Farvic Consolidated Mine dispute spills into court

A DISPUTE has arisen among Zanu-PF youths in Matabeleland South over the control of Farvic Consolidated Mine with two groups claiming its ownership.

One group is allegedly led by Mr Japhet Dube, who is accused of trying to use the mine to gain political mileage through employment, while the other group is also being accused of selling proceeds on the black market and employing “outsiders” at the expense of the locals.

At the centre of the dispute, is a Mr Philemon Mokuele, who called himself Farvic Consolidated Mine tribute advisor who is being accused of selling gold from the mine to foreigners some driving cars with South African number plates and is allegedly employing youths from outside the area yet the project was meant to benefit local youths.

Former Farvic tribute board member Mr Butholesizwe Hlabandlela confirmed the challenges facing the mine.

“We do not know how Mr Mokuele got to be the advisor of the tribute because he has a number of unanswered cases. As we speak he appeared in court facing some charges,” said Mr Hlabandlela.

Matabeleland South police spokesperson Mr Philani Ndebele confirmed the incident saying the matter was now before the courts.

“I can confirm that there are 17 people who were arrested at Farvic Mine on 16 February, the matter is now before the courts,” he said.

Mr Hlabandlela said this is not the first time that Mr Mokuele has been arrested.

“At one point he fired a gun at Geelong Mine trying to scare the Nqamulezweni youths after they asked him about his dealings. He has been grabbing things meant for the youths for his own gain and when you question him you get fired. I was part of the committee at Farvic Mine and I was kicked out for missing one meeting. I ended up working as a miner but when I demanded to see the receipts of gold sales to Fidelity I was fired for the second time because I wanted to understand where that gold was going to and how much we were making,” claimed Mr Hlabandlela.

He said youths were also questioning why a person who is not from the area was running the mine meant for the locals.

“People are complaining. They are asking us why we are allowing someone to come and disrupt us like this. There are a lot of youths that are not employed but he is employing people from as far as Lupane because he knows they will not question him; they will just take what he gives them.”

On other hand Mr Mokuele told Sunday News that in fact it was Cde Dube who was trying to force the mine to employ youths as a way of campaigning as he wanted to stand as an MP in elections later this year. He said Mr Hlabandlela was one of the youths that Mr Dube wanted to be forcibly recruited at the mine.

“As youths we were allocated Farvic Mine, it’s a standard tribute valued for three years. We then had a problem with one of our aspiring candidates for Member of Parliament for Gwanda Central who tried to come with his own people to work in that mine, but we told him that we have standard procedures that we use to hire people to work at the mine and that we do not hire groups but individuals. His name is Japhet Dube,” said Mr Mokuele.

Mr Mokuele said Cde Dube was not happy with their refusal and went on to mobilise some youths to disturb operations.

Cde Dube, however, denied the allegations saying he was not even aware of the issue.

“I am not aware of that accusation and I have never talked to people from Farvic. As a person who has been in the leadership I have been accused of many things and I hear a lot of things, but no I have never heard of that issue, I have never heard about it,” he said.

Contacted for a comment Zanu-PF Matabeleland South youth chairperson Mr Washington Nkomo said the new administration does not want party members to abuse their positions.

“What I can say is that I got the report from the youths and so far I have seen their paper work and it looks genuine; they are the owners of the mine. I want to say those people who don’t have papers should stop causing havoc no matter what power they are using because the new administration does not want people to abuse their positions.

“The police should also do their job and should not allow people to disturb people who are working,” said Cde Nkomo.

Farvic mine manager Mr Lawrence Khanye refused to comment and referred all questions to Mr Mokuele.