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Thousands of suspected illegal gold panners, some from as far as Harare, had descended on the area causing massive land degradation in Mr Khumalo’s fields while searching for the precious mineral.
When a Chronicle news crew visited the area yesterday, police officers were talking to the local traditional leader, Chief Bunina, who had also arrived at the scene to investigate the goings on.
Two police officers with batons quickly manhandled the news crew and force-marched the crew to the police makeshift base within Mr Khumalo’s homestead.
The police officers, who had confiscated the news crew’s camera, then ordered the crew to delete the pictures before being asked to quickly leave the place or risk being detained.
This reporter later managed to sneak back into Mr Khumalo’s yard in the company of Chief Bunina.
In an interview, Mr Khumalo, who confirmed having lost about five kilogrammes of gold to robbers on Saturday night, said he later went and reported the gold rush to the police after panners threatened to kill him.
He said he spent two days under siege with the panners blocking him from getting out of his homestead to make a police report.
“I discovered the gold in my fields about a month ago and I have been doing some panning activities while trying to formalise my operations. I was later raided during the night and robbed at gun point. I had close to 5kg gold, which I wanted to dispose of after formalising my mining activities. After the robbery incident, illegal panners came and swarmed my fields and started panning for gold. I could not quickly report the matter to the police as the panners were holding me hostage while threatening to kill me if I dared make a report to the police. I then managed to sneak out of my homestead on Monday and then made a police report in Gweru,” he said.
Mr Khumalo said he has since been assisted by the police to secure a licence to formalise his mining operations.
“I really appreciate the help I got from the police after providing security they have also assisted me in formalising my operations and I now have got papers in the name of Khumalo Syndicate. Police have also helped me to hire an excavator so we could do proper mining,” he said.
Some illegal panners interviewed, however, claimed that they were being made to pay $200 fee for them to conduct their panning activities by the police.
The panners said the police had placed them into groups of 10 where they were made to pay a $200 fee to conduct the illegal gold panning.
“We are, however, only allowed to conduct our panning activities during the night. This is why you see all these gullies. It will be a hive of activity at night. What we only do is to organise ourselves into groups of 10 and then pay $200 to the police and do the gold panning,” said one of the panners while most of them were monitoring the situation from a distance.
Acting officer commanding police Midlands Province, Assistant Commissioner Learn Ncube confirmed the gold rush in Summerset.
Asst Comm Ncube denied allegations that police were allowing panners to conduct their panning activities upon payment.
He also denied Mr Khumalo’s allegations that police helped him hire the excavator to conduct proper mining activities at his plot.
Online Reporter