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Rot at Shabanie and Mashaba Mines has gone on for too long
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
February 23, 2010

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions is concerned by the threat to more than 1 000 jobs and livelihoods of workers employed by Shabanie and Mashaba mines. This comes against the backdrop of revelations that the mines face collapse, a situation that is regrettable. The collapse of these mines means thousands of lives have been affected in the towns of Zvishavane and Mashava as even businesses that had set up there had set up based on the existence of the mines. The towns run the risk of turning into another Mhangura or Mvuma. After the closure of Mhangura mine, the town became a ghost town and even up to now people residing there stay in abject poverty. The same goes for Mvuma, a once rich small mining establishment that now has nothing to show for its once acclaimed status.

More worrying is the emerging trend of the collapse of companies that have been placed under administrators. It happened at David Whitehead and it is happening now at Shabanie and Mashaba Mines. It is ironic that government claims to have taken over the mines to save them from collapse yet the fortunes of the mines have dipped since government took control and placed the mines under an administrator, one Arafas Gwaradzimba.

Workers at the mines claim there have been no current statistics to show how much production has been going on at the mines or how much money has been realised from the sales of asbestos. We are now inclined to believe there are some political heavy weights who have an interest in the affairs of the mines and have been gaining financially at the expense of the workers.

After the shootings of innocent striking workers in September 2009, the ZCTU called for an immediate commission of inquiry not only into the shooting incident, but also into the operations of the mines that had led workers to go unpaid for more than nine months. There has been a deafening silence from Parliament over the composition or constitution of the Commission of Inquiry or whether it would start investigations any time soon.

The ZCTU demands that this Commission immediately be constituted to look into the running of the mines and avert a potential loss of employment for thousands of mine workers and negative effect on the dwellers of the two mining towns.

Visit the ZCTU fact sheet

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