…..Over 3 700 tonnes lithium ore intercepted in Masvingo
TellZim reporter
17 suspects were arrested over the weekend by Masvingo police following the interception of lithium ore weighing over 3 700 tonnes that was stored at three premises in the town’s dysfunctional industrial area.
The ore, which was recovered on Friday (May 5, 2023) is suspected to have been stolen from Bikita Minerals.
Some of the ore was found at a disused garage belonging to former transport operator Tanda Tavaruva popularly known as Mhunga.
Commenting during a tour of the industrial area where the ore was being kept, Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Officer Commanding Masvingo Province Commissioner David Mahoya said currently only charges of theft maybe preferred against the accused as investigations are still underway.
“We have arrested a total of 17 accused persons who are helping police with investigations behind the storage and transportation of the lithium ore. We got a tip off from a responsible citizen after which we acted swiftly and intercepted the suspects two days ago.
“We have already deployed our officers to make sure that the recovered ore will not be tampered with. We also managed to intercept the vehicles here (in the warehouse yard) which were already loaded with the lithium ore for export,” said Mahoya.
He however could not pinpoint the exact charges the suspects would face apart from theft, though he highlighted they would face more than one charge.
“Currently I cannot safely say which charges the suspects are facing but they are likely to be charged with more than one charge with theft included. We are still investigating the sources of the lithium ore because the ore present here is quite different (pointing to that it might have been mined from different areas).
“The lithium ore present here is not yet processed and government has made it clear that no lithium ore would be exported before being processed,” added Com Mahoya.
A total of four haulage trucks and a tipper were impounded with two of the haulage trucks (with local registration plates) already with loaded containers that were South Africa bound.
Assistant Commissioner (Operations) Florence Marume said she got a tip off from a citizen and she went to the industrial area where she effected the arrests at around 1900 hours on Friday.
The police said it was easy for the transporters to pass through police check points as the police is not mandated to open containers, a mandate for tax organ, Zimra, but said after this incident police need to be authorised to open them since transporters carry paperwork for other goods which will not be in the container.
