The Sunday Mail
It is 9am at the housing compound at Sabi Gold Mine. A group of men, presumably in their mid-20s to early 30s seated on wooden benches adjacent to a residential housing complex, engage in a game of checkers.
The manner in which they are engrossed in the activity shows that they have little else to do, although it is early morning and an ideal time to be hard at work at such a large mining site.
Overlooking them is the main site of Sabi Gold Mine, where state-of-the-art mining equipment that includes the mine head gear, front-end loaders, compressors, and other machinery towers above them.
But despite the imposing nature of this machinery, a sombre atmosphere is apparent at the mine, as all the machines are closed down and workers have little else to do but find some form of entertainment to kill the time.
Structures that used to operate as the front office of the mine are also deserted. The sorry sight of termites attacking the collapsing doors pierce the heart.
Although the mine is guarded by a few security officers, illegal gold panners have made the mine a haven for their activities as they often emerge victorious in the cat and mouse game with the few guards on patrol.
This is the story of Sabi Gold Mine, a mine once regarded as one of the best gold fields in Zimbabwe, but which now resembles a ghost town.
At its peak, the mine used to produce up to 30kg of gold every month and was also famed for producing high quality gold.
Sabi Gold Mine was shut down earlier this year, after several creditors descended on the mine and fell over each other to attach some vital mining equipment, vehicles and even office furniture.
In the midst of the catastrophe, power utility Zesa also switched off electricity at the mine, further deepening the crisis.
And now more than 400 workers who were employed by the mine have been left in the lurch. The future of the mine is uncertain. Following its closure, the question posed by many was: How did a mine that was performing well plunge into such a crisis so suddenly?
In an interview, Deputy Minister for Mines and Mining Development Engineer Fred Moyo said management at the mine was to blame as they lacked foresight in supervising the mine.
Deputy Minister Moyo, who is also a mining engineer, said the management was culpable because they employed a poor strategy in increasing production while paying little attention to mine development.
“The issue is technical because production had been going on at a high rate but it reached a point whereby despite the high production, there was no underground development taking place for the last couple of years. Nature ran its course on the resources underground.
“What needs to be urgently done is to carry out surface exploitation, which takes up to 12 months and thereafter there needs to be underground development. There is also need to revamp infrastructure and then increase volumes.”
Disgruntled workers at the mine also do not have any kind words for the management. They accuse them of corruption and mismanagement.
They believe the management should be investigated for plunging the mine into the doldrums.
The workers also lay blame on their employer, the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC), for not giving them a full explanation of what led to the sudden closure of the mine.
A worker who refused to be named for fear of victimisation said: “Up to now, we do not know what really happened. The management has not given us a full explanation except to put us on standby and say that they will inform us once they are ready to resume production.”
Another worker, Mr Antonio Banda, who has since left the mine and is now employed by a small-scale miner in the area, bemoaned management for living extravagant lives when production at the mine was at its peak.
“I believe this is a classic case of mismanagement. They rake in huge salaries and they are paid those high perks to perform, but what does not make sense is that the mine was performing well and producing high quality gold but then everything collapsed.
“We were producing gold all these years so where did all that money go to? They should answer this question but they are dodging away from it,” he said.
He said the workers were surprised to learn that the employer had reneged on contributing to programmes such as the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) and funeral policies, even though such deductions were being made from their salaries.
“We do not even know where they put the money that we were contributing to NSSA and funeral policies. We believe the money was diverted for other purposes because NSSA and the funeral policy company say they did not receive our contributions,” fumed another employee.
Efforts to get a comment from ZMDC were fruitless as the ZMDC Public Relations Officer, Mrs Charity Tambandini did not respond to questions that were sent to her by this publication last week.
However, a ZMDC board member who spoke to The Sunday Mail Extra on condition of anonymity said no forensic audit had been carried out to determine whether the collapse of the mine was a result of maladministration or misappropriation of funds.
An independent mining expert, Mr Alex Saurombe, said the ZMDC is to blame for the quagmire at the once lucrative mine.
“The question that needs to be addressed is: if they were producing good quality gold for all this time, where did they put all the money that they were raking in when the mine was performing well?
“My own view is that ZMDC is overburdened because it has too many mines that it is operating. So it is difficult for them to give attention to a single mine such as Sabi. They are also understaffed and they don’t have the funds to revive the mine,” he said.
ZMDC portfolio of mines that are spread all over the country include Lynx, Mhangura, Sanyati, Elvington, Jena and Kamativi.
To add to this, ZMDC also operates in partnership with all the six companies mining diamonds in Marange.
It also has interests in the Mining Promotion Company, the Zimbabwe German Graphite mine, Sandawana emerald mine as well as other entities such as Real Estate.
Indeed, it looks like ZMDC has too much on its plate.
