Recently appointed Minister of Mines, Soda Zhemu has provided startling details on what cause the collapse at Bayhorse gold mine in Chakari, Chegutu.
According to Zhemu, the disaster happened due to unsafe mining practices overseen by unqualified personnel.
The mine collapse occurred last Friday, resulting in the loss of nine lives, with four miners still missing and 21 survivors accounted for.
Zhemu squarely placed the blame on the mine’s management, particularly a person identified only as T. Sigauke, for employing unsustainable mining methods and disregarding the necessary regulations.
This incident raises questions about who authorized operations at this ill-fated mine, especially if the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report by the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) and other required processes by Mines ministry officials were carried out properly.
“The accident at Chakari happened as a result of non-compliance, so in as much as we could be talking of the water (logging), to us, the accident was mainly due to human error.
We are also hearing that there was no qualified mine manager at the affected mine who could actually give guidance to what could be undertaken in the shafts,” Zhemu told journalists in Harare during a Gold Mobilisation Send-Off workshop held Monday.
Zhemu also expressed concern about the delay in notifying the relevant ministry about the incident, mentioning that it took several hours before he was informed. He revealed that the information reached them several hours after the incident occurred, hindering immediate response efforts.
“The most unfortunate thing is how the information was relayed to the Ministry of Mines after the accident; the police called us at 4 pm when the accident had occurred at 10 am.
So, our mining engineers had to be mobilised to the scene and started working with other stakeholders who had already converged at the mine to provide rescue operations,” the minister said.
“During the night of that same Friday, two bodies were retrieved, and eight miners were rescued and taken to hospital.
Two more bodies were retrieved the following day, and as we speak, we are still to account for some people. However, we hear from the rescue teams that some people were seen trapped in tunnels, suggesting that they could be dead,” Zhemu added.
He acknowledged that there were conflicting figures regarding the number of fatalities, missing persons, and survivors.
Deputy Minister of Mines, Polite Kambamura, visited the accident site on Saturday and was briefed that 34 employees had entered the gold mine before the collapse occurred.
Source iHarare
