Zimcodd implores govt to implement mandated develo...

Zimcodd implores govt to implement mandated development CSR

Audrey Galawu

The Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development has condemned the continued dire situations in communities with mining resources, with houses and school blocks falling in some of the towns.

Zimcodd said the crisis of urban mining in Zimbabwe has become a daily challenge for communities endowed with mineral resources, citing the need for authorities to implement legally mandated corporate social responsibility that is hinged on a community development model for sustainable development and not on a charity model.

The organisation underlined the importance of strengthening adherence to the country’s laws that mandate effective consultation of communities prior to mining operations taking place.

“Effective citizen engagement of communities is essential in any decision-making platform. The interruptions to the environment and the lives of people living around mining areas makes their opinions and consent even more needed. It is them that will have to live with the dust, the reverberations from the earth surface, the constant noise, the violence and at times the moving that comes with mining operations.

“Though the mining sector is currently one of the most important economic sectors in Zimbabwe because of its contribution to foreign currency earning (70%), its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (12%) and contribution to the job market (close to five hundred thousand jobs in the informal economy), it is also prudent that mining activities are regulated and controlled in a way that does not lead to more poverty for local communities.

“It is even sadder to note that in a country with dozens of discovered minerals, the country’s domestic resource mobilisation efforts remain underwhelming and the country continues to suffer under debt distress,” Zimcodd said.

Zimcodd further said the continued implementation of developmental policies that encourage beneficiation and value addition of minerals by government such as the banning on the export of raw lithium and black granite and ring-fencing of mining revenues to drive domestic growth through investing in capital retaining projects such as infrastructure is essential.

In 2023, a classroom block again collapsed into a mining tunnel, forcing teaching to stop at the school in Kwekwe.