THE amendment of the Mines and Minerals Act (Chapter 21:05) is long overdue.
In a bid to bring sanity and curb mineral leakages in the country’s mining sector, the late former President Robert Mugabe’s administration introduced the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill in 2015, intending to amend the archaic Mines and Minerals Act.
Mugabe, however, was ousted before signing the Bill into law. The new administration, led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, came into power in 2017 and inherited the Bill.
The Mines and Minerals Act was enacted in 1961 during the colonial administration, in pursuit of the repressive objectives of a settler-dominated, system that oppressed the black majority. In this regard, the Act served to legitimise the channelling of wealth into the hands of the elite and the dispossession of mining host communities.
The Act is not aligned with the Constitution of Zimbabwe and other key related legislation. It has hindered shared national growth and development in Zimbabwe.
The 1961 Act lacks provisions to prevent mineral revenue leakages, opaque mining licensing, poor flows of taxes and royalties to the fiscus, corruption, and human rights violations against host communities, among other issues.
The Act is also silent on value-addition and does not establish provisions for community beneficiation. This contrasts with the current Constitution, which promotes community beneficiation through devolution. Yet, the government continues to retain it.
Amending the Act will guard against such malpractices; it must be expedited to promote transparency and accountability in the mining sector.
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The Bill has incorporated essential changes to address current limitations. These provisions include the “use it or lose it” policy, which prevents the accumulation of mining claims for speculative purposes, and the cadastre system, which requires an Environmental Impact Assessment to be undertaken before issuing a mining title.
The ills associated with Zimbabwe’s mining sector are largely blamed on delays in finalising the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill. The reasons for the delay remain unclear, even though all due processes were completed, including public consultations conducted as far back as 2016 under Mugabe’s administration.
Now, a decade later, it remains work in progress.
There is a high likelihood that the Executive lacks the political will to ensure the Bill is finalised.
We call upon Mnangagwa’s administration to move swiftly in finalising this Bill, just as it did with the Constitutional Amendment No. 2 Bill, which granted the President unchecked authority over the Judiciary and Parliament.
The amendment also removed the clause on running mates and retained the current system whereby the President appoints vice-presidents.
The Bill was published in January 2020, and by May 2021, Mnangagwa had signed it into law.
It seems the government prioritises politics over development.
