Source: How Chinese mining abuses may ignite a revolution in Zimbabwe
Tendai Ruben Mbofana
I have a dear friend and former classmate who has recently been beside herself with rage over the atrocious mining activities of Chinese nationals in our hometown of Redcliff.
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Her anger is well justified.
The Chinese miners have been shamelessly tearing through a nearby mountain with no regard for the safety of surrounding residents or the sanctity of the environment.
Their reckless excavation is occurring just meters from a dam that sustains local livelihoods — a vital water source used by families for fishing, livestock, and small-scale farming.
Even more alarming, this dam feeds into the Kwekwe River, a crucial waterway depended upon by countless farmers downstream.
Across Zimbabwe, similar stories are unfolding.
Chinese mining operations have become synonymous with environmental destruction — poisoning rivers, leveling mountains, and displacing communities.
Their conduct is defined by an arrogant disregard for our country’s laws, environmental regulations, and even the most basic human rights.
They have been accused of assaulting, and in several reported cases, killing their workers — who are often underpaid, overworked, and forced to toil under inhumane conditions.
Reports abound of villagers being driven off their ancestral lands without consent or compensation, of streams once teeming with fish now turned toxic, and of farmland rendered infertile by mining waste.
Yet what fascinates me most about my friend’s outrage is not her passion, which I deeply share, but her political alignment.
She is a staunch ZANU-PF supporter.
And that, to me, is where the contradiction lies.
How can one be enraged at the exploitative behavior of the Chinese miners, yet still align with the very political establishment that has invited, protected, and empowered them?
The Chinese would never dare behave with such impunity if they did not enjoy the blessings of those in power.
They know they are untouchable — shielded from accountability by their close ties to the ruling elite.
The ZANU-PF regime has opened the floodgates for this new breed of colonizers.
These are not mere investors, but modern-day vapambepfumi — plunderers who have come to feast on Zimbabwe’s resources with state-sanctioned impunity.
The same government that ruthlessly cracks down on small-scale miners and poor vendors for “operating illegally” is conspicuously silent when Chinese firms destroy rivers, forests, and sacred lands.
So, when my friend rails against these Chinese invaders, I can’t help but ask: where do they draw their power from?
Who grants them the audacity to disregard our environmental laws, defy court orders, and even attack citizens?
The answer points directly to ZANU-PF.
The party’s leadership has not only courted the Chinese as “all-weather friends” but has actively mortgaged Zimbabwe’s sovereignty to them in exchange for political survival and personal enrichment.
From mining to construction, energy to telecommunications, Chinese interests dominate every sector — not because they bring the best deals, but because they serve the interests of a ruling class desperate to stay in power.
The hypocrisy of ZANU-PF supporters who decry the Chinese but continue to defend their party is breathtaking.
It is like blaming the snake for biting you, yet protecting the hand that released it from the bag.
If we are to be angry at the Chinese, we must also be angry at those who empowered them.
The two cannot be separated.
The Chinese are merely the visible face of a deeper rot — the symptom of a political disease called corruption and betrayal of the people.
But herein lies a profound irony — and perhaps, a spark of hope.
I believe the seeds of Zimbabwe’s next great revolution are being sown not in the cities, not on social media, and not by the political opposition.
They are germinating in the rural heartlands — in the very communities ZANU-PF has long taken for granted as its impregnable stronghold.
For decades, the ruling party has maintained control over the rural populace through a calculated mixture of fear, propaganda, and dependency.
Poverty has been weaponized as a political tool.
The regime ensures that villagers remain in need so that every borehole, bag of fertilizer, or donated clinic becomes an instrument of manipulation — a reminder of who their “savior” is.
Opposition parties are systematically barred from freely operating in these areas, civic organizations are muzzled, and internet access remains limited to prevent alternative narratives from taking root.
But now, the dynamics are shifting.
The villagers are witnessing with their own eyes the cruelty and greed of those in power.
They see the Chinese plundering their land, diverting their rivers, and desecrating their graves — all under the watchful eye of the government they were told to trust.
This is awakening a new consciousness, one born not of social media hashtags or opposition rallies, but of direct suffering and lived betrayal.
From Binga to Hwange, Dete to Marange, Mutoko to Bikita and Uzumba — the same pattern repeats itself.
Chinese mining operations are uprooting entire communities, poisoning rivers, and leaving behind barren wastelands.
Livestock are dying from contaminated water.
Crops are failing.
Families displaced from their lands now languish in squalid resettlement areas with no schools, clinics, or clean water.
These are not abstract policy failures — they are wounds inflicted upon the very people ZANU-PF claims to represent.
At a recent Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG) conference — The People’s COP (Conference of Parties) — in Harare, a villager from Hwange shared a heartbreaking account.
Their community had built a small dam for irrigation and household use, only for a Chinese company to seize it for mining operations.
When the villagers protested, they were arrested.
This story is emblematic of a wider national tragedy — where the powerless are punished for defending their right to exist, while the powerful plunder with impunity.
Yet, within this injustice lies the potential for transformation.
As villagers across Zimbabwe connect the dots — realizing that these Chinese miners operate with government blessing — their anger will inevitably shift from the symptoms to the source.
The moment they understand that condemning the Chinese without condemning ZANU-PF is an exercise in futility, the real revolution will begin.
And when it does, it will not come in the form of urban protests, hashtags, or election campaigns.
It will be a peasant revolution — spontaneous, organic, and unstoppable.
This will be the real Zimbabwe revolution which will change things in the country.
Not the political games we are busy playing in urban areas.
Just as small groups of landless Zimbabweans in the 1990s bravely occupied farms, even at the risk of being labeled ‘squatters’ and arrested or violently removed by the state, today’s rural communities may soon rise against those who have stolen their land, water, and dignity.
The difference this time is that their anger will not be manipulated or contained by political elites.
It will be raw, local, and deeply personal.
The writing is on the wall.
The people are tired.
They are no longer deceived by slogans about sovereignty and empowerment while foreign corporations plunder their birthright.
The day is coming when the poor in the villages — long dismissed as passive and loyal — will stand up and say, “Enough.”
And when that day arrives, no amount of propaganda, police intimidation, or Chinese funding will be able to stop them.
That, I believe, will be the true Zimbabwean revolution — not fought with guns or hashtags, but with awakened minds and fearless hearts that finally see their oppressor for who he really is.
- Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to WhatsApp or Call: +263715667700 | +263782283975, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com, or visit website: https://mbofanatendairuben.news.blog/
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