Parly committee probes ‘MaShurugwi’

CHENGETAI ZVAUYA

A p a r l i a m e n t a r y portfolio committee has launched an investigations into the gold sector amid the influx of machete killing gangs known as ‘MaShurugwi’ that have terrorised communities, it emerged yesterday.

The probe by the portfolio committee on Mines and Mining Development comes after there is concern that the Mashurugwis are politically connected, committee chairperson Edmund Mkaratigwa said.

“Parliament will be conducting a fact-finding in eight provinces in the country in the mining towns and get to the bottom of this matter. We are also going to be summoning the ministers of Mines and Mining Development, Defence and Home Affairs and Justice, legal and parliamentary affairs, the Prosecutor-General and Commissioner General of the police as these are important stakeholders in helping us to curb the crimes in the gold sector,” he said.

Mkaratigwa said that the actions of the gangs had tarnished the image of the mining sector and affecting the gold production with the committee going to propose stiffer sentences to be handed down to people found guilty of attacking other people with machetes. In the past months the country has been experiencing an increase in the incidences of gangs of people wielding machetes and attacking people mainly in the mining communities.

Many of the artisanal miners in the gold sector in the country are infamously known as ‘’MaShurugwi.’’

Recently a policeman was hacked to death by MaShurugwi at Goodhope mine near Kadoma. Despite the police ban on carrying machetes, the MaShurugwis continue to terrorise communities. Artisanal mining was decriminalised a few years back as part of the government’s efforts to boost gold production.

This has seen small scale miners contributing 65% of the total gold output ahead of the primary producers. The yellow metal overtook tobacco as the country’s single largest foreign currency earner in 2018.

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