The Mountains All Around Us

Andrew Field,

The mountains that ring Mutare are under systematic assault. Chinese-operated mining activity has encroached on slopes, ridgelines and catchments once considered the beautiful natural heritage of Mutare and nearby Penhalonga. The makomo have been left scarred; blasted rock, fresh gullies, spoil heaps and a network of new access tracks gouge the skyline.

Residents and community monitors document repeated detonations, dust that coats homes and crops, turbid streams and the visible loss of native vegetation that once stabilised steep slopes. The physical evidence on the ground and the intensity of public alarm indicate a crisis of environmental degradation and public governance.

One cannot help but smell the stench of corruption at play (filthy, brazen, and at the expense of irreversible ecological damage). How many silver coins are being tossed? Removal of vegetative cover on steep granite slopes exposes soil to sheet erosion and rapid gullying. Spoil heaps and loose overburden provide direct conduits for sediment into streams and reservoirs that supply Mutare and downstream communities.

Where gold extraction is present, the risk of chemical contamination increases. Cyanide and mercury remain common in artisanal and semi-industrial processing, despite well-established hazards. Disturbed slopes, heavy seasonal rains and rising volumes of unconsolidated waste elevate the risk of landslides; lives and infrastructure are threatened the moment the next major storm arrives.

The social consequences are already tangible. Homes near operations show cracking consistent with repeated blasting. Dust reduces air quality and settles on food and water containers. Farmers report reduced productivity. Local pastoral and foraging practices are interrupted. The mountain vistas that shape Mutare’s identity and underpin small-scale tourism and cultural economies are being disfigured. Public outrage builds not only from environmental loss but from the perception that ordinary livelihoods and longstanding communal values are being traded away for extractive profit.

The failure of oversight amplifies harm. Clearly, with such impunity, back pockets are being filled. The Ministry of Environment, Climate and Wildlife, as well as the Environmental Management Agency, are frequently cited by residents as either inert or absent from the field.

Why should that be? This has been public knowledge since 2024. There is a conspicuous lack of visible enforcement action; no transparent publication of Environmental Impact Assessments to justify ongoing excavation in sensitive zones; and no credible, long-running independent monitoring that the public can inspect. Local complaints and petitions have generated statements, but no effective, sustained enforcement on the ground. That pattern of delay and equivocation has allowed extraction to proceed with de facto impunity.

Allegations of compromised consent and paperwork corruption deepen the institutional crisis. Community leaders allege that consultations were perfunctory, with disputed signatures on purported approvals and permits granted without adequate safeguards. These are serious claims of procedural fraud that demand prompt forensic review. If signatures were forged or consultations faked, legal and criminal consequences must follow, and the permits in question must be suspended immediately.

Public accountability requires a phased response that is urgent, transparent and community-centred. First, all blasting and excavation in identified heritage, catchment and steep-slope zones must be suspended until a truly independent Environmental Impact Assessment is completed and published in full. The assessment must be commissioned and overseen by independent academic institutions and recognised international experts (chosen in consultation with community representatives).

Second, independent inspectors must be deployed without delay to audit environmental compliance, test water quality across affected catchments and conduct slope-stability assessments. Testing must be repeated and publicly reported so communities and municipal authorities can plan responses to immediate hazards.

Where contamination or material damage is confirmed, remediation and compensation must be the operator’s financial responsibility and must be implemented under independent supervision. But wake up, Zimbabwe; that is never going to happen unless communities demand it. Remediation plans must include engineered slope stabilisation, removal or containment of contaminated material, reforestation with native species and long-term water-quality monitoring. Compensation frameworks must prioritise households and livelihoods demonstrably harmed, and they must be negotiated with meaningful local representation (not offered as unilateral corporate packages).

The community must react, and quickly. Investigative paths to establish corporate identity and responsibility are clear and practical: permit and licence records from the Ministry responsible for mines and local councils; requests for Environmental Impact Assessments, EIA certificates and any signed community accords; inspection of truck and site signage, photographed gate boards, and tenders or subcontracting records that show the chain of command.

Satellite imagery and geotagged social media posts can be used to match reported damage with coordinates recorded in official permit documents. Bank and contractor records should be subpoenaed where legal proceedings permit. These steps deliver the concrete evidence needed to name operators responsibly.

While investigations proceed, civil society and municipal actors must press for enforceable interim protections. A moratorium on new permits in the Mutare mountain precinct must be enacted until comprehensive assessments and community consultations are complete. The Environmental Management Agency should be legally required to publish all EIAs and site inspection reports online. The Ministry for Environment must mount a visible, accountable field presence and convene a multi-stakeholder emergency response team (including traditional leaders, independent scientists and civil society monitors).

Donor and international partners have a role. Multilateral funders and bilateral partners concerned with governance and environmental protection should demand transparency and offer technical support for independent monitoring. International ecological NGOs and academic institutions should be invited to conduct third-party verification of water and soil testing and provide guidance on remediation. Where foreign corporate actors are implicated, consular channels and commercial registries can be used to trace beneficial ownership and contractual relationships.

This is not merely a technical problem of sediment and chemical risk; it is a test of governance, law and social contract. Allowing rapid, unregulated excavation on erosion-prone slopes will produce losses that are both ecological and economic — and those losses will be borne by citizens who did not consent to trading their beautiful landscape and safety for short-term profit. The people of Mutare deserve clear, verifiable answers about who is operating on their mountains and enforceable commitments that damage will be stopped, assessed and repaired.

Action must now be immediate, evidence-led and accountable. Government should suspend destructive activity in high-risk zones. Independent EIAs should be commissioned and published. Third-party inspectors must be deployed to test water and slope stability, and all results made public.

Mutare residents should immediately demand remediation and compensation funded by the operator and monitored by a panel that includes community delegates. Where procedural fraud or official collusion is uncovered, legal accountability must follow without delay. These steps will protect lives, restore institutional credibility and give Mutare and Penhalonga a chance to preserve what remains of their natural heritage.

The Chinese seem to be creating massive environmental damage across the region. Many will remember the February 2025 tailings-dam collapse that released roughly 50 million litres of acidic mine waste into the Mwambashi and Kafue rivers in Zambia (killing fish, contaminating water supplies and threatening millions downstream).

What similar fate awaits Mutare, with potential landslides looming, if communities remain passive? The rains are nearly here, and projections suggest they will be heavy. Remember Chipinge in the wake of Cyclone Idai; three hundred and forty people sacrificed to deforestation, poor land management and illicit settlements on the steep slopes surrounding the town.

There is a common denominator here. Governments must realise that politicians’ pockets lined with silver have an irreversible impact on the environment and the well-being of nations when dealing with these nouveau Chinese colonialists who came through the back door. Unchecked Chinese mining (enabled by political complicity) transforms Zimbabwe’s beautiful heritage and landscapes into Potter’s Fields — where corruption buries both justice and sustainability.