Mining in Zimbabwean national parks banned

Posted on 8 September 2020

Two wins tonight in Zimbabwe are being hailed as good news for that country’s beleaguered tourism industry. Cabinet officially banned mining in its national parks and, in a separate communique, announced international flights will resume on October 1st.

The mining decision, taken by cabinet this evening at a special sitting, follows a national and international outcry, prompted by the discovery of Chinese miners found prospecting in Hwange National Park. When confronted, the trespassers revealed they had been granted special licenses by ‘official’ sources.

An urgent application was lodged in the High Court on Monday, September 7 to stop drilling in Hwange National Park.

An anti-poaching team from Bhejane Trust were conducting routine checks on rhinos in the area on September 1 when Chinese workers were discovered looking for coal samples. Details emerged that two mining concessions had been created.

The workers were arrested for defiling the park. The national park had been closed due to lockdown restrictions.

The workers later returned with permits for exploratory drilling despite there being no environmental impact assessment.

In a Facebook post, the Bhejane Trust wrote: ‘They did this without any consultation with the Area Manager and seem to feel they have a right to go wherever they like to. We followed up on this and discovered the Government has allocated two coal mining concessions in the middle of Sinamatella and Robins!. The mining concessions are Special Grants which apparently can only be issued by the President, and both been granted to Chinese companies.’

Environmentalists, activists and nature lovers alike pleaded to the government to prevent the mining from taking place. On Tuesday September 8 government announced their decision in a cabinet briefing that mining in national parks would be banned with immediate effect.

In a second win, Zimbabwe’s government announced that domestic and international borders would be reopened, allowing air travel to resume on September 10 and October 1 respectively. More details to follow. 

Image credit: Twitter/ Ministry of Information, Publicity & Broadcasting/ @InfoMinZW






yoast-primary - 1004431
tcat - Travel news
tcat_slug - travel-news
tcat2 - Travel news
tcat2_slug - travel-news
tcat_final -