SHARON NYAYA
MBERENGWA-In a sign of negligence and lack of disaster preparedness in mines dotted around the country, Simbarashe Moyo (20)’s body who was trapped in a water logged mine in Mberengwa was only retrieved today, five days after the accident.
The Midweek Watch is reliably informed that Moyo of Kaguvi Village in Mawani area under Chief Maziofa had been trapped in Camp Mine in Ward 2 for the past five days after the shaft collapsed while they were mining gold ore.
His body was only retrieved after Mberengwa Miners Association chairman, Anderson Tsikirai convened a meeting and managed to get a pump from Goldreef Mine in Mangoro to drain the water.
To compound the situation at the water logged mine, there was no electricity and Tsikirai with the assistance of the District Development Coordinator, Vafios Hlavati had to negotiate with ZESA to restore power at the mine for the purposes of draining water in order to take out the body.
Efforts to get a comment a from the Police were not successful until the time of posting.
Hlavati and Tsikirai expressed anger at the alleged owners who were pointing fingers at each other while time was running out despite the fact that the deceased had been allegedly mining and sharing ore with the owners.
Moyo’s body is expected to be buried after a post mortem has been conducted according to a close relative who declined to be named for fear of the alleged owners.
Yakub Ibrahim Mahomed, believed to be the owner said he is leasing the mine to someone and would come back with the details before he cut the phone.
More details to follow//
