Vubachikwe Mine moves to restore key social amenities

IT was a scene unlike any other on Vubachikwe Gold Mine in Gwanda.

The date is 8 November 2022.

A sea of marauding thugs hiding behind a misinformed frontline comprising mine worker’s wives moving in under the cover of darkness to wreak havoc.

The real intended plan behind an illegal strike that had been organised by callous self-serving miscreants posing as saviours for workers with genuine grievances they needed ironed out with their employer.

What unfolded was destruction beyond measure and sadly devoid of any inkling of intelligence, betraying the sheer intellectual ineptitude of those who had masterminded the strike.

The village clinic was pelted and destroyed as some of the thugs even tried to tear down the fence and move in on the clinic. From shattered panes to broken solar geysers, the clinic was crippled.

The fence became the last bastion to safeguard the mine nurse who was trapped in the building with just the fence and walls between her and the savage attackers baying for her blood for the act of attending to her duties on the fateful day.

Only heavens know what would have become of her had the illegal strikers managed to breach the fortress that eventually saved her and served as a sanctuary with fortitude when the need arose.

But they were not done, the ambulance, a source of salvation for those on the threshold of bleak fate, a saviour for those at death’s door which rushes the very same attackers became the next focus for them.

Shattering the screen and pelting the combo with rocks and boulders, they rendered it incapacitated.

Behind them ironically was the walls of wives that had protected them, urging them on, some heavy with child and needing the same vehicle and clinic should their time come.

Also destroyed in the carnage was the school bus ironically used to ferry the children of ordinary workers. That the mayhem is led by minds bereft of intelligent logical thinking and reasoning is all too apparent.

Today, Vubachikwe Mine is a far cry from the noise, commotion, tear smoke, anarchy and madness of that day.

Some of the thugs that orchestrated that madness have since been dismissed, others are languishing outside the gates like hungry prey that have now had a Saul to Paul moment discovering that their actions on the day had far reaching consequences as the mine remains on care and maintenance and they are in limbo as they are on no work no pay. 

Diligent, honest men and women attend to their duties keeping the mine alive gearing for the kicking in of a workout plan that will see a resource building phase and the ultimate return to full throttle of one of Zimbabwe’s most beautiful mining stories.

“Moves are now at advanced stages to ensure that the clinic returns to full throttle,” says a hopeful Mine Manager None Kananji.

Soft spoken and deliberate, he has steered this ship in the darkest of times and seen some of the worst challenges, all of which he has risen above.

At the forefront of mortal danger during the riots, his family had a front row seat to the anarchy, his home destroyed and the window panes destroyed. Evidence of the madness is still visible around his home nine months on.

“The people are allowed to protest but they ought to do so legally and have learnt the consequences of anarchy and vandalism. A few days after they broke the ambulance down and destroyed the clinic some who were with children came seeking services, others with chronic illnesses needed help and others who passed on needed to be ferried but because the clinic was closed, the ambulance was destroyed as was the truck we used to ferry workers in times of challenges like funerals was also destroyed, we had nothing to offer. 

“Then came the reckoning that what we had destroyed was ours,” said Kananji.

Yet he believes that there has been a great shift.

“With word of the phased reopening, you sense that if ever there are to be riots on any mine in the country, Vubachikwe workers will be the last to allow that to happen on our shores. They now appreciate that any negotiations for services or conditions can be done while a mine is operational and undisturbed.”

As he walks around assessing what needs to be fixed, there is an air of authority he exudes that promises better days ahead.

“A new dispensation will certainly come with the new era that beckons. The best place to start the new social contract with our workers and worker’s committee with which we now are working well with is to make sure social amenities like provision of decent health services, clean potable water and emergency service are guaranteed for all. It is the perfect first step towards a new organisational order,” he says.

And as the sun sets on Vubachikwe Clinic, it seems to somewhat be a perfect announcement of a new start after the dark and still of the impending night.