Zanu-PF councillor ‘grabs' gold mine

A ZANU-PF councillor in Mutare North constituency, Luckson Mawanga is in the eye of a storm after he reportedly grabbed a gold claim in Odzi allegedly belonging to Twin Castle Resources.

Manicaland mining director Omen Dube yesterday said they were seized with the matter.

"We are seized with the matter, there is a dispute between miners," he said.

Dube and his team visited the mine which is under dispute on Wednesday.

"We visited the mine under dispute yesterday (Wednesday) and we are resolving the matter very soon," he said.

David Stikula, the manager for Twin Castle Resources, said: "We were about to start work at the gold claim in Odzi when some people stormed the gold claim, saying they were sent by Mawanga to order us to vacate the gold mine.

"They threatened to shoot us and we had no option, but to leave the gold claim as we feared for our lives.

"We went to a roadside and called our bosses about the issue who said we should try by all means to be safe and we should not retaliate. We tried in vain to show our mining certificates to bouncers but they had none of it."

Mawanga was not immediately available for comment.