Mine Workers in Zimbabwe: A forgotten and divided force in the environmental justice movement.

By Lenin Tinashe Chisaira

Mine workers at a Zimbabwean mine (AFP)

Mine workers around the world have been known for occasionally rising up in powerful resistance against the cruel power of naked capitalism. From the 1985 Coal Miners Strike in the United Kingdom to the 2012 Lonmin Marikana wage strike by platinum miners and the 2015 strike by gold miner’s families in Gwanda, these workers highlighted their potential for solidarity and defence of their dignity as human beings.

Zimbabwe, as a resource-rich nation, is beginning to make strides towards an alignment of the forces fighting for labour justice with the ones fighting for environmental justice. In the past, the local environmental justice movement has gained momentum but the disconnect between labour and environmental justice has been noticeable. It goes without saying that the lack of cohesion between such forces was a threat to the promise for a sustainable future for humanity.

Furthermore, mine workers in Zimbabwe continue to be organised (or disorganised) within too many trade unions and these are ostensibly at loggerheads with each other. At the moment mine workers are organised into the National Mine Workers Union of Zimbabwe (NMWUZ), Associated Mine Workers Union of Zimbabwe (AMWUZ) and the Zimbabwe Diamond Workers Union (ZIDAWU). NMWUZ is an affiliate of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) whilst ZIDAWU was formed in August 2012 and registered as a trust.

Historically, mine workers in Zimbabwe through these many trade unions, were focusing on mere wage struggles and were not greatly concerned the environmental or the degradation caused by their labour power. However, there is usually some connection when mine workers fight for occupational health and safety (OHS) since OHS issues are environmental justice issues as well as well as labour rights.

The major problems facing mine workers in Zimbabwe were recently articulated by the National Mine Workers Union of Zimbabwe during the 2016 Zimbabwe Alternative Mining Indaba (ZAMI) organised by public interest law group, the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA).

The major cause of mining accidents are shoddy environmental protection and rehabilitation policies by profit-seeking mining companies. Hence injuries and fatalities in Zimbabwe’s mines are usually due to poor engineering designs in functional mine and poor rehabilitation of disused mines , leading to the death of ‘illegal’ miners. Workers are exposed to dust, silica and harmful chemicals like mercury as well as being forced to work in claustrophobic shafts with poor lighting, poor ventilation and poor water pumping systems.

The effects of these environmental and economic injustices and labour violations paint the dire picture shown in the tables below:  

Table 1: Percentage Distribution of Injured Persons by Age Group, 2013 (Source: NSSA/NMWUZ)

AGE GROUP	MINING & QUARRYING WORKERS (%)	NUMBER
10 – 14 Years	100	1
15 – 19 Years	10,77	7
20 – 24 Years	13,37	75
25 – 29 Years	11,42	103
30 – 34 Years	10,34	96
35 – 39 Years	10,32	82
40 – 44 Years	10,88	74
45 – 49 Years	7,57	29
50 – 54 Years	7,89	24
55 – 59 Years	9,06	25
60 – 64 Years	5,97	8
65+ Years	5,66	3
Not stated	21,43	3
TOTAL	10,4	530

Table 2: Fatal Injuries by Industrial Sector, 2010 – 2014 (Source: NSSA/NMWUZ)

INDUSTRIAL SECTOR	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Mining & Quarrying	11	8	18	7	21

The most viable and sustainable future for the mine workers in Zimbabwe can be attained through collaboration with other groups who are courageously campaigning for environmental and economic justice in the mining and extractive sectors. These groups include mining community rights groups, environmental justice associations and even the so-called independent commissions like the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission. But above all, mine workers need to begin re-aligning their forces and working in harmony with each other as well as in solidarity with powerful mine unions beyond borders. The current divisions in the Zimbabwe’s mining trade unions movement will not advance the cause of mine workers or the global campigns for a world that is free from environmental degradation and human rights violations. Aluta.

[Lenin Tinashe Chisaira is an activist and lawyer based in Harare, Zimbabwe. He tweets at @LeninChisaira and is interested in Economic Justice, Human Rights, Leftist Politics and Environmental Justice. He blogs at cdetinashe.blogspot.com ]