Lawyers expose ED’s ‘daughter’

AWOMAN, who once masqueraded as President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s daughter, Chantelle Chikafu has had her “unholy” alliance with the Mines ministry officials exposed by lawyers after she intended to grab a gold-rich mine from Shamva miner, John Maungwa in Umfurudzi Game Park, Mashonaland Central province.

This came two days after the Mashonaland Central provincial Joint Operations Command (JOC) saved Maungwa from losing the mine.

The JOC team refused to accept a determination by a Manicaland provincial mining director, Owen Dube, on the mining wrangle which was subtly giving Chikafu mining rights without a valid court order.

Dube was roped in after the suspension of Mashonaland Central provincial mining director Tariro Ndlovu, who reportedly handed out a defective determination which contravened the Mines and Minerals Act, allegedly in a bid to hand over the disputed gold-rich claims to Chikafu, believed to be fronted by Shamva North legislator Oscar Gorerino.

However, the legislator has wrangle although his vehicles were seen frequenting the mine.

Dube, in his determination dated December 30 seen by NewsDay yesterday, did not give any of the two, Chikafu or Maungwa, mining rights to the disputed claims.

“Following a High Court order issued on October 20, 2020 under case number HC2595/20, a dispute hearing was conducted on the 16th and 17th December 2020 followed by a ground visit on the 18th of December 2020, with both parties present,” read part of Dube’s determination.

“The following observations were noted, that Wickman 23, initially mining block, was approved for relocation from south to north of Umfurudzi River on November 21, 2017. The indication position of Wickman 23 on the ground does not match its position as at registration. The disputed workings are outside boundaries of Wickman 23 at registration.”

Maungwa was, therefore, ordered to revert to his original position as at registration, while Chikafu was asked to adjust her registered co-ordinates to exclude the area encroaching into Wickman 23, which is Maungwa’s mine.

However, the determination was silent on who owns the disputed area where Chikafu is currently illegally mining.

This is the second determination after the initial one spearheaded by a team led by the suspended Ndlovu.

However, Maungwa’s lawyers, having picked the anomalies in Dube’s determination, wrote to the provincial mines office exposing suspected collusion between Chikafu and mining officials.

“The diagram each time the Ministry of Mines goes to the ground changes, the current survey diagram is totally different from the previous survey diagram done by the provincial mining director of Mashonaland Central (Ndlovu), meaning to say the Ministry of Mines is conflicted in handling this matter. When this block was registered, there were no co-ordinates to talk of. Therefore, when the determination of the provincial mining director (Dube) advising John Maungwa to revert to specified co-ordinates, the question that arises is where did these co-ordinates come from? There was no pegger or surveyor who came up with the disputed co-ordinates. They were conveniently designed to defeat (Mr) Maungwa’s cause,” the lawyers Gumbo and Associates wrote.

The lawyer said in any event, Maungwa was not supposed to be moved as the claims were allocated to him by the operationalisation of the mining laws after having mined the place for over three years before Chikafu came to the area.

“John Maungwa has been on these workings for the past three years. Section 58 of the Mines and Minerals Act protects (Mr) John Maungwa from being moved as he has been utilising the location for the past three years. The provincial mining director conveniently ignored the fact that it was incompetent for him to direct that (Mr) Maungwa reverts to registered position of Wickman 23 in light of the provisions of section 58,” he said.

Maungwa's lawyers said the determination by Dube was an illegal attempt to hand over the disputed claims to Chikafu.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority had given Maungwa rights to mine in the game park following the High Court orders, but it later turned out that mining officials were in contempt of the court.

Justice Benjamin Manzunzu on April 29 ordered Chikafu to vacate the site and give Maungwa uninterrupted access to the mining claims.