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Sikhulekelani Moyo, [email protected]

SINCE its establishment in 2020, the Zimbabwe Safety Health and Environmental Council (Zimshec) has empowered more than 35 artisanal miners with safety and health training, a development aimed at reducing accidents in the small-scale mining sector.

ZIMSHEC, which is being funded by small-scale and artisanal miners is meant to promote occupational health and safety, environmentally friendly and sustainable mining practices as well as reduce the number of people trapped in mines due to poor mining practices.

In an interview on the sidelines of the ongoing Zimbabwe Alternative Mining Indaba (Zaami) happening in Bulawayo, ZIMSHEC deputy executive director Mr Philemon Mokuele said as players in the small-scale mining sector, they found out that there is a need for training and capacitation of small-scale miners to reduce accidents and also help those who are involved in an accident.

To achieve that, ZIMSHEC has partnered with different academic institutions, which include Midlands State University (MSU) and the Zimbabwe School of Mines (ZSM), which will help to provide comprehensive training in the health and safety modules.

“We have managed to train about 36 small-scale miners from three different provinces, from part of Midlands, Matabeleland North, and Matabeleland South,” said Mr Mokuele.

“We managed to train them at the Zimbabwe School of Mines and they did a short course in health and safety and we also managed to train small-scale miners to do first aid.

“We are also in the process of doing other training courses with Midlands State University, so these are some of the achievements we managed to achieve.

ZIMSHEC executive director Mr Makumba Nyenje added that those who did first aid training went further to get mine rescue services training.

He said they are done with the theoretical part and they are waiting to do the practical part such that they have a team that will assist in rescuing those who get into accidents.

“We also sent about 18 students including us to the MSU who are trained for the Safety, Health, and Environment (SHE) certificate, so we have SHE officers in the small-scale mining trained by MSU,” said Mr Nyenje.

“From the ZSM we were funded by the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) and we also won a lot of awards including the Mining Excellency award.”

During the ongoing Zami happening in Bulawayo, ZIMSHEC won a certificate of recognition, which Mr Mokuele said signified that they are being recognised for what they are doing to promote safety, health, and sustainable mining in the small-scale mining sector.

Mr Mokuele said ZIMSHEC is signing a Memorandum of Understanding with different Rural District Councils, where a lot of artisanal mining is taking place so that they conscientise the small-scale mining sector about responsible mining.

The organisation has also partnered with different occupational health organisations to do screening of different diseases like tuberculosis in hotspot areas.

“We found out miners can’t manage to leave their mining areas to go for screening of different diseases like TB and HIV and AIDS, but with our Kunda/Mnqobi we have managed to provide those services and the miners are happy, said Mr Mokuele.

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