Emmanuel Chitsika
A traditional leader in Wendedzo area of Masvingo North constituency has called upon government to ensure that proper mechanisms are put in place to ensure that local people benefit from resources within their locality.
Speaking to media practitioners during a tour of the degraded area as a result of the gold rush of 2021, village head Sayina Chinomwe said local people should be strategically positioned so that they benefit from local resources unlike a scenario in which ‘invaders’ get a huge chunk from such proceeds.
“The local people benefit nothing as the invaders who seem to be mightier and powerful with more resources stand to benefit more than them. We as local traditional leadership once came here during the peak of the gold rush with the intention of benefiting from the mineral, but we got nothing as the invaders frustrated us by giving us soil with no mineral which we ended up throwing away.
“The community was bitter with us especially the younger generation who blamed us for being powerless and leaving them vulnerable at the mercy of the violent invaders and fortune seekers who benefited from their land,” said Chinomwe.
He also bemoaned the damages on the environment as a result of the artisanal miners panning for gold which threatens the wellbeing of the community long after the rush and local people expressing reluctance on reclaiming degraded land.
“The pits left by these miners pose a threat to the local people especially livestock. We have tried in vain to mobilize people to make efforts towards reclaiming the damaged land as they argue that they benefited nothing during the gold rush. People would only experience the negative effects of the panning when a problem comes to their door step for instance if a cow falls into the pits. Government should mobilize resources if possible to motivate local people to offer labour for repairing the damaged land.
“Even if the pits are filled up, the other challenge is that these artisanal miners continue to visit the area and the problem keeps on recurring,” he added.
Chinomwe however expressed dissatisfaction on the conduct of law enforcement agents who went to protect the area during the gold rush as he allege that they ended up engaging in illegal mining especially on the parts of the land they would have noticed presence of the mineral.
“The challenge we had during the first gold rush was that the law enforcement agents deployed to the area ended up creating own panning syndicates on areas with more gold while at the same time terrorizing villagers who would stray into their areas of interest,” Chinomwe said.
The area is also under the threat of an imminent repeat of the 2021 scenario after a local self-proclaimed prophet and spirit medium told the community that she was spiritually shown another belt of gold in the area which the village head says threatens the local dam and road network.
