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Dr John Mangudya

Bianca Mlilo recently in Zvishavane
ZVISHAVANE-Ngezi MP John Holder says the pieces of legislation governing the mining sector in Zimbabwe are archaic and need to be urgently reviewed to facilitate growth in the sector.

Contributing during the Great Dyke Business Forum organised by Buy Zimbabwe Campaign here on Friday, the legislator said provisions of the mining law contradict each other and should be revisited to avoid disputes and promote productivity.

He said the Mines and Minerals Act, the Rural District Councils (RDC) Act, the Land Acquisition Act, the Environmental Management Agency (Ema) Act and the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) Act, have not been harmonised hence they promote disputes because of many grey areas that need to be addressed.

“All these Acts need to be harmonised so that they do not contradict each other. There is a lot that needs to be done. These Acts clash when it comes to farmer-miner disputes. One will claim to own the land while the other claims mining rights.

“The Mines and Minerals Act now is a one-size-fit-all but we need to address the things that affect the small scale miners and the big mines. Councils should also charge levies that are uniform across the country.”

To this end, Holder said, the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Mining Development should conduct public hearings across the country on the Mining Bill and iron out these issues.

He said there was also a need to hold public consultations for the Mines and Minerals Act because most of the clauses in both the new and old acts are duplications of each other.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr John Mangudya who attended the meeting concurred and added that the permit system used in the country now was promulgated by the colonial  government so as to control everything in the country.

There was a need, he said, to revisit these laws and the permit system so that they are relevant to the present situation.

The general consensus at the business forum among participants was that Government, academia, the communities in which the miners operated and the miners themselves had to work together so as to come up with a policy framework that would enable the country to produce more than it is producing now. — @BiancaMlilo