adminThe workers said most of them were surviving on doing odd jobs such as poaching firewood for sale, doing piece jobs like working in the fields, gold panning and other such jobs to eke out a living. Many of them said they had now resorted to selling household property to raise money for school fees for their children.
Many girls are reported to have turned to prostitution to earn a living as their parents are failing to fend for them. The workers recently approached the former Governor of the Midlands province and Zanu-PF Politburo member Cde Cephas Msipa and asked him to highlight their plight to the President, Cde Mugabe. Last September, it was reported that the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) had injected capital to enable the giant asbestos mine to resume operations.
The money availed by ZMDC was said to be adequate to pay workers for three months. The mine management soon after the announcement conducted a manpower audit which they said was meant to establish the exact number of workers still under the mine’s employment as many were expected to have left to seek employment elsewhere. What then has delayed the payment of salaries which in our opinion is very urgent given the suffering the workers have endured since 2009?
We want to appeal to the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development which has now been tasked with the responsibility of ensuring the mine resumes production to urgently address the plight of workers at the mine. The ownership wrangle between Government and businessman, Mr Mutumwa Mawere, has nothing to do with workers so it should therefore not affect them. The ZMDC should move with speed to address the issue of salaries while working on modalities to resume production.
There are workers at Shabanie Mine who have worked for the mine for 20 or more years and these workers cannot be expected to seek employment elsewhere as some of them are due for retirement. The members of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy have been to the mine, the Vice President Cde Joice Mujuru and several cabinet ministers have also been to the mine so that Government has first hand account of the prevailing situation at Shabanie.
It is a miracle how the workers and their families have managed to survive this long especially those of foreign origin who have no rural homes to turn to for food and other basics. Zimbabwean companies that are producing asbestos products such as pipes, roofing sheets and other such products are being forced to import the asbestos from countries such as Russia and Brazil yet we have the asbestos in abundance in the country which is not being mined. These companies are spending huge sums of money importing a product that is supposed to be produced here and help create employment.
There has been a lot of talk about resuming production at Shabanie Mine and its time action is taken. The Government, as we have already said, should give priority to ensuring the workers are paid because what is obtaining at Shabanie mine is just inhumane to say the least.
Online Reporter