3 Million Voices
About 600 families are facing eviction in the Dinde community
in Hwange, where a Chinese mining company, Beifa
Investments (Pvt) Ltd is carrying out mining activities after
being granted a special mining exploration permit to conduct
exploration activities in the area.
Those who are likely to be affected have so far been proactive
and have raised their concerns through a protest, which
resulted in the arrest of Never Tshuma, who was arrested on 16
April and detained for inciting public violence after he took
part in a demonstration against the mining activities by the
company.
Tshuma is currently out on a ZWL10,000 bail.
The company is trampling on the heritage of the Dinde
community and in one part of the community, the mining
company has drilled holes around a graveyard.
The case of the Dinde people is just another case of
government’s insensitive approach to local communities, where
there is no proper bottom to top consultation of communities
on key issues such as investment ventures signed at central
government levels.
Government defends the mining project and according to
Matabeleland North Provincial Affairs minister Richard Moyo,
government will not tolerate attempts to disrupt the coal
mining project. Armed police have allegedly been deployed to
the area to "protect" the investor.
What is happening in Dinde points to yet another situation
where the ruling elite get richer and fatten their pockets while
the poor are forced to fend for themselves and get poorer.
Forced displacement without compensation, termed as forced
evictions, violates international human rights law. The African
Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of
Internally Displaced Persons in Africa, which Zimbabwe ratified,
requires in article 3(1)(a) that states parties “refrain from,
prohibit and prevent arbitrary displacement of populations.”
The fact that Zimbabwe signed and ratified the African Union
Convention for the protection and assistance of internally
displaced people should be deterrence enough for the Zanu-PF
government to press pause on the project until the dispute is
resolved.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has
stated that the right to property includes the recognition of
communities’ traditional and collective ownership of land and
their protection from forced evictions.
In General Comment 7, the UN Committee on Economic,
Cultural, and Social Rights defines forced evictions as “the
permanent or temporary removal against their will of
individuals, families and/or communities from the homes
and/or land which they occupy, without the provision of, and
access to, appropriate forms of legal or other protection.”
The environment has been an essential source for the
livelihood of people and other living things and as such must
be protected.
While the mining sector is indispensable to the economic
development of Zimbabwe, it must be noted that its negative
effects on the environment are far reaching and long lasting. In
light of this, ZPP calls on government to ensure that prior to
the displacement of hundreds of villagers, all feasible
alternatives are explored in consultation with the affected
villagers.
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