Over 430 gold panners still being held by army near Kadoma
By Lance Guma
29 November 2006

Over 430 gold panners accused of illegal gold panning at a farm owned by the army in Battlefields near Kadoma are reportedly still in custody and being forced to fill up the trenches they had dug up. A Zim-Online report says 10 children who had been arrested alongside their parents last Friday have since been released. Conditions at the barracks are said to be deteriorating with the soldiers having barred friends and relatives from bringing any food or clothing.

Worryingly for those detained, Zim Online says police commanders have tried to secure the release of the panners but the army has refused to budge. The website reports that senior army commanders feel the police are treating the panners with ‘kid gloves.’ A source quoted on the site said, ‘we have an instruction that we should not entertain the police in the matter as it is an instruction from our commanders in Harare. "We will not release them until they finish covering the holes that they have been creating on the farm. In fact, the army is conducting it’s own operation to arrest the makorokoza (illegal gold panners)," a junior officer was quoted as saying.

Deputy police spokesperson Chief Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka told Zim Online, ‘We have said before that this is not an issue to discuss with the press because you want to fan hatred between the police and the army. The situation is under control and there is no reason to be so excited about it.” Most of the companies that used to operate in Kadoma have closed down due to the deteriorating economic climate in Zimbabwe, forcing the majority of the population to rely on gold panning for a living. The response of the army has been described as heavy handed given that they are dealing with just the symptoms of a much bigger national problem of unemployment.