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Court Reporter
Former workers of Mazowe Mining Company’s Jumbo Mine are concerned they are unlikely to receive US$18 million in cumulative salary arrears owed from 2018.
Metallon Gold, the South African company that halted operations in 2016, has ceased communication.
The workers are now appealing to the Government for assistance, citing inability to afford legal action.
This comes as former workers and new mine management continue battling for control of what is believed to be one of the country’s largest gold deposits.
Another point of contention is the currency in which the arrears, dating back to 2018, should be settled.
Following accrual of salary arrears, the workers applied for corporate rescue with Mr Reggie Saruchera of Grant Thornton taking over the running of the company in 2020.
Mr Saruchera’s mandate, however, ended in 2021 because of legal technicalities in favour of the mine owners.
Mr Kimbton Chihota, Mr Tavepi Dafana and Mr Hapson Makotore were then announced as shareholder representatives.
However, they were not designated as direct administrators of the mine.
In 2023, the workers re-applied for corporate rescue but no new judicial manager was appointed.
From 2018, the mine is understood to have accrued a staggering US$68 million debt with all creditors, including staff.
“We have unpaid salaries since 2018. There are no lines of communication with the company owner (Metallon) who seems to have abandoned the mine.
“Nothing points to the reopening of the mine or settlement of the salary arrears.
“We tried to apply for corporate rescue but there are people who have imposed themselves as the new mine managers and claiming authority over the mine and its resources without a clear explanation on how the company is now being run,” said a former mine executive.
In March this year, the Government ordered a cessation of operations at Jumbo Mine, citing unsafe mining activities.
“Following a site visit by the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development Inspectorate to your mine on March 11 2024, for a mine accident investigation, you are hereby ordered that all mining and allied operations at the mine (Lease 35) be suspended with immediate effect,” wrote the Ministry to the mine general manager Mr Allan Mushayavanhu on March 24.
Some of the former workers had organised themselves into artisanal mining syndicates to extract gold as part of a proposed settlement of the arrears.
At the closure of the mine in 2016, then Metallon chairman Mr Mzi Khumalo offered the group’s employees a stake in the mine to offset the liabilities in salary arrears.
Secretary general of the Combined Workers and Contractors Committee Mr Knowledge Rutavi recently said as ex-mine workers, their hope was that the Government would intervene to regularise their operations.
“We want to support the Government’s initiative and ensure that the envisaged 2030 vision becomes a reality as well as ensure that gold becomes the bedrock of the envisaged drive,” he said.
The artisanal mining syndicates cannot tie down long-term plans and finances to ensure continuity of their operations.
“The ex-workers are therefore calling for Government intervention for the regularisation of their operations,” said Mr Rutavi.
Charles Coghlan first pegged Jumbo Mine in 1891 and it opened in 1904.
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