Villagers in rural Mutoko, Mashonaland East province, are bearing the cost of a gold mining rush as they face frequent displacements, loss of farmland and acute environmental degradation.
They accuse several companies among them one they allege is owned by a senior government official of robbing them of their livelihoods as the pangs of climate change sink deeper into their communities.
While villagers insisted the named government official owned one of the offending mines, Iron Castle, the official strongly denied it, this publication failed to independently verify the allegation as the entity’s physical records could not be located at the company registry despite its digital listing in the data base.
Notable companies operating in the area include Zhuhe Mine, Iron Castle, and ZimCN Radnor Mine, adding to numerous smaller ones.
In the rural communities of Makaha and Banze some 60km from Mutoko, villagers say the land once used for maize, sorghum, and groundnut production is being taken over by the mining ventures involving large companies, individual claim holders and illegal gold miners.
The once-fertile land that sustained generations has been transformed into pits and gulleys as farming is increasingly becoming difficult due to droughts interspersed with floods.
Region already at risk
Mutoko district, home to an estimated 161,000 people according to the 2022 census, is overwhelmingly rural, with 92% of residents depending on communal land and smallholder farming for survival, according to a 2023 Food and Nutrition Council (FNC) profile.
However, the rapid expansion of commercial, artisanal, and small-scale gold mining, now one of Zimbabwe’s largest informal sectors as indicated by the 2025 Mines and Mining Development parliamentary portfolio committee report presented in the National Assembly, threatens the district’s already fragile food security.
Studies by the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association, now known as the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Organisation (Zelo) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) show that small-scale gold mining is a leading driver of deforestation, water pollution and soil erosion across the country’s mining regions.
These impacts reduce arable land and accelerate vulnerability to climate shocks, notes the Zelo research.
Mutoko has traditionally had fewer people going hungry than most parts of the country.
In 2023, only about nine percent of residents were food insecure, but this number is expected to increase after repeated droughts caused by changing climate conditions, according to the Food and Nutrition Council (FNC).
Villagers say that mining-driven land degradation is compounding these pressures by reducing crop yields and undermining climate resilience at a time when Zimbabwe is experiencing increasingly erratic rainfall.
In Banze, village head Clever Kamonere oversees a community of 91 families.
He said that when Iron Castle started, villagers believed it was a reputable company.
“There are two companies, Zhuhe and Iron Castle, and they are the same in terms of grabbing people’s land. But (Iron Castle) is notorious and does not compensate,” alleged Kamonere, even though he could not provide documentary proof to back his belief.
Witness Shumba, a representative of Zhuhe, refused to respond to these allegations.
Kamonere blamed the opencast methods used by the gold miners for the destruction of hills and mountains that have existed since time immemorial and rued the extensive pollution of the land, underground water, flora and rivers by the cyanidation tanks that mines use to separate gold from ore.
A digital check at the company registry confirmed a firm registered as Iron Castle Trading, but its file was missing.
Incomplete or missing files are not uncommon at the registry, and their absence does not necessarily imply manipulation of records to hide ownership details.
Several villagers who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals said they strongly believed the company to be owned by the government official.
Iron Castle Trading is also listed on the ZIDA website as a mining investment operating in Mutoko and Kwekwe in the Midlands province.
Responding to questions via the phone, Mabhiza denied any link to the company.
“I have no idea what you are talking about. Where is that village? I have no connection with that (company). Do these people even know me? Suppose I was, is it a crime to own a project?” said Mabhiza.
Attempts to meet her in person yielded nothing.
Kamonere, a community leader, however, maintains that he was approached by Mabhiza and his 68-year-old wife, Kanizia Manhando, repeated the claim.
“Mai Mabhiza came here announcing her intention to mine. She demarcated the area she would mine, but now she has gone beyond what she said she would do,” she reported.
Kamonere is particularly resentful of the foreign-owned firms operating in the area.
“It feels like we went through the liberation struggle for the Chinese. They are the ones eating sufficiently; for us, we are in slavery.”
During the investigation, a man named Chambwera Muyeye emerged and claimed ownership of the company.
He claimed the real name of the company was Ancient Iron.
Further checks showed that both Iron Castle and Ancient Iron exist as separate registered entities, though their physical files and ownership details could not be located at the registry of companies.
Inquiries with the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) revealed that Iron Castle, although listed on the ZIDA website, had no registered EIA records.
Gold rush
Rich gold deposits in the area are also driving villagers traditionally dependent on farming to shift to artisanal gold mining, which tends to bring faster income.
Kenneth Chikukwa, a villager and the secretary to the area traditional leader, Chief Nechombo, told this publication: “Initially, people survived on subsistence farming, and artisanal mining was not allowed. But now most people are drifting towards mining.”
Chikukwa added that villagers were losing their fields to mining companies and were hardly consulted as required by the law.
“Procedurally, companies are supposed to consult the rural district council and speak to the communal land owner, but in many instances, people are forcibly removed. A project starts small, and with time, people are moved against their will,” he said.
