Online Reporter
Ivan Zhakata, Harare Bureau
THE Government has issued a stern warning against illegal riverbed mining and declared that all permits or agreements allegedly issued under the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) are null and void, as authorities move to enforce a nationwide ban imposed in August 2024.
Addressing journalists in Harare on Wednesday, Secretary for Presidential Affairs and Devolution in the OPC, Engineer Tafadzwa Muguti, said riverbed mining had spiralled out of control, forcing Cabinet to take decisive action to protect the country’s waterways.
“I would like to remind the general public that in August 2024, President Mnangagwa, through Cabinet, issued a directive banning all forms of riverbed mining,” he said.
Eng Muguti said the ban was reinforced by Statutory Instrument 188 of 2024, issued by the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Wildlife to regulate alluvial mining.
He expressed concern over reports of individuals and companies claiming to operate under agreements linked to the OPC.
“The Office of the President and Cabinet does not enter into any agreements. Any agreements written under the OPC are fake, null and void,” said Eng Muguti.
He said the OPC had been inundated with complaints implicating district development coordinators, rural district councils and some provincial offices accused of issuing mining permits without the knowledge of the Ministers of Environment, Climate and Wildlife and Mines and Mining Development.
“All those who own farms and are taking advantage of rivers flowing through their properties will not be spared from prosecution,” Eng Muguti said, adding that the ban applies to private land, state land, national parks and communal areas across all ten provinces.
However, Government has authorised Prevail International on a pilot basis to demonstrate whether river rehabilitation is possible without destructive mining, under the oversight of an Inter-Ministerial Committee chaired by the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Dr Anxious Masuka.
“No local authority should enter into so-called rehabilitation agreements under the guise of alluvial mining,” Eng Muguti said.
He said all requests for river-related mining activities must be channelled through the Inter-Ministerial Committee.
Provincial arms of the security services have been urged to act decisively against offenders, and communities have been called upon to report illegal riverbed mining to the police.
“We stand with the Cabinet directive. Anyone conducting riverbed mining anywhere in the country is breaking the law,” reiterated Eng Muguti.
