Small-scale gold miners in Zimbabwe are scared to name politicians they say are masterminding illegal mining operations because they fear they will be killed, the official Herald newspaper reported on Friday.
”You just cannot afford taking the risk of mentioning these untouchable individuals because you will be killed as soon as you expose them,” Wonder Chanetsa, from the Zimbabwean Gold Miners’ Association, told a parliamentary committee this week.
Crisis-hit Zimbabwe has significant deposits of gold, diamonds and precious minerals, but is losing desperately needed foreign currency as dealers and miners siphon gems and metals out of the country.
Last week a senior police officer, Godwin Matanga, confirmed some ministers and MPs were implicated in shady deals, but ”that is as far as I can say”, the Herald reported Matanga as saying on February 2.
Illegal gold mining is reported to be rife near the southern towns of Kadoma and Kwekwe, but levels of fear are so high that nobody will name the prominent people involved.
”Even if we were to tell you the people involved, you will not act because you will also be afraid of them,” Evelyn Mushava, president of the Zimbabwe Women Miners’ Association told the committee.
About 28 000 illegal small-scale miners and dealers have been arrested since the authorities launched a clampdown named Operation Chikorokoza Chapera (No Illegal Panning) in November, but no politicians have so far been netted.
At least 113 of those arrested have been convicted and sentenced to mandatory two-year jail terms with labour, according to police. — Sapa-dpa