How neglect, mismanagement crippled Vumbachikwe and its community

VUMBACHIKWE Mine, once a symbol of prosperity in Matabeleland South province, has become a stark case study of corruption, socio-economic decay and corporate negligence in Zimbabwe’s gold mining sector.

Nestled just outside Gwanda town, this gold mine’s slow but steady collapse since 2016 has turned a once-thriving community into a tale of what happens when profit and politics supersede people’s rights.

Established in 1961 during the colonial mining boom, Vumbachikwe quickly rose to prominence as one of the largest gold producers in southern Zimbabwe.

For decades, it was one of the region’s major employers, with over 500 full-time workers at its peak in the 1980s and 1990s, indirectly supporting hundreds more through surrounding businesses, farms and services.

The mine once provided accommodation, schools, clinics and recreational facilities for workers and their families — fostering a vibrant, self-contained mining community.

Today, it is a community in ruins.

This investigation, based on testimonies from current female workers, former works’ council representatives, retired employees and former mine officials, traces a timeline of relentless decline, intimidation and human tragedy.

Who owns Vumbachikwe Mine?

Originally developed by Durban Roodepoort Deep (DRD), a South African mining house, ownership of Vumbachikwe has since passed through several hands over the decades.

In the early 2000s, the mine was acquired by Duration Gold Limited, a privately-owned Zimbabwean mining company which also controls several other mining operations in the country, including Athens Mine in Mvuma and Venice Mine in Kadoma.

Duration Gold is part of a controversial network of privately-owned mining entities in Zimbabwe, known for opaque financial practices, management instability and a long history of failing to pay its debts.

As of September 16, 2024, the mine had an unpaid electricity bill of US$1 163 509 and had not made any payment to the utility in 10 months, dating back to  December 11, 2023.

Duration has faced repeated accusations of financial mismanagement, labour abuses and asset-stripping at its various sites, including at Vumbachikwe.

Despite claiming to have placed the mine under “care and maintenance” in late 2022 following labour unrest, evidence suggests gold processing and asset disposal have quietly continued, facilitated by a complicated network of company officials, and private security firms.

Administrative collapse and the breaking point

The demise of Vumbachikwe Mine was not a sudden collapse, but a slow unravelling rooted in administrative dysfunction and financial mismanagement.

Problems began in 2016, shortly after the mine’s acquisition by Duration Gold Limited, a company with a reputation for opaque operations and labour disputes.

What started as sporadic salary delays soon worsened into a pattern of missed payments and broken promises.

Workers’ grievances were routinely dismissed, while management grew increasingly hostile to any form of labour organisation.

Despite these tensions, gold output held steady for a time, masking the depth of the crisis brewing beneath the surface.

The breaking point came in November 2022, when the wives of mine workers led a protest as their husbands had gone for more than three months without salaries.

The company responded by placing the mine under “care and maintenance”, effectively shutting down formal operations.

Evidence from former employees and local sources revealed that clandestine mining and asset-stripping continued, often under the protection of private security firms.

Rather than stabilising the situation, the shutdown accelerated the disintegration of both the mine and its surrounding community, transforming Vumbachikwe from a pillar of economic stability to a landscape of lawlessness and despair.

Timeline of decline

2016: The beginning of trouble

The problems began quietly, with intermittent salary delays.

“Life, as we had known it, began to change slowly. Delays and changes of our pay dates became frequent, while causes and explanations remained less,” said a former employee.

Despite challenges, gold output remained relatively stable averaging between 18kg and 13kg per month while the nearby Blanket Mine, owned by Caledonia Mining Corporation, continued to flourish.

2018: Salaries stagnate, problems deepen

Delayed payments became the norm, frustrating workers.

“We would wait for weeks without knowing if our money was coming,” recounted a former works’ council representative.

“We were subjected to victimisation and we would be labelled traitors by the management for siding with the unhappy workers,” said the former works’ representative.

2022: Protests, intimidation and shutdown

On November 8, 2022, anger spilled on to the streets, with a protest led by the wives of mine workers turning violent.

“We marched because our children were starving and that our husbands could not do anything as they feared that they would be fired from their jobs. We thought if we act on their behalf, the management would see how dire our situation was,” a protester recalled.

Skirmishes followed, several arrests were made and works’ council leaders were singled out for intimidation.

Production collapsed to 2kg per month and the mine was subsequently placed under care and maintenance, but insiders say clandestine mining and ore processing continued after hours.

2023: Violence, desperation and vandalism

A spate of violence and rising intimidation struck fear into the compound.

Without electricity, the flooded mine, with underground water reaching level 34, was eventually abandoned and the water had to be drained for mining operations to take place.

Vital equipment such as pumps, cables, transformers either vanished or lay in ruin.

“Some bosses sold mine pumps and trucks on the black market, while pretending to be saving the mine. A few months ago, we saw a truck loading some equipment from the mine and we don’t know where it was going,” a former official said.

With no salaries, desperate workers turned to gold panning and conflicts escalated over scarce resources.

Water rationing worsened already dire conditions.

“We used to get water from the mine at the compound, about three times a day, but now, we get it once a day and sometimes we hardly get any,” said the former worker.

2024: Lawlessness and violence

Fights over illegal mining claims turned ugly, with reported cases of violent encounters reported inside the shafts.

“People started attacking each other over abandoned shafts,” said a former worker.

Burglary, asset-stripping and secret ore-leaching operations also surged.

2025: Collapse of social order

The mine’s collapse triggered a social unravelling, school dropouts soared with children joining informal mining gangs.

“Many families here have split, with breadwinners failing to provide for their families. Nothing seems to be working,” said a former female employee.

Twenty pensioners, unpaid since 2022, still live inside the derelict compound — destitute, forgotten.

“I gave this mine 35 years. I have nothing now. They owe me, but nobody listens. Everyday I wake up in this place, it’s worse,” the pensioner said.

Though the mine remains officially idle, alleged clandestine ore processing and asset disposal operations reportedly continue at night under the protection of corrupt security details and mining gangs.

The once-thriving infrastructure is being systematically dismantled and traded away.

A former mine official said: “The equipment was stolen from within. Pumps, cables, even trucks vanished. Some bosses sold assets on the black market while claiming the mine was under maintenance.”

Vumbachikwe spokesperson Robert Mukondiwa said the status of Vumbachikwe mine was not a news story.

“There is no news story because also, you will want to look at the period that you are focusing on and what are the circumstances,” he said.

“We have actually said there was mismanagement and neglect, pilfering, people stealing before.

“We have put all that to an end and it has been proven by a report that we received a few weeks ago to speak into the facts that yes, indeed, the mine had been put in a corner through mismanagement, so what I do you want.

“The only thing I can speak to is what’s going to be done in the short term, medium term, but everything else is documented — Who was fired? Why?”

Vumbachikwe’s collapse has wrecked Gwanda’s local economy.

What began as payment delays at the mine escalated to corruption, asset-stripping and social collapse.

Poverty, hunger and disease stalk the community.

With no formal employment, residents have resorted to Illegal artisanal mining, subsistence farming and informal gold trading.

Women walk long distances for safe water.

There are growing calls for regulatory intervention, transparent ownership disclosures, worker compensation and reopening of the mine under new, community-centred management.

The community’s desperate struggle highlights the consequences of unregulated mining and opaque corporate governance in Zimbabwe.

This story has been republished by permission from Newsday