adminIn an interview on Thursday, Clr Tobaiwa said the illegal gold panners were also causing serious land degradation in the northern part of the Central Business District where they were uprooting some gum trees planted by the council and the nearby Carslon Mine to reclaim the land.
The degraded land, just on the peripheries of the CBD, is close to Carslon Mine, off the Harare-Bulawayo highway.
“Illegal gold panners are causing havoc in the city. They are deliberately blocking sewer systems and breaking our water pipes to access water for their panning activities. The situation has now gone out of hand and we are appealing to the Government and the police to intervene. It is unfortunate that the Environmental Management Agency only focuses mainly on organisations and companies, paying little regard to illegal gold panners and individuals who cause land degradation,” he said.
Clr Tobaiwa said the panners were mainly workers of Carslon Mine, who were left without a source of income after the mine ceased operations late last year.
He said the council and Carslon Mine tried to rehabilitate the area by planting some gum trees last year following similar massive panning activities on the same land in past years.
“It appears our rehabilitation efforts were in vain. We wanted to turn that piece of land into a recreational park. The area is now full of open pits that pose danger to residents. Panners uprooted a number of the planted gum trees meant to reclaim the land. I think the Government should just regularise panning so that the State’s laws and law enforcement agencies can be incorporated fully into the operations of gold panners. That way, it becomes easy for EMA to monitor and penalise panners,” he said.
Clr Tobaiwa said regularising panning would help bring order as a number of lives were being lost.
He said the panners exposed themselves to danger owing to their lack of resources and the requisite skills and knowledge needed in mining.
“Recently, three miners died after a mine shaft collapsed while they were underground. It is dangerous business and stakeholders need to come together and work out a solution to end the illegal panning challenge,” said Clr Tobaiwa.
The City of Kwekwe endowed with rich minerals has one of the highest numbers of illegal gold panners in the country.
In the past the police launched several operations meant to curb the illegal panning and arrested quite a number of the panners.
Buildings and roads in the city were under threat of collapsing owing to panning.
Carslon Mine together with the Kwekwe City Council launched joint operations meant to curb the serious land degradation in the city by planting trees.
Online Reporter