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Kamangeni Phiri Features Editor
The sun appears to be setting for Hwange Town, an urban settlement whose origins and growth are anchored on coal mining activities in Hwange District. Hwange Colliery Company Limited, for decades the heart and soul of the town’s economy, is limping. Questions are being asked whether the town can live beyond the mine’s operations given HCCL’s operational challenges.

Ms Beatrice Chuma (69) a widow and air-time vendor, is contemplating relocating to her rural home as business is now low.

“When Hwange Colliery Company Limited sneezes, the town catches a cold. The colliery’s challenges are affecting everyone. Business is so low these days. Most workers aren’t getting paid at their workplaces. At least my children are all grown up. They’ve their own lives. I feel sorry for those who are still raising families given the situation at the mine. It really pains me to see my town die,” said Ms Chuma.

Empress Mine in Zhombe area, Midlands, Mhangura in Mashonaland West and Kamativi Mine in Matabeleland North, have all turned into ghost towns after mining operations ceased at the mines.

Wearing the unique tag of the only urban centre without a central business district in the country, Hwange town is struggling for form and structure. The town’s residents rely on the nearby Hwange Colliery Company Limited for key services and social amenities. The coal-mining concern owns the infrastructure that houses banks and supermarkets at the CBD. It also owns hospitals, stadiums and the terminus.

Mr Alufi Milazi (71), a pensioner and former employee of Hwange Colliery Company, is pained by the deterioration of the socio-economic conditions in the town.

He has witnessed the mine’s compounds and shopping centres taking shape, rising from a simple mining settlement to the town it is today. However, each time he visits it now, he is greeted by empty beer gardens.

“I saw Hwange, both the mine and town, shaping up. I was born here and my father is one of the mine’s workers who died in the Kamandama mine accident which claimed 427 lives in 1972. It pains me to see things deteriorating like this. I was a 16-year old boy when the colliery constructed the soccer stadium. It pains me when workers aren’t paid and things are falling apart at most companies. This is our country, don’t kill it. Please come up with plans to save Hwange Colliery and the town,” said Mr Milazi.

Now based in rural Hwange after retiring 16-years ago, Mr Milazi, visits the town once a month to collect his National Social Security Authority (NSSA) cheque.

He says his favourite watering hole, Jabulani Tavern in Lwendulu Suburb popularly known as Number 1 Section, is getting increasingly deserted each month.

Hwange town today has little to show that it is home to coal, a commodity that drives economies the world over. The local board, the local authority running the town, is facing a host of challenges and struggling to pay its workers. Among some of its challenges is the battle to gain control of the eight wards under the colliery and eventually offer service provisions that include refuse collection to the mine’s suburbs. This will help boost revenue to the struggling local authority’s coffers.

HCCL operates like a local authority as it offers all key services such as water and sewage reticulation (including servicing systems), health facilities (clinics and a hospital), garbage collection and social amenities at its Lwendulu, Madumabisa, Makwika and Lusumbami compounds commonly known as villages.

Town Secretary Mr Ndumiso Mdlalose says it is only normal for the local authority to run such services in the coal town.

“At a broader level we’re a local authority. Our responsibility among others is to provide conditions that make it conducive for business to operate. The town was established in 1974 as a local board mainly to offer services to those who wanted residential properties. We’re looking at incorporation with the colliery concession area not amalgamation. The two have totally different legal standings. The plan is to incorporate the eight colliery wards into the local board. Land should be under a local authority. This is the case everywhere in the country. A lot of ground has been covered in our effort to incorporate the mine wards. The ministry (of Local Government Public Works and National Housing) has done a lot and sent a director to see things on the ground. They’ve engaged the Ministry of Mines. The President will need to ascent to the incorporation for this to succeed,” he said.

The local board has 15 wards – seven under the Hwange Local Board and eight under the colliery company. Mr Mdlalose says the local board was not getting anything from the colliery wards despite their councillors operating as one.

“It’s not fair to the town residents who pay rates because the mine councillors draw allowances. Eventually the mine wards will have to pay. This is affecting development. For example we get limited funds from the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) as it only recognises the seven local ward wards,” he said.

The Hwange Local Board applied for municipal status as it looks into the future. Mr Mdlalose says the local authority remains optimistic the town’s lifespan will stretch beyond Hwange Colliery Company Limited’s mining activities.

“Our parent ministry is looking into our application for municipal status. In our Strategic Plan, we have positioned Hwange Town not only as a mining town but as a tourism town with mining activities. Even if the mine was to close, the mine and its equipment will still form part of the tourism bouquet. Investors are sceptical about investing in a mine because mines have life spans.

‘‘But if the backbone of your economy is tourism investors will come. We’re saying investors come here because you’ll have a diversity of economic activities. We have power generation, transport, mining and tourism,” he said.

The town secretary says in the unlikely event of Hwange Colliery collapsing, most companies within and without the district will suffer.

“Even Zesa Hwange will be affected. The colliery is very strategic to the economy, to the town and country. The industries that will remain will be hardware and service shops but people only build when there is reason to be here. NRZ will also suffer as there’ll be no stock to move”. The local board is working towards luring established hotels to its town as part of packaging itself as a tourism destination.

“A new CBD is coming. We expect to witness these achievements within five years. Some companies are showing interest. We want to build our civic centre at the new CBD. We’re going for the triple p’s [public private partnerships] since the project will require lots of resources.

‘‘Any business in Hwange will go for our offer to have properties that have title deeds. There are no title deeds for the mine buildings. Our duty is to micro-manage companies and offer services for companies to operate,” he said.

The town secretary says investors coming to Hwange should view the town as a tourism centre. He says the town’s proximity to Victoria Falls will help develop Hwange as a dormitory town of the resort town.

“We can be a dormitory town as is the case with Harare and Chitungwiza because Falls has limited land for expansion. Also, our proximity to Hwange National Park enhances our position as a tourism town. Our town offers security to investors because many government departments are here. We have the provincial police headquarters, District Administrator’s compound as well as the provincial army HQ. We also have Prisons and Delta”.

The town had a population of 37,000 pegged on the last census. A majority of the population reside within the colliery’s suburbs while 10,000 people live on the town side.

HCCL Managing Director, Mr Thomas Makore, says the colliery views its properties as an investment. He says they divided the colliery company into commercial businesses as part of turning around the fortunes of the giant coal mining concern.

“HCCL has a bright future. The future has to be realised, it shouldn’t remain a potential. We adopted the divisionalised organisation structure where we organised the company into three business units: Mining division, Estates and Medical divisions. We have about 5,000 housing units. We are doing an evaluation of our properties. We have engaged shareholders with plans to sell the houses to the workers to offset salary arrears.

“We need to co-exist with the local board and fully accept the development of the local board into a fully fledged council as part of national development. But the colliery properties were an investment. There are legal implications. If we do the right things we have a bright future. The minister (of Mines and Mining Development) has made it clear that he will not let Hwange go the Kamative way. We need electricity to develop as a nation. You need coal for that, we don’t want Hwange to go that way. We are a listed company and have other major shareholders on board. We don’t want a road map that destroys value. Going forward, if there is an investor who feels he might want to invest in our properties, it will be up to the shareholders to decide,” he said.