Twenty-one (21) illegal gold and chrome miners have been arrested at the Mutubva Chrome mining site in Norton as the police continue implementing operation ‘Restore Sanity.’
The operation is aimed at curbing cases of robberies and murders in Norton, allegedly committed by miners there.
Recently Norton legislator, Temba Mliswa called for the deployment of soldiers with shoot to kill orders to deal with illegal miners in his constituency whom he claimed had overpowered the police.
Police spokesperson, Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi, said the arrest happened on May 27. He said:
Police recovered two compressor engines, a generator, a pressure pump, a water pump, a chrome safe, a windless stand, six picks, seven shovels, four hummers, and two axes during the operation.
With the unemployment rate soaring and successive droughts immensely affecting subsistence farming in rural Zimbabwe, young people are resorting to artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM).
The Parliament of Zimbabwe estimates that some 500 000 small-scale miners in the country support up to three million dependents.
