Workers at Gaths Mine in Mashava 40km west of Masvingo have not been paid their wages for almost three years now and they are languishing in poverty and hunger. The situation has been made worse by the continuing legal war between the former owner and government who has placed the mine under judiciary management and later placed it under Ministry of mines.

The failure to come up with amicable solution is hitting hard on the workers and their families as described by one of the worker Mr Conrad Phiri said ‘how am l supposed to survive for three years without any income? I am a father of three and l also looks after my brother’s two daughters. We are obliged to go to work every day only for a roll call. How can l go to work on an empty stomach? Now most of the workers are now engaging in illegal gold panning and doing menial jobs at farms surrounding the mine’.

Mr M Nkhoma has also described the situation as grave and calls the powers that be to take a quick action to uplift their lives. He said ‘the situation here is so intense, we have lost our dignity. I consider myself lucky because l am a draftsman and l sometimes get personal jobs to draw building plans and that has been sustaining me unlike others who have no source of income but just waiting for the company to pay us.’