Indigenous miners get Shurugwi back on its feet
SHURUGWI has for a long time been the hub of mining in the Midlands Province and the country as a whole owing to it being part of the mineral-rich belt — the Great Dyke.
Endowed with a number of minerals among them chromite, gold, nickel and platinum the minerals in the province gave birth to a number of industries which are mining related.
Ferrochrome giants Zimasco and ZimAlloys are some of the companies that established themselves in the province as a result of the mining activities.
Needless to say apart from being scenic and known for the Boterekwa escarpment, Shurugwi is one of the country’s largest producers of chromite.
Its establishment has largely been inspired by the rich mineral deposits in the area with Zimasco being largely credited for setting up most of the infrastructure in the area when it started exploiting chrome deposits in the 1960s.
However, with the demise of giant chromite mining concern, the biggest employer in Shurugwi and the mainstay of the town’s economy, the small mining town almost resembled a ghost town until the arrival of Anglo-Platinum concern Unki Mines.
The platinum concern has made huge strides in boosting infrastructure in the mining town pouring over $22 million in social corporate responsibility programmes.
Their biggest investment thus far has been the Impali Housing Project where the mining giant is constructing about 1 000 houses for its workers and other supporting infrastructure at a cost of $80 million.
With a rich mining background which dates back to the founding of the mining town, rarely do the people of Shurugwi think of any other activity to eke out a living outside mining.
After the demise of Zimasco which was caused by, among other things, the plummeting of metal prices on the world market resulted in former workers turning to artisanal mining to eke out a living with some graduating to small-scale miners.
With Shurugwi slowly coming down to its feet and trying to reclaim its former glory, small-scale miners in the mining town have also stepped up their game by making investments.
A lot of small-scale miners have made significant investments in infrastructural development and some have created employment which has uplifted the small economy of Shurugwi.
Among the small-scale miners who have made a difference in Shurugwi are Mr Nicholas Gara and Mr Marufu Sithole.
Gara has a number of mining claims and gold mills in Shurugwi under Nichrut Investments while Sithole is the director of Chimona Mining Company which also has gold claims, gold mills and a quarry claim in the mining town.
Nichrut Investments has transformed the travel and tourism landscape in the mining town with a massive investment into lodges, food court, service station, an amusement park and a zoo which is home to different animals among them snakes, zebras and crocodiles.
Plans are underway to bring more animals to the among other areas. We also had the Whampoa Ideological College which later evolved into the Chitepo Ideological Centre. The centre was for political orientation.
Some of the comrades who passed through this school during my time there include Cdes Christopher Mutsvangwa, Dzinashe Machingura, Sam Geza, Oppah Muchinguri and Irene Zindi; and Ambassador Yowe.
In 1977, I was appointed Chief Research Officer in charge of producing learning materials, syllabuses and the curriculum for the students at the school. I will never forget 23 November, 1977. It was around 7:45am when the entire Chimoio camp was bombed by Ian Smith’s forces.
The bombing occurred a day after my birthday. I recall waking up on that horrific morning with an intuition that something terrible was going to happen. I did not eat breakfast or go to the parade square. I was teaching when I heard a loud sound. Some students who had dashed out to investigate reported having seen a spotter plane. Immediately, I knew we were in danger.
I told the students to run for cover; to run as far away from the camp as possible.
It is sad that I lost a good number of my students. The episode still haunts me. I can still see their frightened faces. Those innocents. It will take a lot to erase those memories. It was the rain season, so zoo including the King of the Jungle — the lion.
With the town also home to the scenic Boterekwa or the Wolfshall Pass the zoo has also added to the attractions in the town.
The investments by Mr Gara has also created employment as he currently employs over 100 employees from his current business ventures and plans are afoot to venture into other sectors of the economy.
Asked why he had decided to branch out of mining the unassuming businessman said mining was finite hence he does not want “to put his eggs in one basket.”
“Minerals are a finite resource and you need to have somewhere to fall back on when your claims are exhausted hence we have decided to diversify our investments. In a way we are not putting our eggs in one basket which makes good business sense,” he said.
“We will continue exploring other investments and in a way we are creating employment to the community and improving the outlook of Shurugwi,” added Mr Gara.
