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Abstract
The rural landscape of Zimbabwe has dramatically changed in the last decade. Zimbabwe inherited a racially biased land ownership pattern at independence in 1980 and 20 years on efforts by the state to address the colonial land imbalances have been largely unsuccessful. In 2000 the Zimbabwe government embarked on a controversial rapid land redistribution exercise that saw vast tracts of land previously owned by white commercial farmers taken over and distributed to mostly black Zimbabweans. Some authors have argued that there is no single story of the Fast Track Land Reform and Resettlement programme because of the myths and realities spread by the media. It is important to note that what happened in one province might not be similar to the other. Rural dwellers in the countryside had for years depended on agrarian livelihoods and the fact that more land had been availed by the state meant better livelihoods. However, this article argues that in spite of a widened horizon to pursue agrarian activities many people have actually drifted away from on-farm to off-farm livelihoods. This is true in the case of southern Zimbabwe where a large number of rural dwellers have chosen artisanal gold mining as a pathway in realising a livelihood. This article therefore focuses on the expansion of artisanal gold mining in southern Zimbabwe; particularly in southern Matabeleland. Using fieldwork as a method of data gathering, the article unravels the development of artisanal mining in this region and how it has been reconfigured after the hosting of the Soccer World Cup in South Africa 2010. In particular it shows how the metal detector technology (the Vuvuzela) availed by the hosting of the Soccer World Cup has found its way to the region and changed the gold panning process. Conclusions drawn from a detailed PhD study revealed that a significant number of southern Zimbabwe gold panners have adopted the metal detector technology as a way of expanding their trade.
Notes
1. In this article ‘gold barons’ are those dealers who either buy or sponsor gold panning activities, and in many instances are resident in towns such as Gwanda and Bulawayo.
2. Constitutional Amendment Act No. 30: 1990 denies the power of the court to declare unconstitutionality on compensation decisions. It also allows for compulsory acquisition.
3. The Land Acquisition Act 1992 abolished the right of first refusal, and a designation provision was introduced enabling the addition of compulsory acquisition to the willing seller willing buyer model.
4. In Mabhena (Citation2010) it is indicated that the rejection of the draft constitution by 55% of Zimbabwean triggered the war veterans and the state apparatus to occupy commercial farms. This was a precursor of the implementation of the FTLRRP that was endorsed by the ZANUPF government in July 2000.
5. My informants in A1 resettlements confirmed that they were ZANU PF members and a majority of them were coerced to take up plots in the resettlements as a way of fulfilling the party's agenda of repossessing ancestral land stolen by white British settlers. A majority of them were there to appease the party elite but did not abandon their communal homes and fields.
6. Black market is the parallel economy championed by gold barons who buy gold from illegal panners and small scale miners for resell outside the country.
7. Mabhena (Citation2010) found that dwindling gold deposits to the Reserve Bank and its subsidiaries and the chronic shortage of foreign currency triggered the government to launch this operation.
8. A1 small scale farmers are people who were allocated land in former commercial areas to practise subsistence farming for a livelihood. This model is similar to the current settlement pattern in communal areas. Each plot holder is allocated a residential stand, arable field and common grazing. Each settlement has between 25 and 50 households depending on the settlement size.
9. During fieldwork I found that gold panning, poaching and veld fires contributed significantly to land degradation and river siltation in these districts. Some of my respondents and key informants were more concerned with the dwindling medicinal tree species and wildlife than the landscape as viewed by natural resources officers and other technocrats.
10. Small scale miners are a group of artisanal gold miners who hold claim permits granted by the Ministry of Mines, Environment and Tourism. In November, 2006, when the state launched operation Isitsheketsha Sesiphelile/Chikorokoza Chapera, they had their permits suspended pending new mining policy and regulations.
11. Mandla Ncube (note that all research informants’ names given in the article are pseudonyms) is one of the many gold panners engaged in river bank panning on the banks of Ncema River. I deliberately chose to explore this type of mining using the interviews and numerous encounters I had with him and his colleagues during fieldwork.
12. Observations during fieldwork in Gwanda and Umzingwane districts of Matabeleland South in the years 2005–2007 (Mabhena Citation2010).
13. De Boeck (1998, 779–80) argues against a one-sided interpretation of the diamond trade as destructive of local forms and logics of solidarity and reciprocity. Most of the diggers and traders in diamonds were men, thus showing the masculinity of the activity.
14. Interview with gold panners engaged in disused mine panning in Gwanda and Umzingwane.
15. Gold panners interviewed indicated this group size is manageable in terms of work schedules underground and helps reduce tensions when sharing the proceeds from gold. They argued that larger groups usually fought when sharing the proceeds.
16. Transporters’ vehicles may be impounded by police if they are found ferrying istofu without permits.
17. A number of gold panners engaged in disused mining have been trapped underground and during my many encounters with these panners I discovered that every month there is a case or two of gold panners who drown in pools of water in disused mines.
18. For instance, in Sierra Leone the digging crew generally split a two-fifths share of the local price for each season's haul of diamonds (Richards Citation1996, 101).
19. Mabhena (Citation2010) details how gold panners, dealers and police in the gold section have created social networks to propel illegal gold panning and trading and have even corrupted other officers in other departments.
20. Ferguson (1990) in his anti-politics machine argues that development apparatus should take into account the interest of the beneficiaries of a development programme. In southern Matabeleland people preferred a livestock biased land reform programme but the state promoted a one size fits all, i.e. AI and A2 models.