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Patrick Chitumba Midlands Bureau Chief
THIRTY-FIVE former Shabanie Mashaba Mines (SMM) employees and their families have become destitute overnight after they were evicted from company houses to pave way for lecturers and students from Midlands State University (MSU) ahead of their anticipated arrival in August.

The workers are part of over 1,000 employees who used to work for the collapsed asbestos mine that was once owned by Zimbabwe-born South Africa businessman, Mutumwa Mawere.

SMM and MSU entered into an agreement which resulted in the mine renting out its general offices. The mine infrastructure has since been turned into the university’s Zvishavane campus.

Part of the agreement, according to ex-workers, was that the mine would also avail houses to the university for students and lecturers’ accommodation.

A visit to the mine yesterday by The Chronicle news crew revealed that MSU has already renovated the former mine’s general offices. Workers were putting final touches on the recently painted offices and the university flag was flying high at the new campus.

On the other end, the news crew also witnessed a sorry state of affairs among the former mine workers who have been evicted. The majority of the ex-workers had been given a 48-hour notice to vacate their houses after a High Court judge ruled in favour of the mine to evict the workers.

The chairperson of the former SMM workers’ union, Aluwis Zhou, said the families were being evicted to pave way for MSU lecturers and students.

He said they had been told that the university plans to start operations by August, hence the need by the mine to clear workers and create space for the incoming university staff and students.

Zhou said the affected former workers failed to contest the High Court eviction order after failing to pay for a lawyer.

He said those with money had successfully appealed against the High Court order.

According to a High Court judgment made by Justice Martin Makonese sitting in Bulawayo, SMM was authorised to execute and enforce evictions.

Zhou said the workers had been fighting for their salaries since 2009. He said the mine management was a “heartless lot” after kicking out the former miners.

Zhou said the mine was now concentrating on making money through leasing out company houses and the general office to MSU.

In Maglass area, former worker Tryson Chiwara was shocked when he came back home only to discover his wife and child outside the house with their belongings.

Mine workers had removed their property and dumped it outside.

Chiwara’s wife said they have been sleeping on the veranda for the past two days.

“They just came, threw us out and locked the doors. Now we’re sleeping on the veranda. We’ve nowhere to go and we don’t have any money,” she said, wiping away tears.

Neighbours said the mine management was being driven by greed.

“These people are just greedy. They don’t care about us and they want us out without even worrying where we’ll go from here. They just want to accommodate MSU staff and students and make money,” said a woman who identified herself as MaNcube.

MaNcube said most of the ex-workers have been living in the mine houses for the past 20 years.

The SMM Human Resources Manager, who only identified herself as Tupwani, said she was not aware of the evictions.

“I’m not aware of the so-called evictions,” she said before referring The Chronicle to top management for a comment.

SMM and Gaths mines were once the world’s sixth largest asbestos-producing entities with an annual output of more than 140,000 tonnes.

The fallen mining giant, which was once under judicial management before being taken over by the State-controlled Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation, employed more than 5,000 workers at its peak and supported at least 200 downstream industries.

The government moved in some years back following revelations that the then owner, Mawere, was externalising scarce foreign currency without State approval.

It has been under judicial management for the past 11 years and the ex-workers are now accusing management of stripping mine assets.