PARTICIPANTS at public hearings on the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill want government to do away with the Mines Affairs Board, which they feel has been adding confusion on issuance of mining rights.
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines is currently gathering public views on the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill, whose provisions seek to modernise the archaic 1961 Mines and Minerals Act.
Mining stakeholders feel that the Mining Affairs Board should be stripped of its powers of granting certain mining rights, withdrawal of such rights, approval of certain transactions in the mining sector, and making recommendations to the Mines minister on granting or withdrawal of certain mining titles.
In his contribution, Zimbabwe Young Miners Foundation director Everdine Deshe said: “I think this board (is) a bottleneck because these days, it is difficult to get a mining certificate without the board. People should not stop mining because the board has not sat. I suggest that the board should totally be removed. It will make mining (problematic) and it should be removed to avoid corruption.”
Artisanal and Small-Scale Miners Association leader Blessing Togarepi said the board should not be allowed to get into issues of administration of mines.
Zimbabwe Advanced Mining Union representative Isheanesu Kwashira weighed in saying: “Looking at the board composition, the government and the employer is well represented, but the Mining Affairs Board isolates the workers through their trade unions and the civil society organisations.”
In Bulawayo, participants at Parliament’s public hearings said the proposed Bill was riddled with several shortcomings.
Some of the shortcomings highlighted included clause 6 on strategic minerals, whereby it is proposed that any prospective miner of strategic minerals should enter into a prior agreement with the State which may require a sum of US$1 million as commitment to invest.
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The stakeholders felt that there should not be a blanket cover for everyone.
A participant said the amendment on strategic minerals does not cater for the youths and the financially incapacitated that have intentions to venture into mining.
The youths proposed a figure of US$75 000 as an entry figure for the strategic minerals.
A National Social Security Authority representative said the registration criteria should consider all statutes to address or manage disasters that happen in the mines.
Some participants felt that the Bill should speak to environmental issues and how mining will benefit communities, including compensations and repatriations.
In 2018, President Emmerson Mnangagwa sent the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill back to Parliament saying it still had sticking issues that needed to be addressed before he could sign it into law.
