…Mayor vows to expedite interviews for substantive Mutare town clerk

Ngoni Dapira 

CITY of Mutare Mayor Blessing Tandi has agreed they messed up to some extent by making a rushed decision concerning the awarding of the Dangamvura Mountain to a Chinese firm interested in quarry dust mining.

Since last month the Dangamvura Mountain quarry mine project saga has been very topical in the eastern border city, with civic society and residents associations in hot pursuit, suspecting councilors and City of Mutare senior management of underhand dealings.

Mayor Tandi during a community engagement meeting held last Saturday which was organized by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zimbabwe in collaboration with TellZim newspaper, admitted to have messed up on speedily adopting the deal.

“I agree we messed up as a local authority but the question is what should we do now? However, the investors promised to use modern quarry mining methods that ensure dust does not affect nearby residential areas, so the concerns of dust is not the issue, but what may be problematic is the water line that passes through the mountain,” said Mayor Tandi.

The City of Mutare leased part of Dangamvura Mountain, about 6.5 hectares, to a Chinese mining firm, Freestone Mines, to venture into quarry dust mining. The 10-year lease agreement was awarded at a rental fee of US$629 per month, which would amount to US$7557 per annum. The lease agreement which is considered to be too low priced was the first port of call of suspicion that got residents cynical. The other ball of contention was that Freestone Mines had started operations without an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) certification or feasibility study in place.

Participants following proceedings during the meeting.

Civic society members that were present said local authorities are obliged to facilitate full disclosure of all relevant public information in a timely and systematic manner but this has never been the case. Mutare Informal Traders Association (MITA) president Itai Kariparire said the quarry project was against the will of the people and they should have asked the residents first for objections before going to tender.

“If you are listening Council, then listen to us that this project is against the will of the people because we have seen how the Chinese plunder without meaningfully developing our communities. Even now they wanted to start operations without an EIA report or corporate social responsibility plans. When and how will community benefit. We are tired of projects that do not benefit our communities while lining the pockets of individuals. We saw this with the Chiadzwa diamonds and up-to-date Mutare is under developed,” said Kariparire.

Freestone Mines has since halted all preparatory works end of November, until due procedures are finalized on the matter.

Mutare was granted municipality status in 1914. In the new millennium after the discovery of diamonds in Chiadzwa in 2006, Mutare was earmarked to develop as a robust diamond city, however 15 years on, nothing tangible has materialized. The diamonds were looted and little infrastructure development was seen in the capital city of Manicaland. This is why, residents and civic society groups now have eyes opened wide over mining concerns undertaken by the State.

Mutare Mayor in his defense said they had previously toured a quarry mining plant in the Granitesite industrial area in Harare which is near many industries including the Coca Cola manufacturing plant, where modern quarry mining equipment is being used with reduced dust emission.

“On one of our visits to Harare we found out that there is a quarry near the Coca Cola plant that is co-existing with other industries. So we were inspired that this was applicable and we believe it can be done. We called for tenders for the Dangamvura Mountain quarry mine project and the Chinese company won the bid,” said the Mayor.

He urged the media to be unbiased when covering this matter citing that putting a blanket cover on all Chinese investors was bad given that the country is in dire need of lucrative international investors that have capital to create employment locally and turnaround the economy.

“Let’s not demonise the Chinese, especially those that would have not done anything wrong yet. This is bad for the investment profile of our country. When this story (Dangamvura quarry mine) broke out I was in Dubai and some investors there actually questioned why people in Zimbabwe demonize certain nationals,” he said.

Mutare currently only has one quarry mine, Joubert Crushers that mines quarry stones and limestone along the Mutare-Masvingo highway 10km peg, just after the Fern Valley turn off. Quarry dust is used for different activities in the construction industry, such as building materials, road development materials, aggregates, bricks and tiles. Mayor Tandi said the inspiration behind the quarry mine project and other projects they have earmarked was to have more revenue streams to supplement their major source of revenue as a local authority which is currently from collection of rates.

“So the idea was to create other revenue streams. So we ended up thinking of what to invest in. One of the major projects was the quarry mine, the other was the Fern Valley recreation park at Fern Valley dam, then there are our chalets in Darlington where we can do lodges or a hotel and we also looked at Caravan Park which is ideal for recreational activities,” he said.

He added that next year the local authority intends to hire a consultant with expertise on managing bankable projects to fulfill their vision of setting up income generating projects.

“On the issue of projects, we need to be objective. To endorse this deal (quarry mine deal) the aim was to bail out our local authority in the financial quandary that it is in because of legacy issues…However a feasibility study was not done because it happens at a cost. This is why we now want a business economist post for our local authority,” added the Mayor.

The local authority has been operating without a substantive town clerk since January after the passing on of Joshua Maligwa who succumbed to covid-19. It has been in the eye of the storm over gross corruption, which actually led to the suspension of the acting town clerk Dr Anthony Mutara in October, pending the finalization of his criminal abuse of office case by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.

The late Joshua Maligwa

Mayor Tandi said he is aware that the employment of a town clerk is now long overdue but due diligence had to be done on the recruitment process.

“On the matter of a new town clerk eight candidates have now been shortlisted for interviews. We anticipate the interviews will be done at the earliest possible time. Some of you may be invited as observers to the interviews process that we think should be done in an open way because this person once employed will be serving the people of Mutare,” he said.

According to the recruitment and selection functions within urban local authorities, the town clerk post should be filled within three-months of the vacancy arising, but it is now nearly 10months since the passing on of the late Maligwa.

In October Mutare residents were again up in arms with the local authority over shoddy work done by a contractor on the Aerodrome Road from town to the high density suburb of Chikanga. About 1.3 km of the road was done under the Government funded Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP) while 3.2km was funded by the local authority.

Mayor Tandi said the contractor has been engaged to correct the job.

“We are within the liability period but by July he should have managed to rectify the problem. But through our internal process we have since engaged the contractor and the mitigation is being done,” said the Mayor.