A fierce confrontation unfolded this week over the future of Zimbabwe’s mineral-rich Shurugwi “enclave”, after a ruling Zanu PF legislator dismissed allegations of corruption, political intimidation and elite capture in the area’s booming mining sector, triggering a backlash from one of the country’s leading natural resources watchdogs.
The sharp exchanges revolve around who truly benefits from the huge fortunes generated from vast deposits of gold, platinum and chrome.
Zimbabwe’s government projects the Midlands as a symbol of investment and economic opportunity, but campaigners have warned that beneath the glossy foreign direct investment figures lies a volatile cocktail of deepening inequality, forced displacement, environmental destruction and simmering resentment.
The tensions intensified following a series of investigations by the Zimbabwe Independent exposing allegations that multinational mining firms are using political influence, intimidation and patronage networks to expand operations across communal land.
A recent report by the Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG) alleged some mining operators were invoking state security structures, bribing leaders and coercing villagers into accepting displacement from their land.
But Shurugwi North legislator Joseph Mpasi insisted in an interview that mines were benefiting communities.
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“It is not true and not correct to suggest that investors mining in my area are using political power,” Mpasi told the Independent.
“No one is using any power other than the legitimate power to mine, and we, as the community, are benefiting.
“These investors have employed our people, they are mining, and they are ploughing back into the community,” he said.
“If anyone feels that something improper is happening, or believes they are being displaced through the use of political power, as the Member of Parliament, I am not aware of that.”
But Farai Maguwu, executive director at CNRG, fired back.
“Mining in Shurugwi constitutes an enclave economy — completely divorced from the lived realities of the communities,” he told the Independent.
“Its footprint is in ecological destruction, not socio-economic development.”
“What leaders say contradicts their own people who are swimming in abject poverty despite mineral wealth worth billions being siphoned annually,” Maguwu added.
The pushback came as pressure mounted on government over the management of Zimbabwe’s extractive sector.
Mining remains among Zimbabwe’s biggest foreign currency earners, generating roughly US$6 billion annually.
Figures released recently by the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency showed mining accounted for nearly 80% of approved investment value during the first quarter.
Yet in Shurugwi, one of Zimbabwe’s oldest mining districts, communities say the mineral boom has brought little transformation. Campaigners describe a district increasingly fractured by widening inequality, environmental destruction and social tensions.
The 23-page CNRG report, titled “The Risk Factors Exposing Rural Communities to the Impacts of Resource Extraction in Shurugwi Mining Area”, paints a disturbing picture of what it calls systematic dispossession. According to the report, some mining companies allegedly handpick compliant community representatives during consultation meetings while sidelining dissenting voices.
Leaders are also accused of being drawn into patronage networks through “token” incentives, including fuel coupons.
“Participants asserted that some of the traditional leaders and councillors were co-opted by the mining company through token gestures, such as providing fuel coupons to chiefs for attending meetings at the mine,” the report said.
The watchdog further alleges that some villagers resisting displacement were warned by powerful individuals that they had no authority to oppose relocation.
“The state resettled you here, and it has the authority to relocate you without prior notice,” one villager reportedly told researchers.
“All land belongs to the President, and he has the prerogative to act as he sees fit.”
Presidential spokesman George Charamba has previously told the Independent that the President does not approve illegal things.
Entire communities reportedly live under uncertainty, the report claimed.
Residents interviewed by campaigners said uncertainty over relocation had paralysed livelihoods. Environmental destruction is also emerging as a major flashpoint, the CNRG said.
Open-cast mining and uncontrolled excavation have scarred large sections of Shurugwi’s landscape, while rivers are increasingly threatened by pollution.
Campaigners say abandoned pits have become death traps, while stagnant pools left behind by excavations are contributing to rising malaria risks.
Wildlife displacement, soil erosion and destruction of grazing land are also intensifying, it said.
“What is happening there is frightening,” one local resident recently said.
“The mountains are disappearing.”
The report says women, youths and people living with disabilities are among the groups hardest hit.
According to CNRG, nearly 70% of displaced people are women, while youth unemployment remains extremely high despite the presence of large mining operations.