News / National
Decriminalise gold panning
25 Oct 2015 at 10:14hrs | Views
Chegutu West MP Dexter Nduna has asked government to decriminalise gold panning saying they are adding value to the government fiscus which does not recognise them.
"We are tapping into our resource which is finite as we speak, that resource is being exploited but the money is not accruing to government in terms of royalties and in terms of benefits to the fiscus because the person that we are criminalising is the person that is exploiting the resources," he said.
"In Chegutu, I have 6 000 artisanal minors, makorokoza, who have generated more than 100kg in two months. What that translates to is US$3.2 million and what it translates to in terms of 5% royalty is about US$40 000. Forty of us in this House can easily be paid from those royalties in one month."
He said government is being propped up by these same people that are being criminalised.
"We should see light and sense in decriminalising them because as long as we do not decriminalise artisanal mining, I will tell you what will befall this country. It is corruption and some more corruption because we are trying to oil the hands of the police in order to make sure that we are not incarcerated as artisanal miners," he said.
"We are trying to oil the hands of the millers where we go to so that we get our ore milled. We are trying to oil the hands of the buyers at Fidelity so that they can buy our gold without a licence because all we are doing is we are not repealing the sections that are draconian, that are enshrined in these Acts. I call to this House to stand with one voice and decriminalise artisanal mining."
Nduna said his heart goes to the people of Chegutu some who are being incarcerated; ten a day, including women and children because of artisanal mining. There is no industrialisation as we speak in Chegutu.
"Why do we not take from our resources in order to capitalise our industry using artisanal miners? Why do we want to remove them from the main stream economy? Why do we say as long as it is not money we are sidelining them," he said.
"I am saying to you today, they are giving you money in terms and in the form of gold. Those 500 000 that the Minister of Finance and Economic Development has alluded to, ndivo vane zvivindi, who have gone and sold, but otherwise there are five times more out there that have not found the liver in them to go and face the police and maybe circumvent the police to go and sell their God given gold to Fidelity."
He said the issue to do with speculative holding of claims and mines can be addressed by making sure that we regulate the artisanal miners as they go and exploit our God given minerals.
"When they come to sell to Fidelity or to Government, at that point, let us register them. Let us formalise the informal sector and bring home the gold and prop up our economy. Given that this is not an infinite resource, as we tap into it, it is not getting any less; it is getting to extinction," Nduna said.
"Let us pioneer laws for the good governance of our people. I call upon this House to make a law to pioneer this issue, not only in the SADC region, but in the whole global community that is going to empower our *korokozas* or artisanal miners and small scale miners."
He said it will be a first not only in Africa and SADC but in the whole global community.
"So, I call upon this House to be pioneers, to be inventors of this noble cause. It is common knowledge that our economy is skewed towards the informal sector because of the de-industrialisation that has been caused partly by the sanctions. In the same vein, I want to call for the criminalisation of those that call for sanctions," he said.
"We came in here the other day and we applied and changed a labour law and we applied it in retrospect. In the same vein, I ask for this law to be applied in retrospect and make sure that all those that were arrested for artisanal mining and chikorokoza be released from prison, forthwith. If we release these people that we have been incarcerating, knowingly or unknowingly, they were propping up our economy."
He said they were sending a clear signal that now, country is formalising its economy in a non-skewed way so that our *korokozas*, being bankable so that now they can start realising their benefit from our God given resources.
"The system that licences gold buyers, I am quite sure can also licence *makorokoza*. The system can also licence artisanal miners in the same vein," he said.
"You ask yourself where the gold that has been captured at the borders go to. If it is well documented, you will find that there is more gold that has been captured at the borders than is going to Government and that gold should be attributed to the artisanal miners over and above that which has gone to Fidelity. If we can produce using 6 000 manpower, 100kg in two months, how many and how much can 500 000 and five times that can produce in a month. We are talking of more than 6 million tones. If these people are given their operating space, and if they are given the knowledge, we will have an issue that we can clearly address, of exploration."
He said these are the best people in terms of exploration. They know where gold is. Vanotora dombo vorinanzva vokuudza kuti rinegoridhe iri.
"However, instead of paying for exploration, we can use our artisanal miners to close that vacuum and that gap. Why should we pay for services that can come free? There is what is called ‘brown bird exploration'. These are the people that can do exploration at no expense. The holders of claims in Zimbabwe," he said.
"We are tapping into our resource which is finite as we speak, that resource is being exploited but the money is not accruing to government in terms of royalties and in terms of benefits to the fiscus because the person that we are criminalising is the person that is exploiting the resources," he said.
"In Chegutu, I have 6 000 artisanal minors, makorokoza, who have generated more than 100kg in two months. What that translates to is US$3.2 million and what it translates to in terms of 5% royalty is about US$40 000. Forty of us in this House can easily be paid from those royalties in one month."
He said government is being propped up by these same people that are being criminalised.
"We should see light and sense in decriminalising them because as long as we do not decriminalise artisanal mining, I will tell you what will befall this country. It is corruption and some more corruption because we are trying to oil the hands of the police in order to make sure that we are not incarcerated as artisanal miners," he said.
"We are trying to oil the hands of the millers where we go to so that we get our ore milled. We are trying to oil the hands of the buyers at Fidelity so that they can buy our gold without a licence because all we are doing is we are not repealing the sections that are draconian, that are enshrined in these Acts. I call to this House to stand with one voice and decriminalise artisanal mining."
Nduna said his heart goes to the people of Chegutu some who are being incarcerated; ten a day, including women and children because of artisanal mining. There is no industrialisation as we speak in Chegutu.
"Why do we not take from our resources in order to capitalise our industry using artisanal miners? Why do we want to remove them from the main stream economy? Why do we say as long as it is not money we are sidelining them," he said.
"I am saying to you today, they are giving you money in terms and in the form of gold. Those 500 000 that the Minister of Finance and Economic Development has alluded to, ndivo vane zvivindi, who have gone and sold, but otherwise there are five times more out there that have not found the liver in them to go and face the police and maybe circumvent the police to go and sell their God given gold to Fidelity."
He said the issue to do with speculative holding of claims and mines can be addressed by making sure that we regulate the artisanal miners as they go and exploit our God given minerals.
"When they come to sell to Fidelity or to Government, at that point, let us register them. Let us formalise the informal sector and bring home the gold and prop up our economy. Given that this is not an infinite resource, as we tap into it, it is not getting any less; it is getting to extinction," Nduna said.
"Let us pioneer laws for the good governance of our people. I call upon this House to make a law to pioneer this issue, not only in the SADC region, but in the whole global community that is going to empower our *korokozas* or artisanal miners and small scale miners."
He said it will be a first not only in Africa and SADC but in the whole global community.
"So, I call upon this House to be pioneers, to be inventors of this noble cause. It is common knowledge that our economy is skewed towards the informal sector because of the de-industrialisation that has been caused partly by the sanctions. In the same vein, I want to call for the criminalisation of those that call for sanctions," he said.
"We came in here the other day and we applied and changed a labour law and we applied it in retrospect. In the same vein, I ask for this law to be applied in retrospect and make sure that all those that were arrested for artisanal mining and chikorokoza be released from prison, forthwith. If we release these people that we have been incarcerating, knowingly or unknowingly, they were propping up our economy."
He said they were sending a clear signal that now, country is formalising its economy in a non-skewed way so that our *korokozas*, being bankable so that now they can start realising their benefit from our God given resources.
"The system that licences gold buyers, I am quite sure can also licence *makorokoza*. The system can also licence artisanal miners in the same vein," he said.
"You ask yourself where the gold that has been captured at the borders go to. If it is well documented, you will find that there is more gold that has been captured at the borders than is going to Government and that gold should be attributed to the artisanal miners over and above that which has gone to Fidelity. If we can produce using 6 000 manpower, 100kg in two months, how many and how much can 500 000 and five times that can produce in a month. We are talking of more than 6 million tones. If these people are given their operating space, and if they are given the knowledge, we will have an issue that we can clearly address, of exploration."
He said these are the best people in terms of exploration. They know where gold is. Vanotora dombo vorinanzva vokuudza kuti rinegoridhe iri.
"However, instead of paying for exploration, we can use our artisanal miners to close that vacuum and that gap. Why should we pay for services that can come free? There is what is called ‘brown bird exploration'. These are the people that can do exploration at no expense. The holders of claims in Zimbabwe," he said.
Source - Byo24News
