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Gloria Muruva and Mutsawashe Mashandure

Local non-governmental organisations, the Zimbabwe Mining Safety Health And Environmental Council (ZIMSHEC) and ActionAid Zimbabwe, have pledged to promote sustainable environmental practices in Zimbabwe’s mining sector to help achieve an upper middle income economy by 2030.

Speaking at a stakeholders’ inception meeting in Harare yesterday, ActionAid Zimbabwe head of programmes Mr Peter Matimati, said they needed to build a policy framework to help the Government improve the mining sector by supporting the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1).

“This framework will be able to represent the best practices required for good environmental, social, and economic governance of the mining sector and the generation and equitable sharing of benefits to contribute to sustainable development.

“Today, we have decided to engage and discuss what we should improve in order to develop our mining industries through Vision 2030.”

Mr Matimati said the policy framework would enable the closure of gaps in the mining industry.

“I hope that this policy will improve gender equality, whereby women have decision-making power in higher positions. Miners should be given the rights they deserve as they work underground and should be paid for working long hours,” he said.

The Government had launched initiatives to achieve a US$12 billion mining industry through a strategic roadmap.

“The initiatives by the Government of Zimbabwe present a perfect opportunity to achieve our objectives while contributing to the Government’s objective of reviving the economy through positive economic initiatives, especially in the mining sector,” he said.

“We want to ensure that the mining sector places its standards in environmentally sustainable practices that align well with global acceptable standards.

There was need engage key stakeholders such as the Environment Management Agency (EMA) to improve the safety of industrial mining.

Speaking at the same event, ZIMSHEC executive director Mr Makumba Nyenje said: “We need to protect the environment so that after mining, the land can be used by others, maybe to do farming.”

Mr Nyenje said there was need leave a good legacy on the environment for the next generation.

“So the idea is that during mining, you put some shafts, pits, dongles and everything but after exhausting all the minerals, you rehabilitate the land for other alternative uses,” he said.

“We have engaged the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Community Small and Medium Enterprises and Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Development, and Vocational Training to ensure that they include youths and women to participate in mining, thereby achieving the Vision 2030 goal of leaving no one and no place behind.”