Small miners hail economic emancipation

Oliver Kazunga
Senior Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) says it treasures the Heroes Day and Defence Forces Day as the holidays honour heroes who brought economic emancipation of the indigenous people who are now able to participate in different sectors of the economy.

Zimbabwe celebrates Heroes Day on Monday, August 8, 2022 while the country will observe the Defence Forces Day the following day.

Heroes Day is a public holiday set aside on the second Monday of August every year to celebrate Zimbabwe’s gallant heroes and heroines both living and departed who fought the liberation war to free the country from the yoke of white settler rule.

On the other hand, the Defence Forces Day is also celebrated on the Tuesday after the Defence Force Day in honour of the restive efforts by the country’s defence forces in ensuring that peace and tranquility prevails in the country.

It is in this context that ZMF, which is the mother body of the artisanal and small-scale miners in the country, says indigenous people have been involved in the mining sector, operation and  ownership, which was previously a preserve of the whites.

ZMF secretary for women affairs Ms Jessica Mazivazvose said they were now able to participate in mining activities, because of the economic freedom brought by the gallant liberation war fighters and the work of the defence forces that continue to defend Zimbabwe’s territorial integrity for peace and tranquility to prevail.

“We really appreciate Heroes Day and Defence Forces Day because our selfless and gallant fighters fought for our liberation.

“Prior to the attainment of Independence which brought economic emancipation which we cherish today, we were under oppression to the extent that we were not even allowed to know much about our minerals.

“But because now that we have been liberated it’s now easy for us to work in the extractive industry and even holding precious minerals such as gold, previously women were not even allowed to participate in mining activities,” she said. It was sort of a taboo to hear that a woman is involved in mining activities. But now through the Independence that came as a result of the fight by our heroes, everyone can mine, be it a man or a woman it’s easy for us to mine.”

Before Independence, she said indigenous black people were regarded as labourers in mines and farms where they earned paltry wages and salaries.

“I recall when my father during that time was working at a mine, he was earning a meagre $10 for the whole month.

“But now for example, in my case through mining, l managed to build a house because of the economic freedom that these people both living and fallen fought for, tirelessly to liberate this country.

“As indigenous businesspeople should appreciate the Heroes and Defence Forces holidays because without the freedom that we are enjoying today, we couldn’t be participating in different economic sectors,” said Ms Mazivazvose.

In light of the peace prevailing in the country, she said the Government should go a step further by ensuring that women are allocated more mining claims to broaden economic empowerment to the once marginalised gender.

The Government has adopted the “use-it-or lose it” policy where it seeks to repossess all unused mining claims that have been held by the owners for speculative reasons and reallocate the titles to prospective and productive investors. Under the first phase of implementing the use-it-or-lose-it policy, the Government targeted to repossess 213 mining claims across the country, but progress on the initiative has been bogged down by some mining title holders who have approached the courts to block the process.

You Might Also Like

Comments

Take our Survey

We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey