Bulawayo is a dead City

Bulawayo is a dead city and teachers are increasingly turned into panning for survival, Mines minister Walter Chidhakwa has declared.

Speaking at the ongoing MineEntra Expo in Bulawayo, Chidhakwa said the city used to supply the mining sector with vast equipment.

But that is no longer the case as the industry base has collapsed.

"Bulawayo was a industrial hub which was centred on supplying the mining industry but we lost that and the city died".

A few years ago President Robert Mugabe described the city a scrapyard.

However, Chidhakwa said the is struggling to tap into its vast mineral resources.

"Zimbabwe has an unhappy paradox of being rich in terms of minerals but realising little for it in terms of benefits.

"But the positive aspect of our mining sector is we have a rich geology and if supported by right policies it can take us far".

He added that gold mining is now sustaining thousands of people as more have turned into panning including teachers.

"We have thousands of people who mine gold and some do so to augument meagre salaries they get from teaching".

Teachers and other civil servants are still to be paid July salaries.

Chidhakwa said once the economy stabilises the numbers of people currently into small scale mining " will go down and we will remain with the committed one and we can nurture those".

Mine Entra 2016 expo runs until Friday in Bulawayo under the theme "Unearthing Opportunities".

Mine Entra is Zimbabwe's biggest exhibition for the mining, engineering and transport sectors and their associated industries.