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Hwange Elderly Women Resort To Quarry Mining For Survival

An elderly woman sits under her shade as she breaks quarry into smaller pieces using a heavy metal hammer and her bare hands. Image by Lethokuhle Nkomo | The Citizen Bulletin


BY LETHOKUHLE NKOMO | @The_CBNews | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | NOV 26, 2020

Elderly women in Hwange are working in the quarry industry for survival, but they struggle to keep up with the manual labour and what they make is not enough to feed their families.


HWANGE (The Citizen Bulletin) Rebecca Moyo,79, staggers carrying a huge boulder of quarry stone, before she can walk a few meters with it, she gets tired and pushes the boulder to her shade. Barefooted, she walks on the hot ground in Hwange which has given her blisters, making it impossible to wear closed shoes.

The brownish water in the five-liter container will quench her thirst for the day. To avoid the scorching sun of Hwange, Moyo has erected a shade with empty plastic cement bags which are supported by the Mopani trees, her shade is surrounded by piles of medium sized processed quarry stones ready for the market.


“Every day before I start my work here at the shade, I go to the nearest bush to thank God for giving me strength and another day to work for my grandchildren.”
Rebecca Moyo, 79-year-old quarry miner


The difficult economic environment has forced elderly women in Hwange to get involved in quarry mining despite the dangers involved in the operations. A number of unregulated quarry miners are occupied at the Hwange industrial site, near David Qui, a Chinese quarry mining company where they use firewood to blast open huge stones.

Quarrying industry is regarded as a risk industry worldwide because of the hazardous nature of its activities. Mining plays an important role in the socio-economic development of many countries worldwide. In Zimbabwe, quarries are mainly used in the construction industry.

The Hwange unregulated quarry miners are camped at the entrance and around the Chinese Company where they eye for the same quarry clients with the Chinese owned quarry mine.

Moyo is among the Hwange elderly women who have resorted to quarry mining for a living.

“Quarry mining is not an easy job to do, it requires a lot of extensive hard labor because I don’t use any machinery but my bare hands,” she says.

Some of the quarry broken down into smaller pieces using bare hands. Image by Lethokuhle Nkomo | The Citizen Bulletin


“The main reason I am doing this is because I am taking care of my six grandchildren, if I don't do it, my grandchildren will not have food to eat. I have tried to register for social welfare or with those NGOs which support the elderly but it was all in vain,” she says.

She has been staying with the grandchildren after her children left to South Africa in search for greener pastures years ago.

Moyo has been in quarry mining for the past ten years where she uses a heavy metal hammer and her bare hands to break the quarry into smaller pieces.


“I have been injured, my body is scarred, but that will not stop me from coming here to mine.”
Rebecca Moyo


Concilia Ndlovu (66) a mother of four children from Mpumalanga township in Hwange who is also in quarry mining says this practice is the only source of income that she has.

“Things are tough here! the dangers we face can make one give up, but the thought of no school fees for children will make you strong.”  

Sibanda says COVID -19 and the economic situation of the country have made business unviable.

“We scramble for clients with that Chinese company, of course many clients prefer them because they offer better services but it’s a disadvantage for us who are doing it on a very small scale and who have been around for a while. We sometimes get clients once after four months.”

“If only the Chinese company could incorporate us because they are the ones who came where we have been operating,” she says.

Poverty is one of the main drivers towards unsafe mining activities. Poverty continues to be one of the major underlying causes of vulnerability and food insecurity. According to the ZIMSTAT Poverty, Income Consumption and Expenditure Survey 2017 Report, 70.5% of the population was said to be poor whilst 29.3% were deemed extremely poor.


ALSO READ: Fishing Industry Struggles To Resume Operations


ZIMSTAT also shows the total consumption poverty line (TCPL) for an average of five persons per household stood at $17 957.00 in September 2020, the majority of families in Hwange are failing to meet the line.

Research done by Women Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCOZ) shows that women are usually at the receiving end when it comes to suffering whenever there is an economic meltdown.

“Women bear the most pain when poverty strikes the family, they are the ones who have to feed the children that’s why they end up engaging in unsafe practices just to feed the children,” says Catherine Madondo an official from the Women Coalition of Zimbabwe.

Meanwhile the local councilor of Ward 7 Mr Wilson Maphosa says although people are doing to earn a living, he is not aware of quarry mining at the industrial site.

“I’m not aware of those quarry miners, who gave them permission to mine there?. No one has never told me about these miners even though they are in my area of jurisdiction” says Maphosa.

It takes a month and a half for these elderly women to crush quarry that can fill a 30 tonne truck. Image by Lethokuhle Nkomo | The Citizen Bulletin


The small-scale miners who are operating at the Industrial site use the traditional way of blasting stones. It takes a month and a half to crush the quarry to fill a 30 tonne truck. The 30 tonne is sold at $USD100 to Hwange, Victoria Falls, Lupane and Bulawayo builders. However, the USD$100 profit which is acquired after a one and half month is not enough to feed a family of six children.


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