Worried residents look at a flooded pool, a result of quarry mining near Pumula North in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS.
By Jeffrey Moyo
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Feb 26 2025 – On Christmas Day in 2022, 27-year-old Thabani Dlodlo’s eight-year-old son drowned in a flooded pit dug up by quarry miners in the vicinity of Pumula North, a high-density suburb in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second-largest city.
As if that was not enough, just a week after New Year’s Day the following year, Dlodlo’s neighbor, 36-year-old Sethule Hlengiwe, also lost her six-year-old daughter after she drowned in another pit flooded with rainwater near her home in Bulawayo.
When tragedy struck, the six-year-old Thenjiwe had sneaked out to play with her agemates in the vicinity of her home.
Thenjiwe’s mother claimed all the illegal quarry miners took to their heels when her daughter drowned.
“Nobody wanted to be held responsible when my daughter drowned. All the quarry miners who were nearby then just bolted,” Hlengiwe told IPS.
Quarry miners have descended on Bulawayo’s open spaces and have dug huge pits, defacing the urban terrain of the once-thriving industrial city.
Often fronting for Chinese quarry owners, the quarry miners working in the vicinity of high-density suburbs often use explosives, which result in cracks on nearby homes—and some have even collapsed.
One such resident whose home was destroyed due to quarry mining is 64-year-old Londiwe Mabuza, once based in the suburb of Pumula North.
“I now live with my relatives, together with my family, after our home collapsed as a result of violent vibrations as quarry miners used explosives mining near my house,” Mabuza told IPS.
Yet while many, like Mabuza, bemoan the collapse of their dwellings, others are bragging about their rich pickings from quarry mining.
“A single wheelbarrow of quarry gives me a straight two dollars after I sell it to the Chinese quarry miners and on a good day, I make sure I sell at least 10 to 15 wheelbarrows laden with quarry,” 29-year-old Melusi Dhlela, also a Pumula South resident.
Environmental activists claim that while individuals such as Dhlela profit from quarry mining, the environment has suffered as a result.
“There are many issues that quarry mining activities in the vicinity of cities cause. The challenge is that the impacts are all negative. This includes biodiversity loss, human health problems such as respiratory diseases, destruction of infrastructure like roads and houses, water pollution, land degradation and noise pollution,” says Mashall Mutambu, an environmentalist and land expert with a master’s in Land Resources Assessment for Development Planning from the Midlands State University in Zimbabwe.
Another quarry miner, 22-year-old Melusi Ngwenya, a resident of Bulawayo’s Magwegwe West high-density suburb, has moved from a life of rags to riches.
“I used to beg for food and money at street corners in the city, but now as a quarry miner, life has changed for me and now I can afford to pay my own rent and buy food and clothing,” he (Ngwenya) told IPS.
Bulawayo’s townships also have to contend with illegal gold miners who have invaded the city, digging up for gold haphazardly and, like quarry miners, creating gullies and huge pits all over the city.
This is a serious safety issue, especially in the rainy season, where they are flooded and pose a danger to children who fall in and often drown. The pits have become known as the pools of death.
But the miners don’t care about the people or the environment damaged by blasting and illegal mining.
“What we want is money, money and nothing more so that we can live better,” said 39-year-old Dumisani Dlamini, a known quarry miner domiciled in the city’s Nkulumane high-density suburb.
The blasting became a common occurrence after a Chinese firm, Haulin Investments (Pvt) Limited, set up a quarry mine in 2021. The 10-year mining contract was given to the company by the Bulawayo City Council.
But while some profit, many Bulawayo residents, like 35-year-old Senzeni Nhlathi, have had to make do with growing noise pollution from quarry sites.
“We have become used to hearing the blasting of rocks and even hills as quarry miners chase the dollar linked to quarry mining, which means the more the blasting of rocks here, the more the noise,” Nhlathi told IPS. “So, we suffer as others make money.”
Bulawayo residents like 27-year-old Japhet Ndiweni claimed residents were not consulted when Haulin started the venture.
“Hualin for instance, has not bothered to ask us about our views when they moved into our residential territories,” Ndiweni told IPS.
Instead of condemning the mining operations, the city fathers have come out vehemently defending the location of quarry mines.
However, not all quarry miners in this area are bad actors.
Anderson Mwembe (43), who is the Treasurer of the Cowdray Park Quarry Crushers Association, said they have approached the Bulawayo City Council to regularize their operations.
With Mwembe and his association on board, children are safe in those areas mined by them.
“We make USD 2 per wheelbarrow of quarry and drowning of children in pits dug up by quarry miners has been avoided because we make sure to chase away all children who want to play in the area,” he (Mwembe) told IPS.
Others have turned to defending their land against quarry miners, like 42-year-old Bekithemba Bhebhe, resident in Bulawayo, who has switched to rearing dogs to fend off the daring quarry poachers.
Bhebhe owns five vicious dogs, which have kept quarry poachers at bay more effectively than the fence that Bulawayo City Council has erected at some points frequented by illegal quarry miners.
IPS UN Bureau Report
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