The Zimbabwe Portfolio Committee on Mines and Mining Development presented new mining laws and policies to the Parliament, following a petition by the Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association calling for the speedy review of mining laws
The report was presented last week by the committee’s chairperson Edmond Mukaratigwa. According to Mukaratigwa, the committee observed that there was a general consensus on the need to review the mining laws in Zimbabwe, particularly the principal Act, the Mines and Minerals Act.
The committee said stakeholders called for the composition of the Mining Affairs Board to be expanded to include other stakeholders such as civil society, communities, among others, while the powers of the board need to be decentralised so as to speedily resolve mining disputes or farmer-miner disputes.
The committee noted that laws were needed to improve gender equality in the sector and to upgrade the compensation model for relocated communities to empower affected communities and to hold the investors accountable for any social and economic impacts they encounter as a result of mining
Local authorities expressed concern on declining revenues collected through unit tax levied on producers with the advent of highly mechanised equipment. Unit tax was no longer meaningful, since it was levied on the size of the workforce. “As such a call was made for the review of unit tax so that local authorities benefit from minerals mined within their jurisdiction.
Cde Mukaratigwa said communities called for disclosure of mining agreements and that they should be written in the local languages as well as in Braille to empower the local community to hold investors accountable for theirMeanwhile, Government has gazetted new mining fees that are up to nine times the old ones and these are quoted in United States dollars although payable in local currency at the prevailing auction exchange rate.
