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16:38
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Originally posted by Polyh:
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mmmmmmmm, did a bit of reading. Step Aside is in Goromonzi North, and Cathy Buckle blog of Jan07 describes the local Lithium rush;Meanwhile on the other side of the country desperate times have resulted in desperate measures and thousands of ‘lithium hunters’ invaded Goromonzi North to dig for lithium. Lithium has become the new ‘gold rush’ in Zimbabwe with reports coming from many places where people are digging up lithium and selling the ore for US$10 a wheelbarrow load. Huge lithium mines are now operating from Bikita to Buhera, Mberegengwa to Manicaland and Mashonaland. Just before Christmas President Mnangagwa opened a new lithium mine in Buhera and soon after the government banned the export of raw lithium ore. Back in Goromonzi security forces were moved in to control lithium hunters and in one area villagers were banned from mining lithium and then the government gave the mining concessions to Chinese companies. in Cathy's recent blog of Feb03 she details how the corrupt ZANU-PF ruling thugs are moving in to join in the rush;Talking about farms, news has just started to trickle out of another new farm invasion, this time in Goromonzi, the same area I wrote about last month where there’s a great Lithium Rush underway. Coincidental? You can’t help but wonder. A man called Takesure arrived on a 32 hectare smallholding with an “offer letter” from the Zimbabwe Government saying that he had been offered this land by the government. After 22 years of land grabs, this had never happened at this smallholding before. Four days later Takesure came back, with the Ministry of Lands official, to compile an “assets register and to discuss eviction procedures” and the owners were told they had 30 days to get off their property. But later that same day Takesure informed the owners that he was now the owner of the land and “can evict us whenever he wants.” As one of over six thousand farmers who have lived through exactly this, endured the indignity, the fear and the pain and driven ourselves to the edge of a breakdown with no one to turn to for help, my heart goes out to this family and to all the employees and their families on this smallholding. They all lose their land, their livelihoods, their homes and their future on the back of an ‘Offer Letter,’ now called a Settlement Permit, from the Zimbabwe Government.
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Yes, some appalling stories come out of both Zimbabwe and Namibia concerning lithium grabs by Chinese, aided I imagine by corrupt officials . Although It doesn’t sit well, you can only go on Prospect’s previous track record in Zimbabwe , which wasn’t marred by any bad corporate behaviour in - country , nothing that caught the attention of Zimbabwe media anyway.
(20min delay)
