The high profile politician, reportedly controls a huge number of illegal gold panners in Kwekwe and surrounding areas using junior politicians and ruling party supporters.
For several years now the miners have descended on disused mines in the area looking for gold with the blessing and protection of the politician and his accomplices.
On December 22 last year, five panners were trapped in a shaft in the Indarama Mine in Sherwood and died, with the sixth managed to call for help and escaped with minor injuries.
They were identified as Majaha Mupinga, Mkhululi Sibanda, Simangaliso Mpofu, Chamunorwa Shoko and Morgen Mpofu from Amaveni suburb in Kwekwe.
Sources said underground deaths were common in Sherwood, Globe and Phonenix and other areas in the Chirumanzu-Zibagwe constituency and blamed the senior politician and his associates for sacrificing them.
Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa was the MP for the constituency before his recent appointment. Another MP who owns several gold mills in the area is reported to be fronting for Mugabe’s lieutenant and is said to have amassed vast riches.
“This MP uses his mills as a cover for illegal gold dealings. The makorokoza (illegal gold miners) are given the liberty to get into the disused mine shafts were they dig for gold and surrender 40 percent of their loot to the MP and his connections.
“The gold ore is then taken to the mills belonging to the MP and the refined mineral is sold to Fidelity Printers as well as foreign dealers who are a common sight at lodges and hotels in Kwekwe. Most of it goes outside the country where prices are high,” said a source, who declined to be named.
The owners of the now dormant mines have reportedly been forced to let the diggers have free access underground. The sources, some of them from the local civil society, were irked by the failure by the politicians and web of gold dealers to protect the illegal miners or help in the event of death or injury.
“They (the politician dealers) are taking advantage of prevalent poverty in the Midlands. Most of the major companies like Zimasco are experiencing acute problems and unemployment is high. The makorokoza are being sacrificed as the politicians make a killing and they get peanuts for the dangerous work they are doing,” said another source.
He claimed that police were aware of the illegal activities taking place at the disused mines but were not taking action because of the involvement of the powerful politicians.
“In fact, some senior police officers are part of the racket. They deploy juniors to the old mines and get kickbacks for protecting the gold mafia. Marked police vehicles can be seen doing the rounds at the mines as officers talk to the illegal miner. Money changes hands,” he said. He said police vehicles sometimes escorted the vehicles ferrying the illegal gold and speculated that the law enforcers were doing that out of fear of the politicians.
While the illegal miners get underground using the shafts used when the mines were still operational, most of them are now creating their own tunnels and accessing pillars that were left behind.
The pillars that used to prop up the old mines are targeted, said the sources, because the ore around them is rich in gold.
This has created an additional danger because once the pillars are removed, underground support for the earth is removed, hence common incidents of the ground collapsing and trapping the miners.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Midlands spokesperson, Joel Goko, said he had only read of the December deaths through the media. However, the ZRP Kwekwe Rural officer in charge, Chief Inspector Patsanza, confirmed that she had sent a situation report regarding the tragedy to Gweru.
Goko would not comment on the alleged involvement of the police in illegal gold dealings in Kwekwe and surrounding areas.
“I will have to get in contact with my colleagues in Kwekwe to find out what exactly is happening,” he said. However, he was not responding to subsequent calls.
Post published in: News