By Andwatch Mambo
MBERENGWA – The Zimbabwe Miners Federation [ZMF] president Henrietta Rushwaya Friday pushed back against growing anxiety among artisanal miners in Mberengwa insisting that authorities were putting all hands on deck to ensure that no one is left behind.
This comes as hundreds of artisanal miners and fortune seekers have descended on the former Sandawana Mine in Mberengwa, Midlands province, in search of lithium.
Rushwaya said the Zimbabwe Miners Federation was working flat out to serve the interests of the Artisanal and Small-Medium Scale miners [ASM] in Zimbabwe.
The ZMF president urged all artisanal miners to formalize their operations through the process of registration so that they benefit from the provision of technical expertise, provision of equipment and other benefits.
Government recently barred artisanal miners and lithium buyers who had thronged the Sandawana Mine in Mberengwa ultimately giving exclusive rights to ZMF through Kuvimba Mining House, who will buy the mineral while assisting the miners with equipment and other accessories.
“As the voice of Artisanal miners in Zimbabwe, we are working with every potential authority in making sure that Locals are going to benefit from the newly discovered mineral in Mberengwa Sandawana,” Rushwaya told Zim Morning Post.
“We are the daughters and sons of this Land and if any mineral or anything with high value is to be discovered, it is the right of every local to benefit from such discoveries”.
She added: “For a long time the ASM community has been labelled with different negative names the popular one being ‘MAKOROKOZA’, the above term describes a community that is backward and that doesn’t pay any attention to the concept of upholding a sustainable mining community.”
“As ZMF we are helping and assisting artisanal miners not only at Sandawana Lithium Mine but also in Zimbabwe, to rise from small-medium up to large scale mining community through various ways, including seminars, campaigns and other ways of educating miners”.
“ASM sector is a growing community with a potential to become a huge mining community and thus why, we as ZMF pleaded to the government to formulate the Kuvimba lithium buyer project, the project came into being after a discovery that market at local level was very scarce and poor.”
Addressing artisanal miners at Sandawana yesterday, ZMF Midlands provincial chairperson Makumba Nyenje, implored
“Of course, we are facing lots of negative criticism towards what we are pushing for at Sandawana, but we must all understand that for every project to fully benefit and upgrade the living standards it must be formalized,” he said.
“Formalization is key towards the discovery of Lithium, as a residence of Mberengwa, we witnessed lots of project which failed to change or empower locals due to the lack of formalization and thus we are urging every artisanal miner at Sandawana to embrace this concept of formalization”.
He said there was appreciation of Kuvimba in helping locals through providing an accessible market.
“Due to lack of knowledge market has always been a problem in the ASM sector but we are proud that the government acted fast by providing a local market for Lithium and as of now every miner will not have to be stressed on how he/she is going to seller the mined stones,” said Nyenje.
An artisanal miner who declined to be named said ZMF had given artisanal miners a voice.
“When Lithium was discovered at first very few of us were benefiting from it, it’s like people with ranks were taking advantage of using us to mine for them and we were only receiving what was known as a salary,” they said.
“But currently, things have shifted. We now mine and sell our stones freely without paying anyone or working on tribute for anyone.”
