daniel chigunwe
Business Writer
The country is reportedly losing an estimated US$100 million per month through gold smuggling and Government needs to tighten screws on gold mobilisation facilities in order to curb leakages, parliamentarians heard yesterday.
The mining and agriculture sectors drive Zimbabwe’s economy with the gold sub-sector alone leading the export sector in relations to foreign currency earnings.
In 2019, the Government launched a US$12 billion mining milestone with gold expected to contribute US$4 billion while other minerals such as platinum, diamond, lithium and coal, among others, are expected to spur economic growth.
Responding to questions from the Portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance and Economic Development chaired by Dr Mathew Nyashanu, Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe (CoMZ) chief executive officer Isaac Kwesu said: “Another question regarding illicit channels about US$100 million perceived to have been lost or moved out of the country through illicit means.
“To what extent is this myth or a reality? We are also yet to get more information to believe in these numbers. There is always bad behaviour whether a few players can affect the energy in the whole industry to an extent that any illicit financial movement may have been perceived as practiced by the majority when it may have been just a few.”
Last year, Zimbabwe earned US$5,2 billion from mineral exports, up from US$2,7 billion in 2017, according to official statistics from the Treasury.
Government has come up with a number of measures aimed at curtailing mineral leakages particularly gold that was being smuggled out of the country to neighbouring countries like South Africa as well as to Dubai and United Arab Emirates.
The small – scale mining industry, despite contributing 60 percent of Zimbabwe’s yellow metal deliveries, artisanal and small-scale miners have been accused of smuggling the gold from the country.
“But as a chamber of mines we feel to a larger extent that there is some compliance by our members.
“Government has got the apparatus to monitor and do surveillance and not many of our members, especially the big mines have been caught on the wrong side. But when we say ‘not being caught’ we are not saying there is nothing that may happen, but we also want to support it with facts.
“Wherever there is business, we can’t rule out that we may see some gold leaking from the formal market but the Government is on record doing all their best in terms of the gold mobilisation that involves all key arms of Government, Central Bank, Fidelity Printers and Refiners, police, the army and the Ministry of Mines to try as much as they can do to make sure that all gold is sold through formal channels,” said Kwesu.
“One most important point that l need to underscore here is that most of our challenges regarding leakages have something to do with the marketing and pricing or rewarding.
“Fidelity must always ensure that specifically the small-scale are paid on time because if they delay paying them, as l said its hand-to-mouth sometimes they sell to whoever has money.”
Bongani Ndlovu