According to him, traditional farming practices are fading. “About 50% of people are now surviving on mining, and those who are mining are doing so on land they previously used for crops,” he said.
Chikukwa notes that many miners, among Chinese investors who are increasingly dominating mining in Mashonaland East, arrive without warning and waving permits they claim they would have obtained. “We don’t know how they get them (permits),” he added.
The Mines ministry did not respond to questions on this issue despite numerous media inquiries.
Zimbabwe’s Mines and Minerals Act stipulates that no one may peg a mining claim on occupied land without consulting the person living on that land.
But villagers say the miners who use local proxies to facilitate their operations do not comply with that requirement.
“Every Chinese (miner) has a local person they are dealing with, who fronts these operations” Chikukwa said.
Under Section 31 of the Mines and Minerals Act, a prospector must obtain written consent from the occupier of a portion of communal land before prospecting.
The Act also prohibits prospecting within 450 metres of a main homestead or 90 metres of certain homes or farm buildings.
Additionally, prospecting is disallowed “upon any land under cultivation or within fifteen metres thereof.”
These restrictions are intended to protect occupied or cultivated communal land from disturbances.
Observations during an investigation supported by Information for Development Trust (IDT), established, though, that several mines in Banze and Makaha area operated just a few metres from people’s homesteads.
More and more locals are join teeming outsiders in digging for gold on roadsides, near or in rivers and across open land while outsiders enjoy extraction rights at the expense of the residents.
According to Chikukwa: “Someone from outside can come and mine on one’s farm, yet the owner cannot mine on that land,” he said.
“We have been violated”
The rush for gold has sparked angry ownership disputes.
In Chitiyo Village, located about 15km from Makaha, Patience Munyoro, a 48-year old village head, said individuals claiming strong political connections were arbitrarily seizing pastures and arable land.
“We have been violated by an investor called Danny Musukuma. He just comes and grabs people’s land. He said no one has power over him. In this village, he took land from over 10 families,” she said.
Musukuma, a former communications director for the ruling Zanu PF party, is involved in gold mining and has been the subject of contested claim ownership in Makaha.
Munyoro said her own family lost farmland. “My mother, a widow, lost her farming land to Musukuma. The land (produced) our food and was our means of survival,” she said.
She urged the government to intervene. “They come with…no paperwork to prove ownership. The government should give power back to the village heads to control local land distribution,” she added
Munyoro’s mother, Dainah Mandiseka (73) was born and still lives in Makaha, confirmed losing her farming plot to Musukuma, suffering arrest during disputes over her land and losing a mining investment she had established.
Mandiseka said that although she had legal papers for her mine, she was the one arrested. “It affected me. I ended up mentally unwell and spent three months at All Souls Hospital. I spent all my money trying to fight for my land. Up to today, my left hand can’t function properly due to the stress,” she said.
She alleged that Musukuma repeatedly namedropped Zanu PF in order to grab land.
However, in a written response, Musukuma dismissed the Munyoro family’s accusations of land grabbing as unfounded and malicious, saying they were “a calculated and desperate ploy by dark and malicious entities pursuing a sinister agenda driven by nothing but sheer criminal intent.”
He availed court documents that supported his claim of the ownership of the disputed 1986-registered mining claim.
Musukuma denied accusations of intimidation, and alleged that members of the Munyoro family had hired “thugs to execute violent takeovers…using physical force and firearms.”
Even then, the Munyoro family maintains that they were unfairly targeted for dispossession of their claim.
Another villager, Paradzai Chikukwa (53) described mining investors as disruptive and bemoaned the marginalisation of locals.
“We are now slaves in our own country. If we take mining claims, they are not recognised,” he said.
He repeated the accusation that Musukuma was on a land grab spree and also identified a well-known cleric turned businessman, Mathias Madzivanzira.
The cleric is the co-founder of Mathias and Mildred Ministries, a pentecostal church that attracted large congregations in the 2000s.
In recent years, he and his wife have shifted focus from church ministry to gold mining and mineral processing.
Their operations include a milling plant and claims in Mutoko’s Makosa area under the trade name Milmath Mining Company.
“They come with police and soldiers and chase us away. We have no one to cry to,” he said.
However, Madzivanzira maintained that their operations were above board, but refused to give further details before hanging up.
Efforts to get the army and police to comment on the allegation that they connived with Madzivanzira were fruitless.
Chikukwa decried the inconsistency, inadequacy and lack of transparency in compensating victims of land losses.
“Some people got a paltry US$1 500 after losing houses and land. That’s not enough,” he said, adding that company mining activities were severely damaging existing roads and led to gullying and “massive deforestation”.
Chikukwa advocated for the empowerment of traditional leaders in influencing land allocations. “Now, traditional leaders have no power at all. We are being chased away like dogs,” said Chikukwa.
*This public interest investigation reports allegations made by affected communities, contested ownership claims and official records reviewed by this publication. Where facts could not be independently verified, this is stated, and named individuals were given the right of reply