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Oliver Kazunga recently in Kamativi—
FORMER Kamativi Tin Mine workers are pressing for the establishment of a small-scale mining syndicate that will operate as a tributary once the defunct mine re-opens. The mine is set for reopening next year following the identification of a new investor, China Beijing Pinchang. Kamativi, wholly-owned by the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) ceased operations in 1994 after the price of tin on the international market declined rapidly.
In August, Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidhakwa announced that China Beijing Pinchang was set to invest $102 million to resuscitate the tin mine in Matabeleland North.
The new investor would acquire 49 percent shareholding while the government through ZMDC owns 51 percent controlling stake. Kamativi Early Settlers Development Organisation (Kesedo) chairman Freeman Banda said they were seeking the empowerment of some of the former employees through the establishment of a small-scale mining syndicate.
“As the mine re-opens, not all of the former workers will be employed and as Kesodo, we’re calling for the government to allow us form a small-scale mining syndicate that would operate as a tributary supplying tin to the mine.
“The small-scale mining syndicate will be a form of empowerment to those that would have not been employed by the mine as it reopens,” said Banda said in an interview last week.
He said they were looking forward to seeing the imminent re-opening of the mine following the signing of an agreement between ZMDC and the Chinese investor.
“When the mine closed down back then in 1994, some people weren’t open enough to tell why the mine was shutting down. We were told that the mine would open in three months and we also believed in what they told us given that Kamativi Tine Mine is the only tin mine in Zimbabwe. Now that an investor has been identified, we have been told that full production at the mine will be achieved in two or three years time,” he said.
He added that as the mine re-opens, a home ownership scheme should be established so that the workers are entitled to owning the houses.
“When the mine closed down, workers weren’t given home ownership. This is despite ZMDC making the ex-workers to pay a housing security key deposit. The Kamativi Mine management deducted 25 percent from the ex-workers’ retrenchment packages as house security key deposit. As Kesodo, we’re saying our funds are still in your (ZMDC) coffers for 21 years down the line, thus as the mine re-opens, the issue has to be considered by granting us entitlement to home ownership,” he said.
The ex-workers have been reported to be at loggerheads with the Hwange Rural District Council for failing to pay rentals to the local authority, which ZMDC appointed to administer the houses at the mine.
“We were supposed to pay rentals ranging between $10 and $20 but because we don’t have steady incomes and failed to pay the rentals, we’ve been at loggerheads with the Hwange Rural District Council. Most of the people here (mine) rely on fishing and selling firewood for a living,” said Banda.
There are over 600 houses at the mine. Kamativi Mine was opened in 1936, also has vast deposits of tantalite, lithium and tungsten. The mine has close to 40 million tonnes of open cast tin reserves considered among the biggest in the world.
Online Reporter