Former Mashonaland East Provincial Affairs Minister Simba Mudarikwa says Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa can revive Shabanie and Mashava mines through “command mining” .
He said people should forget about the past and look to the future because the mines, closed in 2004, still had a life of another 50 years.
Mudarikwa, however, said the revival of the mines could not be left in the hands of the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation because even its employees now called it the Zimbabwe Mining Destruction Corporation.
“We need to have command mining,” he said.
“The Vice President is here, he succeeded in command farming and I think he is going succeed in command mining. The first example must be Shabanie-Mashava Mine.”
Full contribution:
HON. MUDARIKWA: Thank you Mr. Speaker. The issue that we are discussing at this moment is something that involves the lives of 5 000 workers and their dependants, so maybe we are talking of 25 000 people having been affected by the closure of this mine. What is important is not to dwell on the past, we need to have a way forward. What is the way forward – we have highly qualified journey-men who are there at the mine. They have nowhere to go and the life of the mine has another 50 years. It can go for another 50 years. So those are the things that we must look at, we must then do a due diligence and say what is the way forward, how do we do these things.
The other point that I want to emphasise is that the fibre at Zvishavane-Mashava is clean fibre; it can be used for schools. It is actually the source of our development. When you have got a house in the rural areas with asbestos, when you have a farm and you want to do irrigation, you use asbestos pipes. They are cheaper and they last longer. So, it is something that is critical in the development of Zimbabwe. As Parliament, what are our plans for the way forward of this company?
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