By A Correspondent-The government has sent a high-powered delegation to Hwange to evict Dinde villagers who are resisting a Chinese coal mining project.

The visit by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s delegation comes after villagers in Dinde had said that they were not going to move for the Chinese Beifa Investment company to start its coal mining operations.

Southern Eye reports that Matabeleland North Provincial Affairs minister Richard Moyo and Mines and Mining Development minister Winston Chitando will be in Dinde today to engage the villagers over the coal mining project.

Moyo confirmed the visit yesterday.

He appealed to the Dinde community to allow the Chinese firm to start operations, adding that the villagers stood to benefit from the project through job creation, among others.

“I will be accompanying the Mines minister to the area to engage the community and hear their concerns. There must have been some poor communication about this project, hence villagers have been resisting,” Moyo said.

“However, this investment will benefit the community through jobs and so forth, but if the villagers do not want it, that will be okay. However, if this investment goes to other parts of the country, there must be no crying foul on issues of lack of jobs and development.”

The proposed Dinde project comes a few months after the government was forced to reverse a decision to let two other Chinese firms explore coal inside the Hwange National Park.

Environmentalists took the government to court in September 2020 to prevent ecological degradation after two Chinese firms were given exploration rights in the country’s biggest national park.

Reports indicate that desperate Dinde villagers intend to petition Parliament to stop the coal mining project.

Dinde is home to thousands of Nambyas and Tongas with a preponderance of the Tonga tribe which first settled in the then Hwange district up to Victoria Falls upstream of the Zambezi River centuries ago.

-NewsDay