By Staff Reporter
The Centre of Natural Resource Governance (CNRG) hosted a training workshop for mine workers’ unions and artisanal miners in Zimbabwe to foster solidarity among operators, trade unions, and other stakeholders to address common challenges and promote collective interests.
CNRG organized the learning experience with Zimbabwe Diamond and Allied Minerals Workers Union (ZDAMWU) to build capacity and provide training to mine workers, focusing on safety, environmental sustainability, and business management.
The training is under a project, Enhancing Advocacy and Capacity Building of CSOs and CBOS for Natural Resources Governance (ENABLE), implemented in partnership with Bruit fur de Welt and co-funded by the European Union. It presents a collaborative and advocacy platform for policies and laws that support ASM development and protect miners’ rights.
ZDAMWU General Secretary Justice Chinhema emphasized that while Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) supports many livelihoods, it also raises critical concerns around safety, environmental damage, and exploitation.
“Through this exchange program, we have shared experiences, best practices, and lessons learned in promoting ASM development while protecting workers’ rights. I’m confident that our collaboration will yield positive outcomes for our members and the broader mining community,” said Chinhema.
Participants at the workers’ union training workshop follow the proceedings
Tendai Makanza, IndustriALL Sub-Saharan Africa regional officer, said the ASM faces challenges that can be addressed through policy interventions, including the adoption of decent work practices.
Makanza said implementation of the ILO 204 will address some of the challenges within the sector. ILO Recommendation 204, adopted in 2015, guides countries to facilitate the transition of workers and businesses from the informal to the formal economy.
She said Zimbabwe’s small-scale miners have dominated national gold deliveries in 2024–2025, with strong year-on-year growth reported through FGR; several monthly and half-year updates confirm ASM’s leading share.
Persistent challenges include illicit flows and smuggling, market, pricing asymmetries, outdated technology, and OSH risks, issues highlighted in sector overviews and due diligence reporting, stated Makanza.
“Despite its economic significance, the sector is plagued by a complex web of interconnected challenges that no single entity can solve alone. Addressing these requires a fundamental shift from top-down regulation to inclusive social dialogue and multi-stakeholder partnerships,” she said.
IndustriALL efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) focus on strengthening trade unions through digital tools for worker education and organizing, advocating for sustainable industrialization and improved working conditions, particularly for women and precarious workers, and promoting workers’ rights in critical industries like mining and manufacturing.
The union also works to combat issues like gender-based inequality, precarious work, and the need for better labor laws, including the ratification of ILO Convention 190.
Barnabas Makuvatsine, an artisanal miner from Jumbo Mine, talked of the need to enforce OHS standards in the ASM sector to bring sanity and stop preventable deaths of artisanal miners across the country.
He said the deaths of artisanal miners are more prevalent and under-reported, as he talked about the need for formalisation of the ASM sector to address the safety challenges that persist in the mining sector.
“People are dying daily because they lack the basic knowledge of mine safety. We kindly ask the Ministry of Mines to engage with the sector to teach about safety, because we are the backbone of the country,” he said.