MARANGE– Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) which consolidated diamond companies in Chiadzwa is perpetrating shocking human rights abuse against helpless villagers, 263Chat can exclusively reveal.
The consolidated diamond company wholly controlled by government has thrown all shame through the window desecrating graveyards and mining in homesteads and schools yards as villagers claim Chinese miners were better.
A recent tour of the diamond area organized by Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) recently laid bare the deteriorating situation in the diamond area where extraction of gems is now overriding human rights.
While Chinese miners relocated thousands of families to ARDA Transau, ZCDC is reluctant to meet the costs as it is now mining right at the backyard of some homesteads, leaving villagers at the risk of being homeless.
A villager who spoke to this reporter on condition of anonymity, for fear of victimization, appealed to civic society to intervene and get a court interdict to stop the consolidated company activities near homesteads, schools and graveyards before relocation of villagers.
He gave an example of Village head Tinoengagana in Tinoengana Village whose family house is now cracking due to continuous tremors generated by mining machinery right at the back of their homestead.
“We have families that are sitting right in the middle of diamond concessions and mining is taking place next to their houses every hour of the day as mining in Chiadzwa is through the day and night.
“At the village head homestead they are currently mining right behind his fowl run exposing the whole family to dangerous dust.
“Now because of the continuous tremors caused by the mining equipment the houses are cracking and the families might be left homeless anytime, they are even exposing graveyards.
“It is a similar situation at Chiadzwa Primary School and Secondary Schools where teachers delivering lessons are disturbed by mining vehicles that pass right in front of classrooms, ZCDC is even worse than the Chinese with the way they are operating without regards to the local people.
“We are surprised that this is the same government that will come in 2018 to canvass for votes from the same people that they have condemned to death and inhuman conditions,” said the villager.
Meanwhile, ZELA is currently leading a coalition of Community based organisations in their quest to force miners to restore Save and Odzi rivers, which have been polluted by mining activities.
Diamond miners in Marange were forced to quit operations early this year and consolidate into a government entity ZCDC, without any compensation for the loss of livestock and potential negative effects of using polluted water from the two rivers.
The four community based organizations in this coalition led by Save Odzi Community Network Trust (SOCNET) are demanding that women go for screening as fertility was also affected by the pollution of the two rivers.
ZELA researcher Nyaradzo Mutonhori said the community demands are within their rights to a clean safe environment and they should be taken with seriousness as women in particular and communities have borne the brunt of diamond mining.
She said demanding for compensation of lost livestock and possible effects of using contaminated water was as a result of admission to pollution made by mining companies at an out of court settlement.
Mutonhori said ZELA made an application for a High Court interdict to halt pollution of effluent in Save River, following a research in collaboration with University of Zimbabwe which established that the water was contaminated.
“We conducted a research with the University of Zimbabwe where we took water sample and analyzed them, the results showed that there were indeed harmful chemical substances in the water.
“We then decided to make an interdict at the High Court following our research in partnership with the University of Zimbabwe that showed that indeed there were chemical elements in the water from Save River.
“Initially the mining companies contested the action but at the pretrial stage during a round table discussion they then admitted that they had been polluting the river and also indicated that they would stop polluting the river.
“Having admitted that they were polluting the river communities feel that they should be held liable for cleaning up their mess in terms of desilting the river and ecological restoration,” she said.
Picture credit:TellZim
