Zimbabwean police on Wednesday cracked the whip on illegal gold miners, days after a police officer was hacked to death by a marauding gang of artisanal miners.
Police chief Godwin Matanga said the police would with immediate effect arrest illegal gold miners and declared that law enforcement officers have been instructed to shoot to kill any rowdy elements ignoring the directive.
“All miners who are engaged in illegal mining activities should stop doing so and ensure that before they mine, they obtain the relevant licence or permit to do so in terms of the laws of the country,” Matanga said in a statement.
He said his office would “not stand by and allow unruly elements to attack police officers.”
The warning came in the wake of the murder of a police officer who was attacked by illegal miners on 28 December 2019 after he and a colleague had responded to a distress from workers at a gold mine in Kadoma, about 140 kilometres southwest of Harare, which had been invaded by the artisanal miners.
The artisanal miners responded by killing the police officer using machetes.
The machete-wielding miners have become a nuisance in most parts of Zimbabwe where they are now a law unto themselves and are believed to have the backing of people in high offices.
JN/APA