As part of the miner’s social corporate responsibility, the Shurugwi miner is paying school fees for over ten students at various schools around Shurugwi.
Mr Gara has also brought Division One football to the environs of Shurugwi where he has set up a football team, Nichrut Football Club which is topping the Zifa Central Soccer League log standings at the halfway mark of the league.
And prospects are that if the club continues with its fine run it may end up being the first club to bring premiership action to Shurugwi which has also churned football stars, the likes of Thomas many children were sheltering in military tents.
Little did everyone know that the tents were the enemy’s targets. Smith’s forces had been tracking the tents assuming that a force that had been trained in Tanzania was at Chimoio in those tents.
Some of the tents had been pitched at Chindunduma School, and the settler forces mercilessly went for them, directing missiles at them. So, we lost many children who had sheltered in those tents. A dreaded chemical weapon known as Napalm was also used in the attack.
Napalm was a flammable liquid that burnt the skin. It had been banned internationally, but the ruthless Rhodesians used it on defenceless people.
The massacre decimated the school and entire education system.We had to make a fresh start. We needed a lot of strength. Fortunately, we gathered the resolve to go on educating young refugees and comrades, even in that dark hour. Through the efforts of Secretary for Education Cde Ernest Kadungure and his deputy, Cd Sheiba Tawarwisa, we continued to fight to start another school. Our team remained determined and gathered survivors to establish another learning centre at Gondola Camp.
Cdes Dzingai Mutumbuka, Fay Chung and Sam Geza were lecturers at Zambia University.
They, therefore, led in setting up that school at Gondola.
We later moved from Gondola because its location Makwasha, Kingstone Rinemhota and Clement Mugari.
While Mr Gara has been diversifying into other sectors Mr Sithole has been expanding his mining interests with the latest addition being a granite claim. He has also secured old mining shafts in the Wanderers area of Shurugwi.
Chimona Mining Investments recently took over Wanderers Mine Shafts left by Germans which had been taken over by artisanal miners who were posing environmental and safety dangers in the area due to their activities.
Zimbabwe Miners’ Federation ( ZMF) public relations officer Mr Dosman Mangisi applauded the initiative while urging other artisanal miners to revisit many other idle mines.
“Wanderers mining area has been overrun by artisanal miners working in horrible conditions without clean water and proper ablution facilities over the past years.
“However, through the mechanisation program by the government Chimona Investments have managed to utilise an idle shaft which is now fully operational. At least 100 jobs have been created through the opening of the mine,” he said.
The director of the mine Mr Marufu Sithole said the firm invested more than $200 000 to kick start operations of extracting the precious mineral.
“We wish to move from small-scale to large-scale mining so that we can achieve the Government’s annual set target of 25 kilograms. We started extracting gold five months ago which we hope will go a long way in meeting the target. So far we are doing three shifts per day where we extract a maximum of 30 grams per shift,” said Mr Sithole.
Chief Nhema commended the new mine for prioritising safety saying the mine had a history of recording the highest fatalities in the country.
“We really appreciate Chimona Mine Investments for the employment created. Keep up taking safety seriously since no fatality has been recorded so far.”
Apart from the mining ventures, Mr Sithole has also set up a fisheries project which has also created employment for the locals in Shurugwi.
This comes as Government is spearheading Command Fisheries as part of efforts to ensure food security.
The move by the miners dovetails with the African mining vision which seeks to ensure that the exploitation of mineral resources underpins broadbased sustainable socio-economic growth.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Small to Medium Enterprises and Co-operative Development Mrs Evelyn Ndlovu said there was a need to invest in other sectors of the economy using mining proceeds to achieve a diversified economy which could sustain itself when mining activities were completed.
“The wealth that is generated by mining activities is short-lived and the unmanaged aftermath of mining can be as destructive as the proceeds of mining were beneficial.
Therefore, the planning for diversification goes far beyond the commonly accepted notion of diversifying the use of mining infrastructure or promotion of downstream and vertically integrated mineral based industries,” she said.
She said there was need for small-scale miners to invest in non-mining related social development programmes which would generate immediate and sustainable economic activities not directly related or dependant on mining.