Miner employs 300 youths
MR Tatenda Navaya never thought he would be an employer of more than 300 people at his gold mine in Mudzi.
Born and grew up in Mudzi, Mr Navaya always dreamt of working in Harare after completing school.
Being employed at any organisation and earning a salary was one of his dreams which he was bound to pursue.
After completing Ordinary Level at Mudzi Secondary School more than a decade ago, he then joined his father in the artisanal mining industry.
It was during that period when he had a brush with the yellow metal (gold mineral) that he decided on his fate, and never looked back.
Today, Mr Navaya is a mine owner with more than 300 employees at his Rwenya Fortune Mine in Mudzi.
“I started mining with my father in 2008 soon after completing my O’ Levels,” he said.
“I worked well at my father’s mine and gained a lot of experience. I then bought a claim from my savings in Rwenya where from I am currently carrying out mining operations.
“Before I bought this mining claim, I used to do leaching — buying what we call dump in mining circles and process it to extract gold ore. I quickly bought a round mill to process gold ore from the waste soils that came from the main mill. This enabled me to process and extract gold from these soils. I was learning all this from other senior artisanal miners.
“More than 300 people are employed at my mine, but I am happy to say, about 85 per cent of those are youths. I decided to employ youths from the surrounding communities so that they could also earn a decent income.
“I am happy to be playing a role in employment creation in this country and my district. The future of this beautiful country is in our hands as youths. We are the future leaders of Zimbabwe and we should be organised.”
Mr Navaya said youths should stop abusing drugs.
“I am saying this because many youths out there are abusing drugs and substances, to such an extent that they are addicted,” he said. “My position is to employ these youths and make sure they do not have time to do drugs.
“At the mine, I make sure that all my employees are educated on the dangers of drug and substance abuse. We always talk about these issues at the mine and I am happy that my youths are not involved in that.
“Drugs are not good at all. As a youth, I appeal to authorities to deal with this issue decisively. Drug and substance abuse must be put to an end before it puts an end to our youth and robs this nation of potential future leaders. I also want to urge other youths to avoid drug and substance abuse. I want to also appeal to youths to do income generation projects like mining and earn themselves a decent income.”
Mr Navaya commended President Mnangagwa for opening space and making policies aimed at youth empowerment and allowing them to participate in the economic development of Zimbabwe.
“My gratitude goes to President Mnangagwa who gave us an opportunity as youths to do income-generating projects, be it mining or farming,” he said. “There is a lot of money in mining. It is important to tell youths, especially those who always think that going out of Zimbabwe to look for jobs is the proper thing to do, that there is money here in Zimbabwe and we should work hard to get it.
“Let youths grab every opportunity that they can get and make decent money. President Mnangagwa is always encouraging us to work hard and make money and that is exactly what I am doing as a youth. As for me, the encouragement from President Mnangagwa gives me energy every day to work harder.”
Mr Navaya said as a mining organisation, they were alive to the needs of the communities they worked in.
“Besides employing youths from local communities, as Rwenya Fortune Mine, we are also engaged in corporate social responsibility,” he said.
“Among other developments, we are in the process of drilling boreholes in nearby villages.
“Being in regions 4 to 5, Mudzi district has a serious water challenge. We are drilling boreholes and already we sank two and we will still sink more so that people can get clean water to drink.
“We are also rehabilitating this gravel road which connects this mine with Makaha Business Centre. This is our responsibility and we are excited to be doing that. Again, President Mnangagwa said Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo, and vene venyika are us Zimbabweans. No one will come and build this nation for us and as such, no one will come and rehabilitate this road for us, so using the President’s philosophy, we are building our communities and by building these communities, we are developing our great nation, together, with locally available resources.
“However, we are facing a serious challenge of power. We do not have electricity at the mine and my wish is for us to be connected as soon as possible for us to realise our full production capacity.”
Mr Navaya said he aimed to grow to become a commercial miner and employ as many youths as possible.
He thanked the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development as well as the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) for guiding him and educating him on proper mining operations.
Mr Navaya encouraged youths to venture into mining, saying one does not go wrong and will always earn good money from the precious mineral.
“Let me also reiterate my commitment to empower as many youths as possible, and call for the nation to join hands in the fight against drug and substance abuse. Together we can win that fight.”