A visit to Zhombe showed that the farmers are being paid either in gold or cash by the panners.

Idah Mhetu
FARMERS in Zhombe district in the Midlands province have resorted to leasing portions of their farmland to illegal gold diggers following a devastating drought that ruined the current agricultural season, destroying much of the country’s crops.
Midlands was one of the provinces hardest hit by an El Nino-induced drought.
Government has announced that at least 72 percent of crops were a write-off and declared the drought a national disaster, with over three million people estimated to be in urgent need of food aid.
A visit to Zhombe showed that the farmers are being paid either in gold or cash by the panners.
Zhombe is a rural communal area comprising mostly of farmers resettled in the 1980s under government’s resettlement schemes.
A few more benefitted from the fast track land reform programme, launched at the turn of the millennium.
Rich gold belts run across most of the farms, which partly explains the 19th century-style gold rush that has hit the area.
The gold rush has brought life to an otherwise sleepy Zhombe growth point, located about 60km south-east of Kwekwe, as it now has become a hive of activity, with gold panners taking time off their taxing routines to spend on beer and many other luxuries. The panners, commonly known as amakorokoza, are not shy of publicly showing off wards of the elusive US dollar notes.
As is to be expected, even the world’s oldest profession, commercial sex work, is booming.
The biggest commercial activity in Zhombe, which falls under natural ecological region four, is cotton farming, but the white gold, as farmers used to call it, has been relegated to the backseat in recent years owing to unsustainably low prices on the international market.
This year’s drought has virtually rendered any crop activity untenable this season. As such, gold panning has become the sole source of income for many families in the district. But worryingly, the panners are extracting the mineral indiscriminately, digging everywhere without care for the environment.
At law, it is not permissible for farmers to lease their farms for mining reasons.
Some of the farmers who spoke to the Financial Gazette recently said they had no option but to lease their farms to the gold panners following the devastating draught that wiped out crops.
They said the panners surrendered half the gold mined or paid the equivalent in cash.
“We are now renting out some portions of land on our farms for mining since there is no other use we can put them to,” said one farmer who declined to be identified.
The Financial Gazette also spoke to some of the panners who expressed excitement at their newfound opportunities.
“We are not employed and we have got nothing else to do to survive. This is a new opportunity for us and we are happy we can find something to do to support our families,” said Nomore Mukandani, who operates on one of the farms.
He is not even worried about breaking the law.
“We share our produce with the farm owner as rentals,” he said, adding nothing would stop him from the practice.
“We have families to take care of and with the current situation in the country, one has to find ways of survival, and in this community mining is the only thing we can do. Mining life is flowing smoothly for us because as you know this place has hardly received adequate rainfall over the years. The situation is worse with the current drought, so only mining can save us,” he added.
However, Midlands provincial chief lands officer, Kudzai Katiyo, said it was illegal to practice mining without a licence from the Ministry of Mines.
She said panners should be driven out of farmlands as they were damaging the environment because they never reclaimed the gullies they create while digging for gold.
“It is illegal for one to practice gold panning without a licence from the Ministry of Mines and these people are damaging the environment; this is where the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) comes in and fines these farmers and gold panners for mining without a licence and damaging the environment,” she said.
EMA spokesman, Steady Kangata, said the panners and farm owners were expected to submit environmental management plans before exploiting minerals in their areas. This, he said, would allow them to ensure that all necessary measures are explored and implemented in order to protect the environment and comply with environmental legislation.
“Mining is a prescribed activity; one cannot go ahead without an environmental management plan. These farm owners are supposed to come up with an environmental management plan which is supposed to guide them on whether the activity’s effects might affect the environment,” he said
Kangata added: “It is illegal to practice mining without a licence and these farm owners should get mining licences because these people are dealing with precious minerals. However, they need to have a certificate of registration for them to practice.”
Zhombe could completely lose its farming appeal with some of the most productive estates in the area now being converted into gold mines.
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