Vusumuzi Dube
Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
CABINET on Wednesday reaffirmed government’s efforts of bringing sanity to the mining sector in the country, with the Responsible Mining Audit coming up with a number of recommendations towards achieving this.
This came out during a post cabinet briefing where the Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Dr Jenfan Muswere revealing the audit- which was launched by the President in May 2023, managed to cover 422 mining sites in eight provinces.
The targeted provinces were Mashonaland Central, Midlands, Masvingo, Manicaland, Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South, Mashonaland West, and Mashonaland East, with the aim being to ensure that all mining operations are conducted in compliance with the country’s laws.
“The nation is being informed that large scale mines, with at least 1000 employees, are to a large extent, complying with mining laws, environmental laws, Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, Immigration, labour and energy regulations. There are however isolated cases where immigration laws are being violated.
“Regarding small scale mines, with a labour force of up to 200 employees, the audit established that most of them are not complying with the legal transportation and licensing issues. The nation is being informed that in all the identified transgressions, corrective action is by taken including the following: imposition of fines; confiscation of explosives; suspensions from operating licences; cautions with instructions to regularise within a stipulated time-frame,” said Dr Muswere.
The Minister revealed that further, the Responsible Mining Audit came up with a number of useful recommendations which Government is implementing and the Interministerial Committee should continue to develop other solutions.
Bongani Ndlovu