mbulelo smpofu
Raymond Jaravaza, raymondjaravaza@gmail.com
DEEP in a slumber, Previous Tshuma was jolted awake by the ominous sound of rushing water.
Trapped in an eight-metre-deep pit along the Lunga River in Crocodile Valley village, Umzingwane District, he realised the dire situation.
The floodwaters were rising rapidly, threatening to swallow him. With no possessions to salvage, he focused on the urgent task of escaping the deadly trap.
Tshuma is an illegal gold miner who specialises in riverbed mining.
The nature of his “job” means that he and his fellow miners must dig deep pits along Lunga River in search of gold.
It’s not unusual for the group of miners to sleep in the pits, especially in soaring summer temperatures, as they prefer dozing in the belly of the earth where it’s cooler. Sleeping in the pits is also a way of securing one’s investment, as the riverbed gold mining game dictates that each man must jealously guard his “investment” — the pit.
On that fateful night last Sunday, a freak of nature would alter the lives of the illegal gold miners forever.
“It had not rained in this area although there were signs that rainfall could be expected anytime, and almost all of us were sleeping in our pits.
“Around 1am, I was woken up by the sound of flowing water and suddenly my pit was half full. I had to climb out as fast as I could and run to safety,” he told Saturday Chronicle.
In the pitch-black darkness, he saw light from a torch and heard screams coming from the next pit. It hit him that his two friends who were sleeping there were in trouble.
“One of them, Mthandazo, who was waving a torch while trying to swim out of the pit, managed to get out, but at that moment I didn’t realise that Shelton (Ndlovu) had not made it to safety.”
It turns out Shelton, a 20-year-old illegal miner, had been buried alive in the same pit that was supposed to be his source of livelihood.
His body is still buried in the pit. To make matters worse, the ground around the pit collapsed due to the recent rains that followed days later, further burying the body under wet rubble.
Where did the water that filled the pits suddenly come from? According to the illegal gold miners, numbering about eight, who are still hopeful that their late comrade’s body will be retrieved for burial in Mberengwa, flash floods hit the area upstream from where they were sleeping, resulting in Lunga River bursting its banks downstream in the dead of night.
It’s been five days since Shelton was buried alive, and his mother and grandmother, together with other amakorokoza, have been camped at the site of the horror accident, waiting for the arrival of heavy equipment to try and retrieve the body from the muddy rubble.
“He was only 20 years old and was the family breadwinner since he left school in Form Three to start digging for gold. My husband passed away more than 10 years ago, and my son had been trying to support me and his younger siblings,” said his mother, Silibaziso Ndlovu.
She said she used to take the work that her son was involved in for granted until the day she came face to face with the conditions that illegal gold miners live in to get the precious metal.
“Sometimes we take for granted the things that our children go through just to make sure we have food and soap to wash our clothes.”
The possibility of her son’s body being permanently buried along Lunga River is something that she does not want to entertain.
“I want to take my son home for burial in Mberengwa,” she said in between sobs.
Umzingwane District Development Coordinator (DDC), Peter Mahlathini, said they have engaged the services of established miners to pull together resources and try and retrieve the body from its temporary grave.
“We have secured the services of an excavator and a low-bed truck to carry it here, but we have a challenge with roads that are inaccessible. The 260 litres of diesel that is needed for the truck and excavator has been sourced, and we hope to start efforts to retrieve the body as soon as possible,” said Mahlathini.
Other well-wishers have chipped in with food for the family and other miners as they wait for the body to be retrieved. The ground is still wet because of the torrential rains that pounded Umzingwane District, a situation that might make the rescue efforts more difficult.
Matabeleland South Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister, Dr Evelyne Ndlovu, expressed concern at the level of destruction and loss of life due to riverbed mining; a practice that was outlawed by the Government some years ago. She was part of a team that travelled to the site of the freak accident which claimed the life of the young miner.
In August, the Government renewed its ban on alluvial and riverbed mining to curb environmental degradation. The Government first announced the ban in 2020, but the practice has continued unabated over the years as large-scale and mechanical alluvial mining or riverbed mining has resulted in water pollution, siltation, degradation of river channels, and disruption of riverine ecosystems.
