SOME illegal miners allegedly invaded a farm belonging to a Zanu PF Matabeleland South senator and started prospecting for gold.
Senator Maduke Ndlovu revealed this in the Senate when he questioned Mines and Mining Development deputy minister, Polite Kambamura on government policy regarding illegal miners invading people’s farms.
“What is the government’s policy, for example, I am a farmer and I have a farm and just from nowhere in the morning, you find someone has already dug in that farm where you are supposed to do your farming,” Ndlovu asked.
“What is the government’s position on such people who just come and dig in people’s farms to solicit minerals?”
In response, Kambamura described the activities as criminal
According to the current law, when the farm is less than 100 hectares, no one can peg in that farm without getting consent from the owner, he said.
“When the farm is bigger than 100 hectares, the miner or the prospective miner can notify the owner of the farm of his intention to peg but does not require to get consent from him as long as he is pegging on an area that is not on cultivated land,” he said, adding that the ministry addressed those issues in the current bill that was gazetted,” he said.
“We have made some public consultations and we heard some input from the people.
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“We have also consulted the Ministry of Agriculture and they have made some inputs to the bill.
“Those issues are going to be addressed by the coming bill.
“I think it will be too early to pre-empt the content of the bill at the moment because there are still some consultations that are ongoing.”
There are several reports of illegal miners, including Chinese investors, invading people’s properties and their ancestral lands in search of land.
The haphazard mining activities have caused environment damage, and left water sources polluted while posing health risks to communities.
