By Own Correspondent

THE fatal workplace accident which took place early this month at Bayhorse Mine in Chakari claiming nine workers demonstrates the urgent call to formalize the small scale mining sector.

Speaking recently, Mines Minister, Soda Zhemu, has made startling revelations that the gold mine tragedy at Bayhorse in Chakari, Chegutu district, was a result of haphazard extraction methods which were supervised by unqualified personnel.

The mine collapse, which occurred last Friday, has so far left nine people dead, and four missing miners while 21 survivors were accounted for.

Zhemu blamed the mine authorities, led by one T. Sigauke, for conducting unsustainable mining techniques and wilfully disregarding enabling laws.

The disaster at Bayhorse brings to question who authorised operations at the ill-fated mine if the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report by the Environmental Management Agency (EMA), and other subsequent due diligence processes by Mines ministry officials, were professionally undertaken.

“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 raised concern over delays in alerting the relevant ministry of the mishap, saying it took hours before he was made aware of the unfortunate incident.

“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 there were conflicting figures for fatalities, missing persons and survivors.