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Skills exodus threatens Zimbabwe mining
Chris Muronzi, mining mx
March 05, 2008

http://www.miningmx.com/mining_fin/180175.htm

Zimbabwean mining companies are trying every trick in the book to stop a massive skills exodus as firms in neighbouring countries hoover up as many skilled people as they can, threatening the viability of the domestic mining sector.

Textbook human resources management, which normally works anywhere else in the world, is fruitless, with estimates that at least half of Zimbabwe's skilled mining workforce left last year for jobs in the region and abroad. They went in search of a better life and salaries outside the country where inflation is above 100,000 percent.

Zimbabwean Chamber of Mines president Jack Murehwa says there are at least 1,116 vacancies are waiting to filled after skilled manpower left for greener pastures.

And only rarely do applications for those positions come through.

Murehwa thinks little can be done to stop the skills flight and that the government must take "drastic steps".

"The industry has lost more than half of its skilled personnel to the region and beyond (in the past year). The flight continues as we speak, with South African companies collecting artisans and machine operators by the busload from organisations in Zimbabwe," Murehwa said.

Mining firms in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique, where new projects are coming on stream, creating demand for skilled people, have proven to be attractive destinations for Zimbabwean artisans, he said.

The skills problem appears to be reaching the top of the pyramid as more key executives also join the exodus.

For instance JSE- and ZSE-listed Hwange Colliery's CEO Godfrey Dzinomwa quit his position almost two years ago only to join a Botswana-based mining house as a mine manager.

With Zimbabwe's inflation spiralling out of control to be the world's highest by far -- Iraq is second with 60% -- companies are unable to keep their remuneration packages attractive or competitive.

As a result, skilled workers are living hand to mouth, sometimes earning as little as US$20 per month.

According to a survey by the Chamber, skilled workers outside Zimbabwe can earn an average of about $2,500 compared to $200 that many skilled workers get in Zimbabwe.

The skills shortage in Zimbabwe is so bad that the Chamber of Mines has sent a number of papers to the central bank and the government, showing how staffing levels have reached a critical stage that now threatens the viability of the industry.

The central bank says it is considering paying skilled workers in foreign currency, but analysts say this is highly unlikely given the country's chronic foreign currency shortage.

Zimbabwe has an acute shortage of foreign exchange because of a negative balance of payments position made worse by the withdrawal of such support by the International Monetary Fund after Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe told the monetary institution "to go to hell."

According to the Chamber's study, the most favoured destinations in the region are South Africa, Africa's resource-rich economic powerhouse, and Namibia, which is seeing increased foreign investment in its diamond, uranium and base metals.

Fresh foreign investment into Zambia's copperbelt has also attracted Zimbabweans, while Australia has emerged as one of the most desired offshore destinations for young skilled Zimbabwean mining workers.

The chairman of a listed mining company said he was now clueless as to how to keep skilled staff at his mines, given the rate at which they come and go.

The chairman, who declined to be named, said most companies in the sector do not keep staff for more than four months and last year he had to access foreign currency from the central bank to acquire top of the range vehicles for the key staff.

The vehicles would be offered only under one condition — that the recipients would stay for at least two years and, in the event that they left within two years, they would leave the vehicles behind.

According to him, that seemed to have worked for a little while.

But that was until there was a sharp decline in the fall of the local currency, making the allure of the US dollar and South African Rand even stronger.

The mining boss said: "They figured 'I can buy this same car I have now in three months with my salary in South Africa or Australia'."

Against this background, companies with a strong foreign currency generating position now intend to reward their key people in foreign currency but need the regulatory nod.

Listed companies in the sector such as Bindura Nickel Corporation, Rio Zim, Hwange and Falgold, are amongst those feeling the effects of a flight of skilled staff.

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