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Government has suspended the operations of two Chinese firms in Norton and revoked an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) licence for another after they violated environmental laws.
The violations were discovered during Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister, Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu’s visit to the firms last month.
Speaking to The Herald, EMA Mashonaland West provincial head, Mr Rambwayi Mapako confirmed the suspension and revocation of the EIA and said the firms will only be allowed to continue if they regularise their operations
Norton Bricks and Agate Blessed Bricks and Moulding’s operations were suspended while Mhandamabwe Jingston Mine’s licence was revoked.
“We have revoked EIA licence for Mhandamabwe Jingston Mine and will only restore it when all the anomalies have been addressed completely.
“We have also closed Norton Bricks Company with an instruction to carry some rehabilitation work and there has been tremendous response and mechanisms to the directive.
“We are also going to conduct another validation exercise to check their progress,” he said.
He said Agate Blessed Bricks and Moulding Company has not started any rehabilitation work and they were considering approaching the High Court for an interdict to compel the company to start the rehabilitation work.
“Sunny Yi Feng has also agreed in principle to have an offside effluent management system to bridge the gap that is in existence. They should be able to cater for at least 3 000 to 5 000 workers,” Mr Mapako said.
Engagement with local authorities and villagers have also been made to ensure that Sunny Yi Feng complies with the company’s laws in the extraction of sand which they use in the making of tiles and ceramic kitchenware.
He said the company was also instructed to extract sand from registered sites as a measure to curb environmental degradation and improve revenue for local authorities.
Online Reporter