Blessing Nduku
The Shurugwi Town Council has expressed concern over the continued invasion of its housing project site by illegal gold miners, a development officials say is threatening infrastructure plans and posing serious environmental and safety risks.
Speaking to the reporters who visited the town council for a project tour Shurugwi Town Council Housing and Community Services Officer, Fortune Marevesa said that illegal miners are making their efforts effortless by mining under the serviced land.
“As you can see these are some of the pits mined out by illegal miners and they have created trenches stretching across tarred roads, posing safety risks.”
Marevesa went on to say that they are engaging the Zimbabwe National Geospatial and Space Agency to assess underground damage and determine the feasibility of continuing development and in some cases, engaging legal recourse to fix the problems.
“We have engaged the Ministry of Mines, but we’re not finding joy in finalizing this challenge, so we’re now involving our lawyers to issue summons through the High Court to evict some of these people.”
However, Shurugwi Town Council has intensified its housing and infrastructure development drive in line with the Second Republic’s National Development Strategy 1(NDS1).
The Town Secretary Archibald Ncube stated that the local authority is working with qualified developers to service residential stands across town constructing tarred roads, water, sewer, and drainage systems.
“We are embarking on various housing, water provision, and infrastructure projects engaging competent developers to ensure proper servicing of land.“
He also stated that stands have also been set aside for schools to ensure new suburbs’ access to social amenities.
Shurugwi is a mining town which has a population of approximately 23,350 based on a 2022 census, and growing at 2% annually hence Shurugwi Town Council is focusing on housing, infrastructure and commercial development to transform the town’s landscape.
Current housing developments are being carried out in Impali.
Layout for development consists of 1500 houses medium and low density stands. Project implemented through PPPs arrangement were parties are developing on site and off site infrastructure.
Individual beneficiaries to put up their own house designs guided by town planning stands and regulations. Housing provision through Build Operating Transfer arrangements.
Over 20 million on and off site infrastructure completed to full service 1400 medium density stands, average size 400m2. Shurugwi and Unki mines arranged to implement the project through BOT arragement whereby the laps of 2 years (January 2017-December 2018) all infrastructure, both on-site and off-site will be transferred to the local authority.
Council’s plea highlights the growing tension between development goals and illegal mining activities.
The local authority pushes forward with plans to provide well-serviced residential areas and essential amenities, it now looks to law enforcement and relevant stakeholders to help protect strategic land from further encroachment and ensure the town’s orderly growth.
