Community Voices

28 June 2022 By Refias Sithole-Marange Development Trust (MDT) Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) has always done a lot of development initiatives in mining affected communities in a bid to transform the lives of local communities through promoting social, economic, and environmental activities that respect community rights. The recent Local …

22 June 2022 Story By Josphat Makaza and Natally Gombakomba Stakeholders who attended the just ended two-day training on Local Environmental Action Plans (LEAPs) in Marange have been encouraged to take up responsibilities in the development, implementation, and monitoring of the processes to ensure the environment is protected for the …

23 May 2022 Compiled by Cosmas Sunguro One of the AMI side sessions Mining Communities are known to be resource rich and ordinarily there are expected to be economically developed. Of late, this has not been the case as stagnancy and sometimes this is due to political bickering when politicians …

20 May 2022 Compiled by Cosmas Sunguro-ZIDAWU Environmental Human Rights Defenders (EHRDs) in mining communities face a plethora of challenges in carrying out their work.  These threats sometimes range from intimidation to loss of life. This was revealed during an Alternative Mining Indaba (AMI) side session on EHRDs in Capetown …

22 April 2022 Compiled by Cosmas Sunguro and Proud Nyakuni The recent interface between Environmental Management Agency (EMA) and communities from Marange and Chimanimani brought a glimmer of hope especially on environmental management. The workshop ran from 20 to 22 April 2022 were hosted by EMA and ZELA in Arda …

16 May 2022 Compiled by Josphat Makaza- Chiadzwa Community Development Trust In 2020 Alrosa Zimbabwe engaged the local leadership in ward 24 with the intention of mining diamonds. The officials met with a few individuals who granted the mine a social licence to operate.  They informed the community representatives that …

22 April 2022 Compiled by Ngoni. T. Maunga, Tildar Nyakunu and Zvaitwa Katsidzira. The mining of diamond in Marange came with destruction and pollution of the environment due to land degradation, deforestation, discharge of effluents, blasting, and dust emissions. Lack of progressive rehabilitation of land and implementation of precautions to …

21 April 2022. Compiled by Cosmas Sunguro Some community monitors are facing a plethora of challenges in accessing the Environmental Impact Assessment certifications and any material related to the management of the environment from the offices of the Environmental Management Agency (EMA). This was revealed during a training by ZELA …

Theme: Gender Equality today for a sustainable tommorow #GenderAndExtractives #BreakTheBias WE, the 56 participants that include traditional leaders, local authorities, mining communities, legislators, faith-based organisations, government officials and civil society organisations gathered at Nyamakwere Lodge, Mutoko on the 23rd of March 2022 for Gender and Extractives Symposium.  The symposium which …

07/04/22 Compiled Mnyalo Sibanda Culture is a difficult thing to change. Culture is what builds the community. As much as we would love to look deep in Gender Based violence, we must consider the best ways to deal with people’s cultures and beliefs. All what is done is derived from …