Mutare – Mutare residents Thursday handed in a petition to Mutare City Council demanding that it rescinds its decision to lease Dangamvura mountain to a Chinese quarry mining company.
By Charlotte Tudhe Mutambara
The petition had 1200 signatures collected by several residents’ associations and pressure groups.
This comes as Mutare Mayor Tandi has been digging in on the decision prompting some community service organisations to question his sincerity as an elected officials who ought to represent his constituency’s interests.
Mutare Informal Traders Association (MITA) President Itai Kariparire slammed the mayor at a Tell Zim News hosted press club meeting last Saturday over his stance which he likened to someone who had been welded in.
“I have said this before but I think you are welded into place and you don’t appear keen to hear any alternative view from the one that you have already taken,” Kariparire said.
The mayor maintains that the US$7 500 annual lease with Freestone Mines was a good deal with the seemingly giveaway fee meant to ‘lure investors.’
He said he was defending the deal because it was council that had looked for the investment in an effort to diversify its revenue inflow.
This is despite that the mine is within 50 metres of the Dangamvura pipeline and within 100 metres of the city’s most populous high density suburb’s water reservoir with Tandi himself admitting that the Chinese company has given blasting range impact at 165 metres.
The deal was also jinxed by the Chinese’s early move to set up and do preparatory work, including leveling, installing electricity and sinking a borehole, before an environmental impact assessment certificate.
Tandi argues that quarry mining can coexist with other infrastructural developments just as companies like Coca Cola, Post offices and other companies surrounding a quarry mine in Harare.
