𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗜𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗢𝗖𝗨𝗦 𝗢𝗡 𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗦?

Many people have asked me why I've focused on Zimplats' improprieties instead of the Chinese. Firstly, Zimplats is Zimbabwe's biggest mining company and it’s foreign-owned by South Africa's Implats.

Secondly, it's been extracting platinum and nearly 10 other minerals from Ngezi, a rural community, since 1995. But despite 31 years of mining, Ngezi remains impoverished. Villagers claim their lives have worsened since the mine opened due to land expropriation without compensation, water pollution (chemical-filled ponds release water into local rivers), dam destruction, sewer waste pollution, synthetic material pollution, deaths of their cattle and overcrowded schools. But despite that, the community claims Zimplats has failed to build them a school, hospital or roads in Turf and surrounding Ngezi hinterlands.

As a result ZANU PF has been losing elections in Turf and according to the village development committee that I sat with, they risk losing voters in rural wards too, because they feel that the party is protecting the impunity and arrogance of the miner.

In contrast, Implats, which gets 40% of its platinum from Zimbabwe, has helped build Rustenburg into a city with better infrastructure than Bulawayo. So, it seems Implats (Zimplats) exploits Zimbabwe and then transfers the excess value (profits) from the periphery (Ngezi) to develop the core in South Africa, as people say the Chinese do. This is the classical imperialist model.

So, my question is what example has Zimplats, as the biggest mining company in Zimbabwe, set for Chinese companies, regarding environmental management, community development, empowering the community and uplifting Zimbabwe? It’s clear that the Chinese are following standards set by existing mining companies (in light of the fact that the biggest is not setting much of an example) and our lax oversight and laws in the country.

We advocate changing mining laws and returning indigenization to regulate all Zimbabwean mining, ensuring foreign companies (Chinese included) don't exploit and destroy the environment because they are held to account by communities that have mandatory local ownership and participation on their boards.

Written by the Chairman of ZASM, Rutendo Bereza Matinyarare.