Kelvin Jakachira
As Zimbabweans were preparing for the Christmas festivities, President Emmerson Mnangagwa made some disturbing disclosures that the country had lost gold worth US$60 million through a syndicate of businessmen who clandestinely export the mineral to Dubai.
“I am not a mukorokoza (gold panner), but I was in Dubai last month and a company there said they got US$60 million gold from Zimbabwe through the black market and they even told me that the money does not come into government coffers,” the President told bewildered delegates attending an anti-corruption indaba in Harare.
The gold that is finding its way to places such as Dubai is coming from artisanal miners who are snubbing the official channels because of unattractive packages.
President Mnangwagwa is an expert in matters related to intelligence and security. The Dubai discoveries must have tweaked his antennae.
The President knows too well that these artisanal miners are unleashing widespread violence in gold mining areas leading to several deaths. The violent gangs have acquired the moniker “MaShurugwi” although traditional leaders from Shurugwi have expressed concern over that labelling, because it is not complimentary of their people.
More worrying to the President is that he knows that the violent gangs are now part of a multi-million-dollar underground syndicate involving an organised network. The network includes powerful middlemen and rich buyers in Dubai and elsewhere.
This may explain why these MaShurugwi have mutated into feared gangs that are terrorising communities in areas rich with gold across the country.
In April two soldiers were killed while another one was left battling for life after machete-wielding artisanal miners pounced on them following a dispute over sex workers at Chiwaridzo Bar in Bindura.
In another incident, five illegal miners in Battlefields Kwekwe went on a rampage after a beer binge at Mutamba Bar – raping two sex workers and one married woman in the presence of her husband.
Last week a policeman, Constable Wonder Hokoyo, 27, was clubbed and hacked to death and his colleague was seriously injured while defending workers at Good Hope Mine in Battlefields from an invading criminal gang armed with machetes, logs, axes and catapults.
The Zimbabwe Peace Project released a report in October saying up to 105 people had been murdered by the violent gangs.
Shocked by these developments, the Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Ziyambi Ziyambi, said machete wielding miners will be shot on sight. “We have instructed the police to shoot to kill those found with machetes. Those arrested for possession of the weapon will not be granted bail”, Ziyambi said.
Scores of the machete wielding artisanal miners have fallen foul of the shoot to kill policy, while several others have been arrested.
While these attempts to neutralise the marauding gangs are welcome, dismantling this multi-million-dollar syndicate will be difficult, given that the crackdown does not appear holistic. In my opinion, the ongoing crackdown is just addressing symptoms, not the disease.
The first challenge is that our demotivated and poorly-remunerated police force also may, in the long term, find this task daunting as confirmed by the murder of Constable Hokoyo last Saturday. The constable and his colleagues were disarmed by a gang of brutal artisanal miners who attacked them with machetes, knives, clubs and knobkerries.
Secondly, this is now a complex issue which demands that the entire value chain be targeted up to Dubai where the rich buyers are domiciled.
Thirdly, it should involve smoking out the local middlemen who are linked to the markets in Dubai and elsewhere. Otherwise targeting the so-called MaShurugwi alone will not address this problem in the long term.
President Mnangagwa knows the urgency of restoring order in the gold mining sector. He should not hesitate to take head-on some of his disciples whose names are often mentioned in connection with the mayhem. A stitch in time saves nine.
The anarchy in gold mining areas across the country can lead to a widespread breakdown of social order, resulting in organised resistance that can lead to an open conflict.
This is now a multi-million dollar syndicate. It has happened elsewhere in Africa with devastating consequences.
