Monday the 26th of March 2018 was the official opening of the inaugural Harare Indaba held at the Johannesburg Country Club in Auckland Park, Johannesburg under the banner “Zimbabwe is Open for Mining”meant to showcase the country’s vast mineral wealth.
The initial event was staged in Johannesburg to compliment the already scheduled Cross-Border Services Indaba set for the 27th & 28th of March 2018 at the same venue in order to gain maximum traction and exposure for next year’s event.
The Indaba, was facilitated by Resources for Africa Pty Ltd to showcase Zimbabwe’s mining industry to potential investors and was graced by the Minister of Mines, Hon. Winston Chitando, Mr. Kwesu, the CEO of the Chamber of Mines with fellow representatives, Honourable Committee Members of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee for Mines and Energy led by Norton Member of the House of Assembly Mr. Temba Mliswa, Mr. Alex Mhembere, the CEO for Zimplats and other leading Zimbabwean mining houses. People like Mr. Trevor Ncube, Dr. Paul Jourdan and others were also in attendance.
“I was part of the panel discussion with Trevor Ncube and Hon. Chitando and conducted several interviews on the sidelines of the Indaba. The Indaba is certainly a prominent platform for mining in Zimbabwe and “Team Zimbabwe” certainly aroused a wealth of interest and I look forward to the future success of the event,” Hon Mliswa said in an interview from Johannesburg.
Nyasha Mahonye and Leonard Mandishara, in a journal titled, “Mechanism between mining sector and economic growth in Zimbabwe, is it a resource curse?” contend that Zimbabwe is endowed with vast amounts of platinum, gold, diamonds, asbestos, nickel, coal and chrome, iron and other diverse kinds of minerals.
“Zimbabwe is exploiting about 40 different types of minerals and metals. These minerals and metals present great potential for the economy to grow and foster economic development. Thus mineral resources have potential to contribute tremendously to sustainable economic growth and development which can lead to massive poverty reduction and create a number of jobs through the forward and backward linkages across the productive sectors of the economy.”
They averred that while mining has constantly been a major source of foreign currency generation through huge exports, its contribution to economic growth has constantly been very poor and on the decline over the period 1980 to 2008.
It is largely hoped that the new dispensation will work hard to attract mining investors and address corruption and illicit financial flows in the sector in a bid to turnaround the comatose economy.