Train services on Zimbabwe’s busiest railway line have been closed for the past three days after illegal gold miners in central Zimbabwe dug large tunnels underneath and right next to the railway line, railway authorities said on Friday.
Passenger and freight services between Harare and the western city of Bulawayo had to be stopped on Wednesday when railway personnel discovered that the miners had dug a 100m labyrinth of tunnel next to the electrified line just outside the central town of Kwekwe, said Munesu Munodawafa, acting general manager of the
state-owned National Railways of Zimbabwe.
”I am happy that the tunnels were discovered before an accident happened,” he said.
”We would be talking about something else now. They have caused a lot of damage.
”It’s sad that these people don’t value human life. The police are arresting them on a daily basis, but it has not deterred them,” he said.
Railway security officers had been put on 24 hour patrol. Work on filling the tunnels had been hampered by heavy rains, he said. He hoped services could resume later on Friday. The breakdown had affected the transport of coal for the country’s power stations, already struggling with low supplies as a result of fuel shortages that have hit coal mining operations.
Deliveries of sugar, also critically short in Zimbabwe, had also been disrupted, he said. An estimated 1,5-million Zimbabweans have turned to illegal gold mining as a result of famine and economic collapse afflicting the country. They risk not only arrest, but also a high likelihood of being buried alive in the tunnels they dig manually without any proper supports.
In the country’s worst train crash last month 50 died in a collision between two trains. The signalling system meant to stop one of the trains was switched off by thieves who stole the copper cables.
Many people were also burnt to death when fuel being carried illegally by black-marketeers in the passenger coaches caught light in the collision. – Sapa