by Gretinah Machingura
HARARE, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe has been plagued with mine disasters over the last few months, often resulting in death of scores of miners.
Most of the mine accidents have occurred at illegally run disused mines, with a few happening at legally-run small scale mines.
Since September, the country has witnessed a series of fatal accidents that have occurred mainly at abandoned gold mines around the country, with more than a dozen people still trapped underground and unlikely to be retrieved alive.
The Parliament of Zimbabwe on Wednesday made a passionate plea to the Mines Minister Winston Chitando to ensure that all the trapped miners are retrieved and accorded a decent burial.
This is after search and rescue operations at three mine disasters that occurred since September have stalled on the recommendation of a report from the government's chief mining engineer Michael Munodawafa.
In September, five artisanal miners were trapped underground when a shaft collapsed at Task Gold Mine in Chegutu, Mashonaland West Province.
Two bodies of the five miners were only retrieved on Oct. 31, 51 days after the tragedy, while three others still remain trapped.
On Nov. 10, six illegal miners, including four from one family, were trapped underground when a mine collapsed in Matshetshe, Esigodini, Matabeleland South Province.
Families of the six have had their hopes of a rescue dashed after rescue efforts were abandoned 11 days after the tragic disaster as the mine was flooded, making it too risky to proceed with the operation.
Munodawafa has since recommended that no further action be taken to retrieve the artisanal miners, with families of the deceased encouraged to conduct burial rituals at the site.
On the same day again, another mine mishap occurred when at least 10 illegal gold miners were allegedly buried alive at the Premier Mining area along Mutare River, which is owned by Zimgold Fields.
Two bodies of the illegal miners have since been retrieved.
On Nov. 26, yet another mine disaster occurred at Ran Mine in Bindura, Mashonaland Central Province, resulting in at least 10 illegal gold miners trapped underground after a mine shaft collapse.
Six miners were rescued and taken to hospital within hours, after which rescue efforts were hampered by heavy rain and groundwater flooding.
Only two bodies have since been retrieved, including one of a man who had volunteered to help with rescue efforts.
A week later on Dec. 1, three miners died when two ore wagons fell into an inclined mine shaft and crushed the miners at Kunyu mine, Mudzi in Mashonaland East Province.
Two of the victims died on the spot while the other died on admission at hospital.
Mines Minister Chitando acknowledged the rising number of mine accidents both at illegally and legally run mines, and blamed shortage of resources for hampering enforcement of the law.
He was appearing before a parliamentary committee on mines and mining development on Wednesday.
"As a general thrust to contain the accidents, there is need to increase the visibility of the ministry in inspection," he said.
"Every mining location in the country should be covered by the mining inspector who should have intimate knowledge on each and every mining place. This helps the government to know potential risks and to mitigate against those risks."
However, Chitando lamented that over the last few years, there has been a huge increase in issuance of mining concessions without a corresponding increase in resources for the role of mining inspectors to effectively carry out their work.
"The enablers, the vehicles and other resources required have not grown corresponding to the increase in mining concessions. As of 2018, we had in some cases an average of two vehicles per province assigned to the whole ministry to carry out its functions and that curtailed the effectiveness of the inspectors," Chitando said.
He said treasury was making efforts to increase resources to the ministry, with 15 vehicles currently being purchased for distribution to provinces.
"What this will do is to enable mine inspectors to go out and visit the mining operations so that they see how safely they are doing their operations," he said.
The minister underscored the need for orderly mining in the country, saying this will go a long way in preventing mine accidents.
"Adequate, regular inspections are one of the critical things that we need to ensure that we mitigate against the accidents. According to the law, inspections at mining concessions should be done at least four times per annum. The frequency will then increase where inspectors feel it is necessary," he said.
Owners of disused mines should also ensure protection of the mines to minimize invasion by illegal miners.
The minister said his ministry will hold a workshop with various stakeholders next January to discuss ways of mitigating against the accidents.
"The country's response to mine disasters also needs to be revamped, considering that accidents that have happened over the last few months indicate that there is room for improvement in terms of how we react and equip ourselves to deal with accidents," Chitando said.
However, legislators in the committee are furious about the "premature" stoppage of rescue efforts at Esigodini and Chegutu mine disasters, and appealed to the minister for immediate resumption of search and rescue efforts.
"The report by the chief mining engineer has stopped any rescue efforts. The engineer is saying the place (Esigodini) is so dangerous and unreachable and that no one should go there.
"Have we as a nation relegated ourselves to a point where we say a 60 meter deep shaft is inaccessible. As a committee, we still believe that if we put our minds together we should be able to at least retrieve the dead bodies that lie in Esigodini and Chegutu mines, not withstanding your opinion as a government chief engineer. We insist that you do something about it," said legislator Davison Svuure.
Svuure said declaring the collapsed mines as grave sites was not right, and urged the chief mining engineer Munodawafa, who was present in the meeting, to rescind his report and pave way for resumption of rescue efforts.
"It paints a very bad picture as a nation to fail to retrieve the bodies," he said.
His views were supported by legislator Anele Ndebele, who said Zimbabwe should seek help from South Africa which has the expertise in mining rescue operations.
Committee chairperson Edmond Mkaratigwa said the increasing number of mine accidents and the "premature" stoppage of rescue efforts was disheartening.
"Each accident has its own causes, geology and in terms of safety it's unique to itself. So minister we appeal for your intervention. We empathize with the bereaved families and we want to see the bodies excavated," said Mkaratigwa, who together with members of his committee, visited Esigodini mine days after abandonment of rescue operations.
"We want equipment and resources mobilized to get the trapped bodies retrieved. It's a disappointing show of lack of compassion."
Chitando said after the interaction with the committee, he would go back and discuss the issues raised, including with the police, to come up with measures that can be immediately taken to supplement the rescue work that has been going on at Esigodini, Chegutu and Bindura mine disasters. Enditem
