A potentially big investor is finding it hard to set up a base in the gold-producing, but almost ruined, town of Mvuma in Central Zimbabwe.MVUMA – Staff accommodation is the biggest hurdle Duration Gold Private Limited is facing in its ambitions to revive extraction of the precious metal at the rich Athens Shaft. Existing houses are in the hands of former workers of a global corporation.
The mine, rated among Zimbabwes 40 prime sites, has not been operational for the past 12 years after Lonrho (London Rhodesia), abandoned it. But why did Lonrho suddenly close down and abandon one of its flagship mines at the height of Zimbabwes economic boom?
A clue to the mystery emerged while investigating the plight of the former mine workers fighting to win ownership of their old homes:
Greed overtook reasoning and dangerous, unplanned mining practices were employed to follow a rich seam bearing what is dubbed King Solomons gold due to its purity, said Harunavamwe Masendeke, vice-chairman of the Athens Mine Workers Committee.
Cracks appear
According to him, the mineral vein started at the sixth level, but climbed back up to fifth level. He claims the best thing would have been to abandon it at that stage.
The former worker says they mined this seam from 1992 until a hazardous crack developed in the shaft in the third year:
Because we were now eating into level five from below, the pillions were disturbed and there was a real danger the whole mine could collapse. It needed a lot of money to correct that, he explains.
At a meeting between Lonrho Group Manager, Brian Morse, and the workers committee, which preceded the mines closure in 1998, we were just told operations could no longer continue, recalls Masendeke.
The company declared redundancy: They offered us discourteous packages comprising transport, a certain percentage for every year worked and other benefits. The packages valued far less than the houses… Some workers agreed but we advised the rest (numbering more than 70) to resist.
We opted to remain in the company houses, each of which at the time cost Z$45-thousand in the high density areas and Z$350-thousand each in low density areas, he said.
Threatened with eviction
Meanwhile, Duration Gold has been working the dumps left by the British-owned international, while its employees – numbering close to 200 according to insiders – are living in rented homes.
A large number of the workers lodge in the Athens Village, which they say their company should have taken over with the mine. But the current occupants have reached an advanced stage to legally take over the properties.
The former Lonrho employees say they have no qualms with the new operator, although the firm has dragged them to court and continues to threaten them with eviction.
Duration Gold reportedly took legal action early last year against a leader of the retrenched workers but failed to throw him, and consequently his colleagues, out of the contested homes. Efforts to get comment from the company led this reporter to the mine manager, a Mr Banhira, who referred questions to the group human resources manager, a Mr C. Mhere.
Evasive comment
Mhere was evasive: That issue is very sensitive… I cant just talk to you about it before I am sure that I am definitely speaking to a journalist… Otherwise its a sensitive issue, but he would not explain.
Although he eventually agreed to answer e-mailed questions, no response has been received from him many weeks after. The lawyer representing the former workers, Advocate Ashton Musunga, who also comes from the small gold mining town, confirms the mine workers claims.
He alleges the houses in question are, in fact, state property after the government acquired the land on which they stand; part of the large Central Estates ranch, dominating Central Zimbabwes Chirumanzu District.
Musunga said: Basically, the rural district council has referred the matter to (the Ministry of) Local Government. Local Government has contacted us. They want a site plan, which must be done by a town planner. If council doesnt have planners, well have to look for our own… Well then have to wait for the Surveyor-General to do his part and these people will then hold title to the properties.
Chirumanzu Rural District Council Planning Technician, Rudo Matachi, says the matter is actually at a more advanced stage than the lawyer knows.
When I spoke to Musunga I had not realised the site plan was prepared long back and is here. We now want to do a title survey, after which the affected people can get title deeds, she explains.
A pale shadow
However, Matachi said only 30 per cent of Mvumas more than one-thousand serviced residential stands, had ever been properly title surveyed. The owners of the rest of the properties could not tender them as collateral security.
She said the council had agreed affected residents should pay US$ 250 to contribute towards the title survey exercise, which is expected to be complete by the end of May this year.
Mvuma, now a pale shadow of its former self, boasted banks and building societies, an upmarket recreational club, a model public swimming pool, a 24-hour service station, a first class hotel and beautiful homes built by different companies in the scenic hills.
Fanuel Msisinyani, Director of Fablisa Investments, a vehicle repairer and hardware manufacturer, said business that time relied on the giant mine and its more than 500 permanent workers, as well as casual labourers.
Today, we depend on the highway and resettled farmers for survival, which is very small business.
Msisinyani laments the loss of banking facilities since Mvumas dramatic economic collapse: If we could just get even one commercial bank, or one of these building societies, to return to Mvuma, things would improve.
Post published in: Economy