Chronicle Editor
Stephen Mpofu, Perspective
ZIMBABWE is richly endowed with minerals, gold chief among them, and thanks must go to our Creator for settling our people in a land that boasts His underground enrichment.
But our Heavenly Father is The God of order and so the rampant digging up of gold that has gone up in Bulawayo for a long time unabated, causing threat to suburban residential properties acquired at the cost of lifelong savings, does not obviously please Him, not to mention affected residents who must have wondered in their vulnerable state in what direction the law of our land looked when it ought to protect them.
Three days ago, a story appeared in this paper which must have caused many people who read it to wonder what preoccupied law enforcement agents elsewhere to the extent that residents of Queens Park, Killarney, and Mqabuko Heights endure such traumatic experiences in a land where law and order are prerequisites for those in power.
A newspaper crew visited the three affected suburbs during the week and observed extensive land degradation caused by wanton digging for gold on a hill atop a section of Mqabuko Heights, overlooking immaculately built homes.
In May this year two people were killed and several others were seriously injured in violent clashes between rival illegal gold mining groups near Cement Side.
Alluvial gold panners digging along the banks of Bulawayo supply dams and rivers have posed a threat of water shortage to the city of Bulawayo.
Elsewhere in the country panners have been digging up riverbanks for the precious mineral causing, siltation in a period where drought has resulted in minimal water flows.
All in all, therefore, it is to be hoped that a ban on alluvial gold mining recently announced by the Government will be vigorously enforced with those breaching it incurring the wrath of the law.
The Government might wish to consider military and/or police units to enforce the ban with total compliance.
Residents of Bulawayo suburbs where rampant digging for gold has occurred, must join hands to enforce the ban by reporting those who breach it to law enforcement agents.
Above all, vigilantes should be on the lookout to ensure that the ban on illegal alluvial gold mining is enforced.
Above all the onus rests on every Zimbabwean to ensure orderly extraction and distribution of our God-given mineral resources.
Online Reporter