By A Correspondent| Some disgruntled villagers have lodged an urgent appeal with the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Wildlife seeking an order to stop the establishment of a cement manufacturing plant in Hurungwe in Mashonaland West province under some irregular circumstances.
The villagers, who reside in Chasara and Kapere villages in Magunje located under Hurungwe Rural District Council, want Environment, Climate and Wildlife Minister Hon. Sithembiso Nyoni to stop Labenmon Investments, a Chinese owned mining company, from pursuing plans to establish a cement manufacturing plant in Ward 11 in Katenhe in Magunje, located in Hurungwe.
According to the villagers, Labenmon Investments, descended on the two villages sometime in July 2024, and began pegging and fencing off the area in Magunje and the affected area included the grazing fields and farming land of villagers namely Gift Kapere, Kudakwashe Kapere, Lister Kapere, Temba Chigumbura, Langton Mungazi, Nigo Joel Taruwona, Member Mazweru, Farai Dzingai, Nyasha Chasara, Cornelius Murisi, Abraham Vhangeri, Godfrey Chasara, Luckson Murisa, William Chichioni, Esther Chasara, Lizynet Maponga, Rashiwe Dhungwe, Fiona Mafuriranwa, Mercy Siringwani, Recent Mututa, Monica Kamudungwe, Wellington Sumaili and Cleopas Chigumbura.
The villagers later learnt that Labenmon Investments, was going to establish a cement manufacturing plant on the pegged area and they were prohibited from accessing their grazing fields and farming land by the mining company.
On 3 October 2024, the villagers became aware through a newspaper article published in the state-run Herald newspaper that Labenmon Investments had been issued with an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Certificate to establish a cement manufacturing plant in the area that had been pegged in Magunje.
The villagers, who asserted that they were never consulted over the submission of the EIA Report or the issuance of the Certificate, then engaged Tinashe Chinopfukutwa and Kelvin Kabaya of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, who filed an appeal with Hon. Nyoni recently, asking her to withdraw and cancel an EIA Certificate Licence No. L10000034346 issued on 3 September 2024 by the Director General of the Environmental ManagementAgency (EMA)to Wih-Zim Construction Investments Cement Manufacturing, which is linked to Labenmon Investments, as the issuance was erroneous and invalid.
In the appeal, Kabaya and Chinopfukutwa argued that the Director-General of EMA erred at law by issuing Labenmon Investments with an EIA Certificate prior to receiving the mining company’s EIA Report in violation of section 100(1) and 100(2) of the Environmental Management Act.
The lawyers stated that the Director-General of EMA imposed an unlawful special condition number 1 on the EIA Certificate requiring Labenmon Investments to submit the EIA Report post the issuance of the EIA Certificate in violation of section 100 (1) and (2) of the Environmental Management Act as read with section 10 of the Environmental Management Act (Environmental Impact Assessment & Ecosystems Protection) Regulations, 2007.
The Director-General of EMA, Chinopfukutwa and Kabaya said, ought to have considered Labenmon Investments’ EIA Report first before issuing an EIA Certificate.”
The human rights lawyers argued that the Director-General of EMA erred at law and in fact by issuing the EIA Certificate to Labenmon Investments in circumstances where principles of natural justice, prior informed consent and public participation were not followed at all, pointing out that several procedural rights and the requirements of natural justice, protected under section 136 of the Environmental Management Act, section 100(3)(c) of the Environmental Management Act, section 10 of SI 7 of 2007, section 3 of the EIA Policy, 1997 and section 5 of the EIA Guidelines, 1997, section 3 of the Administrative Justice Act, and section 68 of the Constitution, which provides for the right to administrative justice, were violated in the process leading to the granting of the EIA Certificate to the mining company.
In addition, Kabaya and Chinopfukutwa protested that Labenmon Investments had not conducted any public consultations with the affected villagers on the proposed establishment of the cement manufacturing plant in violation of section 136 of the Environmental Management.
“The Director-General of EMA violated the principles of natural justice as espoused in section 136 of the Environmental Management Act by failing to consult the appellants who are affected by the proposed cement manufacturing plant and giving them an opportunity to be heard. Assuming Labenmon Investments submitted an EIA Report, the Director-General of EMA erred at law in issuing the EIA Certificate in circumstances where he failed to consult the appellants, relevant stakeholders and community members before approving the EIA Report and subsequently issuing the EIA Certificate in violation of section 100(3)(c) of the Environmental Management Act. The Director-General of EMA erred at law in issuing the EIA Certificate without verifying whether full stakeholder participation was undertaken, assuming an EIA Report was prepared, in violation of section 10(5) of SI 7 of 2007,” said the lawyers.
The Director-General of EMA, the lawyers said, failed to exercise his powers under section 100(2)(c) of the Environmental Management Act, by failing to invite the developers of the cement manufacturing plant and interested parties including the villagers, to a consultative meeting as required by the Environmental Management Act.
Chinopfukutwa and Kabaya pointed out that the Director-General of EMA erred at law in issuing an EIA Certificate that is contrary to the requirements of section 100(5) of the Environmental Management Act, arguing that the EIA Certificate does not specify the registered address of Labenmon Investments as required by section 100(5)(b) of the Environmental Management Act.
The Director-General of EMA, the lawyers said, grossly erred and misdirected himself by issuing an EIA Certificate before the submission of a consolidated or final EIA Report by Labenmon Investments, in violation of the well-established precautionary principle of international environmental law, as provided in the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development to which Zimbabwe is a signatory, and as espoused in section 73(1)(b)(iii) of the Constitution, which obliges the state to take a protective approach to the environment, preventing development activity where there is a prima facie risk of serious and irreversible environmental damage.