Staff Reporter
A representative of troubled gold mining giant Duration Gold has accused ZANU PF for fighting to grab Gwanda gold mine Vumbachikwe from its ownership.
Duration Gold Managing Director Raymond Smithwick told the Parliamentary Committee on Youth, Indigenization and Economic Empowerment that Gwanda Central Member of Parliament Edison Gumbo and Deputy Minister of Mines and Mining Development Fred Moyo were deliberately frustrating operations at the mine so that the owners would eventually quit the mine and they take it over.
Under blitz from the parliamentarians in the portfolio committee, Smithwick battled to prove that indeed the two parliamentarians wanted to take over the mine. The mining mogul was failing to explain to the parliamentary committee why the once big mine had taken a sudden slump in operations since Duration Gold took over the mine from previous owners Forbes and Thompson.
According to Smithwick, Gumbo who is a former employee of the mine while still under old management made a report to the Ministry of Mine authorities in Bulawayo that the mine was practising unsafe mining procedures which led to a section of the mine closing down thereby reducing the productivity of the mine and the quality of the gold produced.
The predominantly ZANU PF members of parliament in the committee refused to accept the mine authorities’ assertion that their fellow parliamentarians were interfering with the operations of the mine with a view to take over the mine.
Vumbachikwe mine has been making headlines in recent weeks with employees going for months without getting their salaries. The new owners of the mine, Duration Gold have also been under government scrutiny as they are suspected of several clandestine gold dealings.
Last month wives of miners employed at the mine staged three very dirty demonstrations in as many weeks in which they were striping exposing torn underwear claiming that their husbands could no longer afford to purchase them new underwears due to non payment of salaries. The women also called on mine management to come and satisfy their matrimonial needs as their husbands were failing to perform their duties due to stress from unpaid wages.