Zimbabwe is witnessing growing conflicts between Chinese mining companies and indigenous communities who are being evicted from their ancestral lands without compensation to pave the way for mining operations.
Hundreds of villagers in different parts of the country have been evicted while others face displacement to make way for Chinese firms.
Its 5am, the pale blue sky is floating with white clouds, the breeze blowing the leaves beside the road, while birds leap back and forth on the tree, as if telling us that a new day has begun. My cameraman and I, are miles away from a town that we call home.
With us is Ngonidzashe Chimombe who is taking his cattle for an early morning graze before he heads to his daily job at Bozimo Granite mine in Mutoko District, located about 100 km northeast of the capital, Harare.
This granite mine has not yielded meaningful benefits to the community, he says pointing to hips of black sand protruding from the trees afar.
From afar we could see a cortege of trucks overloaded with huge black granite rocks whirl along the dusty pathway taking the precious mineral to an unknown destination.
On a typical day, it is impossible to fail to note many of these trucks, Chimombe continued.
Every day more than 50 trucks take granite for export along this rugged road through this village in the district of Mutoko.
Most Chinese companies are reportedly being given government licences to mine granite on tracts of land belonging to local people.
Communities around Bozimo mine have expressed concern about increasing environmental and infrastructure degradation by Chinese leaving trails of open pits which are now death traps for humans and livestock.
These environmental impacts can only be described as catastrophic, as most of these Chinese companies don’t use proper channels to operate in Zimbabwe. And as such, the recknesless of not rehabilitating the land after mining is causing water pollution, air pollution, land degradation, loss of life in some cases and sometimes leading to displacement in communities.
“Our community is now beyond repair, our livestock is dying from drinking this contaminated water, all the waste from this mine goes to our rivers and we also use the same water. This is a health hazard situation that our government is ignoring.”
Another villager David Chivandire said “Villagers in these affected areas claim that some Chinese companies discharge toxic waste into their water sources resulting in human diseases, a drop in crop yields, death of livestock, and dwindling numbers of fish in the rivers. Tailings from the mines are clogging dams and rivers and affecting the availability of water for irrigation.”
These allegations are vindicated by a scientific research study done by the University of Zimbabwe and commissioned by the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association which proved that there were high levels of toxic waste in the rivers and evidence of land degradation.
At least 20 families in the village have lost their ancestral lands in the previous year. Some of them were promised compensation that they have not received up to date.
While those who are still living in the community were promised jobs at the mine and a health care facility.
Eveline Kutyauripo (43) a Community Paralegal from Ward five has been living in this community for years , and she says their rights as the community are being violated by the mining company.
“We see our precious stones being transported out daily, but as the community have no gain. They promised to build infrastructures for us in exchange but we have a clinic that has been sitting unfinished for thirteen years.”
Those living near granite mines say companies are failing to restore the land after extraction. Open pits are left uncovered, endangering children.
In 2020, two children fell in one of the pits and died.
The Zimbabwean government has been accused of turning a blind eye to these complaints because, critics say, it doesn’t want to anger its biggest investor.
“They leave open pits, and it’s a danger to our children and livestock” Kutyauripo added.
Simply put, China’s power and clout in Zimbabwe can be recognised from the fact that despite numerous cases of rampant abuse by Chinese employers of the local labour force no measures have been taken by the government. Things have deteriorated to such an extent that a worker was shot dead by a Chinese employer at one mine when the labourers demanded their legitimate outstanding wages.
https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/zimbabwe-workers-and-lawyers-association-accuse-chinese-mining-firms-of-gross-human-rights-violations-and-exploitation/
Although, mining plays an important role in the socio-economic development of many countries worldwide. However, in spite of its remarkable contribution towards development, mining can also result in some adverse impacts, especially when carried out without proper planning.
In Zimbabwe, it would not be completely out of place to state that like many African nations, Zimbabwe too is enveloped by Chinese influence, be it with regard to the political, military or the economic class. They all seem to be bowing down to the mighty Chinese who have invested heavily in Africa’s economy.
These Chinese company owners do not pay any heed to Zimbabwean law, the citizens’ legal rights and instead discriminate them from the onsite Chinese miners by paying them lowly wages of merely US$ 40 per month.
It has also been reported that these employers assault the local employees by forcing them to operate in dangerous, inhuman, harsh and life-threatening conditions, amounting to slavery
Enviromental Management Agency (EMA) for Mashonaland east province, Austus Mutikinimabwe denied the human rights abuses by some Chinese companies in the area, although he acknowledged that his department has had several engagements on the allegations with the granite mining companies together with the community members and the civil societies.
“To some extent l can say Yes or No that the Chinese granite companies are violating locals’s rights. As far as EMA is concerned we do bi-annual monitoring where we check if the companies are adhering to the laws.
Of course there might be any violations here and there but there are not as pronounced as the villagers claim” he added.
He further said that his department does not deal with villager’s evictions and compansations.
According to https://www.aiddata.org/blog, Zimbabwe has enjoyed benefits from Chinese financing, in exchange for securing licenses for Chinese companies to extract diamonds and other natural resources in high demand at home.
While mining has been identified as a key sector for the attainment of National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) goals, the impact of some mining operations in the Mutoko has become a cause for concern.
The Zimbabwean government recently availed Statutory Instrument 104 of 2021 Environmental Management (Control of Alluvial Mining) (Amendment) Regulations, 2021 (No. 2) which regulates the mining operations in the country.
In their latest report the Business and human rights Recourses Centre, a London based non- profit, says Africa has the second highest number of allegations of human rights abuses, with 26,7% of claims recorded against Chinese companies operating abroad from 2013 to 2022. Asia- Pacific has the most 39,6 % and Asia the third highest with 26%, the report says , describing the three regions as high risk.
Mutoko stone is sought after for its lustre. It is a popular material for tombstones. An extension to the Danish royal library in Copenhagen, known as the Black Diamond, is clad in Mutoko granite.
The increasing demand on the international market has spurred a rush by both local and Chinese companies to set up operations to mine the sought-after mineral in various provinces in Zimbabwe.
In this village there are at least eleven granite mines, of which only seven of them are still functioning.
One of the villager Elizabeth Chikuni (51) told us that most of them work without contracts, which makes it easy for the Chinese to manipulate them.
“We don’t have signed contracts, when they mistreat us we cannot complain because they always tell us that we do not have signed contracts, we are under paid because of this”. Said Chikuni
Zimbabwe has enjoyed a close relationship with China for decades. But the bond between the two countries solidified when western states imposed economic sanctions on Robert Mugabe’s government. As credit and investments dried up, China stepped in.
Since 2018, Zimbabwe-Chinese relations were elevated from to strategic partners , paving the way for Chinese investors to pour money into the country, particularly in the extractive industries, where they have been accused of paying little attention to environmental damage by environmental and human rights activists.
With, growing environmental consciousness and nuanced understanding of the Chinese debt traps & surveillance mechanisms, Zimbabwe and many other African countries remain under exploitation of its people and the extraction of precious minerals from its heritage sites.
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