Gold Buyers Fight COVID-19: No Jab, No Business

Gold buyers are encouraging artisanal miners to embrace the vaccination programme.

BY NQOBILE BHEBHE | @The_CBNews | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | SEPT 19, 2021

Gwanda gold buyers are trying to change small scale miners attitudes towards vaccination, and they may have struck gold.

GWANDA (The Citizen Bulletin) — Sipho Mhambi, a gold buyer in Gwanda, has a vast network of artisanal miners in Matabeleland South districts who sell him the yellow metal.

Under normal circumstances, Mhambi will buy gold without any strings attached, but the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination drive has altered his modus operandi.

“Since June (this year), I began buying gold only from vaccinated small scale miners in Gwanda district,” says Mhambi.

“At first, they thought I was joking when I made the announcement, and when I gradually implemented it, my guys said it was a drastic move.”
Sipho Mhambi, gold buyer

His prime motive is to encourage uptake of the vaccines.

According to the Ministry of Health and Child Care 13 September update, 149 137 people had received their first dose while 93 906 had taken a second dose in the province.

“Drastic to some, but it’s a way of encouraging artisanal miners to embrace the vaccination programme, and I am happy that about 25 of them have taken at least one jab,” explains Mhambi, adding he keeps a logbook of vaccinated miners.

However, he says his “harsh” stance, though gaining attraction and being embraced by other gold buyers, is hindered by the lack of vaccination centres close to mining sites.

To this end, in its weekly update, a Gwanda youth civic group, the Community Youth Development Trust (CYDT), said artisanal miners in the province are calling for the deployment of mobile vaccination units to mining sites to ensure ease of vaccination accessibility.

The call for mobile vaccination clinics comes when there are claims of employers demanding miners to be vaccinated.

The miners said instead of queuing in the few existing vaccination points; mobile COVID-19 vaccination clinics will ensure miners are vaccinated without having to stand in these long queues for hours.

COVID-19 vaccination queue in Bulawayo...Miners call for mobile vaccination clinics. Image by The Citizen Bulletin

“With mobile vaccination clinics at mining sites, no miner will use travelling distance, limited vaccine clinics and lack of public transportation as excuses for not getting vaccinated,” CYDT added.

Since 2009, the mining sector has become the fastest-growing, with small-scale mining companies, artisanal miners and multinational companies taking part in the gold rush.

However, a 2021 first quarterly report released by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development in June shows that Zimbabwe's gold production declined to 4,311 kg during the first quarter of this year, compared to 6,152 kg produced in the same period last year.

The output was also lower than 4,794 kg produced in the fourth quarter of last year.

“The decline was mainly on account of a fall in production from the artisanal and small-scale gold sector,” the report said.

Of the 4,311 kg, large-scale producers delivered about 2,291 kg, 11.2 per cent higher than what was produced during the same period in 2020, while artisanal and the small-scale gold sector delivered 1,586 kg, about 55.6 per cent below the production of the same period in 2020, reflecting leakages through smuggling, the report said.

Albert Nkiwane, an artisanal miner in Matobo, says having mobile vaccination clinics closer will ensure his colleagues are vaccinated.

“Initially, I was hesitant to vaccinate, but mine owners and other players in the supply chain are now demanding vaccination proof before engaging us.”

“Imagine spending days underground, risking your life and emerging with a few grams only to be told we only buy from vaccinated people. It may sound harsh but, that’s the only way to get amakorokoza vaccinated, and it's working.”

Albert Nkiwane, an artisanal miner

Mobile clinics should be availed to mining zones to reduce production interruption time, Zamani Magagula says.

“Most artisanal miners are impatient. They don’t want to spend time in health facilities, so if mobile clinics are close to the mining sites, I am sure more will get vaccinated”.

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According to Magagula, for him and his colleagues to earn a living, they must comply with the new normal where COVID-19 vaccination cards are required.

“At the end, everyone benefits from the arrangement. No one wants to trade in an unsafe environment,” Magagula says.

“Small scale miners produce more gold than established mines, so if more of us contract the virus, production will drop while we recover. Health is important.”

The government says it is implementing several vaccination strategies to achieve herd immunity.

Some of them include turning all health facilities into vaccination sites, deploying mobile units to remote areas and allow religious grouping to invite vaccination teams at their premises.

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