Alex Samanyanga
The Government has joined forces with the Harare city council to stop illegal extraction of sand and quarry.
Plans are afoot to arrests sand poachers and destroy selling points, especially those close to the highway.
The Provincial Development Coordinator for Harare Province Mr Tafadzwa Muguti said previous operations to remove sand poachers was met by resistance from the poachers who would mobilise and attack EMA and Council officials.
This has prompted council to rope in the Zimbabwe Republic Police to deal with the violent poachers.
“Those people are very violent the last three months I sent EMA officers into those areas to educate them, you will be shocked to know that they will be very violent, beating up people with shovels. Many people have been hurt because of that, we had to bring in armed police into the same environment because they believe they are entitled to looting sand,” said PDC Muguti.
He bemoaned the deaths which have been experienced as a result of the presence of the open shafts.
“This year we received the heaviest rains in many years and most of these pits are now ‘little dams’ we have cases for children falling into them and drowning.
It`s irresponsible for a human being to leave a pit the size of a football pitch. Who do you think is going to fill it up? It is the commercial greed that is beckoning and we have to stop it,” said PDC Muguti.
Since coming into office, PDC Muguti has been trying to bring sanity in Harare from land sales to sand poaching, however he has been facing resistance from organised groups which were used to breaking the law for profit.
Recent Comments