these miners are digging in search of gold.
“At the moment there are several structures including shops and grinding mills that are on the verge of collapsing because of the shafts that were dug close to them by the miners,” he said.
Mr Mavhima questioned where the miners got the green light to continue with their dangerous activities.
He said their lifetime investments could be destroyed by the mining activities.
EMA Masvingo provincial manager Mr Robson Mavondo confirmed that the agency had not issued an EIA certificate to the syndicate.
He said EMA refused to issue the certificate for failing to meet their conditions.
Mr Mavondo said they had since dragged the mining syndicate to court for operating without an EIA certificate.
“When the mining syndicate in question applied for an EIA certificate we made it clear to them that they were supposed to hold a public consultation with business people at Chasiyatende to make sure everyone was happy but they did not do it,” he said.
Mr Mavondo said the Chivi Rural District Council had offered alternative land for business people at Chasiyatende with Chikanda Mining Syndicate meeting the relocation and construction costs.
He said the syndicate, however, launched their operations without an EIA prompting EMA to report them to police.
“The matter is still pending at the courts and we are waiting for the courts to make a determination,” Mr Mavondo said.
Chikanda Mining Syndicate started operations at Chasiyatende in 2012 and stopped the following year following clashes with EMA.
However, the syndicate has since resumed operations with fears of land degradation abound because of sporadic influx of illegal miners in search of fortune at the Chikanda Mining Syndicate gold claims.
Online Reporter