Mine Shaft Collapse Claims Three In Masvingo
30 August 2021
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Two artisanal gold miners died in Mushandike resettlement area after a mine shaft they
were digging for gold collapsed and trapped them on Saturday.

Paul Mhuka (20) and Cephas Pandasvika (41) of villages 15 and 23 respectively in
Mushandike were found lifeless after fellow artisanal miners at Golden Echo, 7B removed
rubble that had covered them.

The trio had entered the shaft the previous evening around 8pm for the night shift when
disaster struck.

According to eyewitness tragedy struck after boulders and mounds of earth fell into the
shaft where the two deceased and the lone survivor were digging for the yellow metal.

Masvingo provincial police spokesperson Inspector Kudakwashe Dhewa said when police
attended the scene bodies of the deceased had already been retrieved from the shaft by
their colleagues.

The bodies were taken to Masvingo General Hospital for post-mortem.

Gold mining by artisanal miners is rife in the highly mineralised reefs in Mushandike
where scores of fortune seekers lose lives every year in deep shafts.

-State Media