Chinese miners' ongoing violations of Zimbabwe's dignity and sovereignty are utterly unacceptable

Some things in this world can be tolerated, but others cross a line that no society should ever accept.

There are moments in a nation's story when silence becomes complicity - when ignoring injustice is the same as endorsing it.

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What is unfolding in Buhera today, through the actions of Sabi Star Mine owned by China's Chengxin Lithium Group, is one such moment.

Zimbabweans are being forced to confront a chilling truth: in our own land, we are treated as if our culture, our dignity, and even our dead, mean nothing.

According to the harrowing accounts presented by Center for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG) Director Farai Maguwu during a press conference yesterday, the Chinese mining company is exhuming the bodies of local people's buried relatives without meaningful consultation, cultural observance, or community consensus.

Some families watched helplessly as the graves of their loved ones were disturbed, their remains hurriedly relocated - and in some cases, horrifyingly blasted apart during mining operations.

This is not a misunderstanding.

It is not a cultural gap.

It is a violation - a violent trampling of Zimbabwean traditions, beliefs, and basic human decency.

Maguwu revealed that some bodies were transferred unceremoniously, placed in black plastic bags and buried elsewhere without the proper rituals required by local customs.

In a country where cultural rites around death are sacred - where appeasement ceremonies, consensus, and proper consultations are essential - this act is nothing short of desecration.

Even more chilling, some human remains were destroyed entirely through the use of explosives.

Families were left traumatized, shocked, and powerless.

To add insult to injury, the mining company reportedly identified one or two individuals - often relatives living far from the community, some in cities or even the diaspora - and offered them paltry amounts such as US$1,500 to grant permission for exhumations.

Those who still live in Buhera, who maintain cultural responsibility over their loved ones' graves, were never consulted.

No family meetings.

No approvals.

No rituals.

No respect.

In our culture, a loved one's resting place is a sacred trust - not something to be traded for mining profits.

But to these miners, it seems, Zimbabwean lives and Zimbabwean dead are disposable.

What is happening in Buhera is not an isolated case.

Farai Maguwu reminded the nation that this level of brutality mirrors what happened in Marange during diamond mining operations.

Over 2,000 graves were destroyed in that area.

Some bodies were unearthed in the course of mining operations, while others were crushed in machinery together with the ore.

Traditional leaders had to collect whatever small fragments remained and re-bury them in a symbolic cemetery - a heartbreaking monument to the destruction of a community's ancestral heritage.

For any society with a sense of identity, dignity, and spirituality, this is a wound that never heals.

Yesterday's press conference brought to light testimonies that no Zimbabwean with a conscience can ignore.

One elderly Buhera woman described how her son's body was exhumed with no respect, no rituals, no acknowledgement of the humanity of the deceased.

She was forced to relocate to Murambinda to create space for lithium mining, yet the “new houses” she and others were moved into have no running water.

At her age, she must walk long distances just to fetch water from a manual borehole that is too heavy for her to operate.

This is what “development” has come to mean for many communities: displacement, suffering, humiliation, and exploitation.

These abuses demonstrate a larger, deeply disturbing trend.

Chinese mining companies in Zimbabwe consistently treat citizens with contempt - as obstacles to be moved, not as human beings with rights.

They would never dare do this in China.

Imagine a Zimbabwean miner arriving in Beijing and digging up graves to extract lithium.

They would not survive a minute.

Yet here, Chinese mining companies behave as if Zimbabwe is their colony, as if our land and our people exist for their projects and profits.

Why are they so emboldened?

Because Zimbabwean leadership is either looking away, compromised, or actively protecting them.

In every community affected by such abuses, the same pattern emerges: chiefs are silent, local authorities powerless, government departments inactive, and law enforcement absent.

When leaders who should defend their people instead defend investors who abuse them, the result is predictable - ordinary Zimbabweans are sacrificed at the altar of foreign interest.

It is either corruption, fear of powerful political connections, or both.

But the effect is the same: Zimbabweans are left undefended.

This is not just a rural problem.

In my hometown of Redcliff, a suspected Chinese miner is blasting through a mountain adjacent to the Cactus Dam.

The threat to the environment is enormous.

Heavy rains will wash debris, chemicals, and silt into the dam, poisoning its water and killing aquatic life.

The dam lies along the Kwekwe River - a river that sustains countless downstream small-scale and commercial farmers who depend on it.

Nearby houses are already cracking from the vibrations of blasting.

Yet again, authorities seem powerless or disinterested, and ordinary people are left to suffer.

Zimbabwe is not a colony of China.

Our fathers and mothers did not fight for independence only for us to become subjects of foreign corporations that disregard our humanity.

What is happening is a betrayal of everything liberation was supposed to mean.

The courage shown by the people of Buhera should inspire us all.

Despite their pain, their trauma, and the dangers they faced, they spoke out.

They refused to be silent while their loved ones' graves were desecrated.

They stood against the abuse that they and their deceased relatives suffered.

Their bravery echoes the rising wave of resistance across the country - from Hwange, where villagers demanded the return of a dam they built themselves in the 1960s, only to be arrested for standing up for what is right, to countless other communities silently enduring the destruction of their land and heritage.

We must also applaud the phenomenal and tireless work of Farai Maguwu and the CNRG.

Again and again, Maguwu has proven to be a true defender of the voiceless, a man who risks everything to expose injustice.

His work is a reminder that Zimbabwe still has heroes who put people above profit.

But we cannot depend on Maguwu alone.

Each community must rise, organize, and defend its rights.

These miners thrive where people are afraid to resist, where leaders are compromised, and where citizens feel powerless.

Yet we are not powerless.

We have the right - and the duty - to defend our lives, our environment, our cultural heritage, and the dignity of our ancestors.

This land belongs to us.

The graves of our loved ones are not mining obstacles.

Our rivers, dams, and mountains are not disposable resources.

Our people are not subjects of foreign capital.

If our leaders fail to protect us, then we must protect ourselves.

Zimbabweans have always been their own liberators.

Today, more than ever, we must reclaim that spirit.

© Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to WhatsApp or Call: +263715667700 | +263782283975, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com, or visit website: https://mbofanatendairuben.news.blog/