‘Inspect mines to avert disasters’
MINES need more and tighter inspections concentrating on occupational safety to help avert disasters.
Many of the mine deaths and disasters come among unregistered mines, the latest disaster coming on Sunday when seven miners from Bucks Mine in Colleen Bawn near Gwanda died when the hoisting ropes to a skip bringing them up the shaft snapped, plunging into free-fall for about 200 meters.
The incident is one of the many mining accidents to befell the nation in contemporary times.
People and Earth Solidarity Law Network lawyer Mr Lenin Chisaira said the Bucks mine accident exposes many hidden malpractices in the mining sector and in environmental integrity.
“Government agencies such as the Environmental Management Agency, the Mining Affairs Board and the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development should ensure that they carry out timeous inspections of mining sites.
These bodies seen to be neglecting their duties to implement relevant mining environmental laws and policies such as the Environmental Management Act, the Mining (Management and Safety) Regulations and the National Occupational Safety and Health Policy,” he said.
“Mine owners must also be held highly responsible for failure to cater to the occupational safety of their mine workers. In addition, the local Civil Protection Units must be capacitated adequately with appropriate funding and equipment to ensure timeous responses to mining hazards. So the responsibility for the losses of mine worker lives can be placed squarely at the hands of relevant authorities and mine owners.’’
Mr Chisaira said large scale gold mining companies should also be held accountable for the mining disasters among the informal sector that have occurred in recent times when they failed to obtain certificates of abandonment as required by the Minerals and
Mines Act after they abandoned their unused claims.
“The role of large scale gold miners should be investigated for they are the ones who continue to retain these gold claims where many people have been killed. For instance RioZim owns many claims in Mashonaland West which they cannot mine.
In the end when they abandon these claims without applying for certificates of abandonment as required by the Mines and Minerals Act but artisanal miners and small scale minors take unauthorised entry,” he said.
He called on the Government to provide adequate legal and environmental support systems to deal with the disasters and exploitation of artisanal miners and small scale miners by large scale mining entities, further urging the Government to look into the nature of property rights in the gold mining sector and ensure that disaster response systems are evaluated and adequately funded.