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Courtney Matende, Midlands Reporter

GWERU City Council has cordoned off part of Randolph residential area to ward off artisanal miners who have descended on the area to mine gold resulting in massive digging of roads and residential stands.

In an interview after a fact finding mission with fellow councillors and council management on Friday, Mayor Councillor Josiah Makombe said the Zimbabwe Republic Police and municipal police have been deployed to the area to stop illegal mining activities.

He said artisanal miners have destroyed residential stands and roads while searching for gold.

“We are here as councillors and management to ascertain the level of damage on residential stands that has been caused by illegal mining activities. This is council land and that is why we are here. The illegal mining activities are getting out of control in this area,” said Clr Makombe.

He said it was too early to quantify the extent of the damage caused by the illegal miners.

Clr Makombe said council has also engaged the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development to assist. He said the issue was worrisome because some of the damaged stands had already been bought. “We allocated the stands to homeseekers who have since made part payments and as council we have an obligation to correct this damage,” said Clr Makombe.