Top cops, Mines officials rapped over gold claims

A sizeable number of top police officers and Mines ministry officials own gold claims throughout the country, jeopardizing efforts to curb leakages in the lucrative sector, a Parliament committee heard yesterday.

The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy presented its first report on the state of affairs in the gold sector in Zimbabwe in which it attributed the revenue leakages to smuggling of minerals, under-invoicing, externalisation of export proceeds among others.

The Lovemore Matuke-chaired committee noted in its report "there were a number of ZRP officers who owned gold claims" yet the procedure to retrieve gold recovered from leakages is such that gold exhibits are first kept by the police before they are transferred to the Mines ministry.