By Staff Reporter
At least three villagers have been struck by haulage trucks belonging to Dinson Iron and Steel Company (DISCO) since the beginning of the year, plunging the Manhize community into a growing state of fear and unease, The Weekly can report.
Names of the victims have been supplied but are being withheld to protect the privacy of the affected families. The most recent victim is currently battling for his life at Harare Hospital, adding urgency to the community’s long-standing concerns.
Community monitors on the ground report that the victim was rushed to Harare in critical condition after he was struck by the truck on the 31st of July.
The accidents, all occurring near DISCO’s multi million-dollar steel plant, have amplified residents’ concerns about safety and corporate accountability. Each day, villagers in Chirumhanzu District, Midlands Province, watch nervously as heavily loaded trucks rumble through narrow rural roads, ferrying iron ingots from the plant and bringing in essential inputs like coal from as far as Hwange.
Villagers say the imposing trucks — which ferry iron billets from the plant and deliver inputs such as coal from as far away as Hwange — have turned local roads into zones of danger. “We live in fear every day,” said one resident. “Our children walk to school using the same road as these trucks, and any mistake can be fatal.”
The scale and frequency of the truck movements through the dusty roads have made routine activities feel perilous.
For many, these trucks have become a symbol of danger rather than development, not just because of the fatalities and injuries, but also due to the environmental burden they impose.
The convoys churn up massive clouds of dust, reducing air quality, contaminating crops, and exacerbating respiratory issues in a community that already feels marginalized by the rapid industrial expansion in their midst.
Fear, frustration, and a sense of voicelessness now define daily life in Manhize, as villagers grapple with the human cost of Zimbabwe’s steel ambitions.
DISCO is a subsidiary of China’s Tsingshan Group, one of the world’s largest stainless-steel producers. DISCO is the implementing arm of what the Zimbabwean government has dubbed the “Manhize Steel Project,”.
The multibillion-dollar steel plant, touted as the biggest in Africa, is part of the government’s thrust to industrialize the economy and increase mineral beneficiation.
However, the Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNNRG) has consistently raised red flags about the project’s social, environmental, and human rights implications. The development of the plant has been marred by opaque land acquisition processes, inadequate community consultation, and forced relocations of local villagers without proper compensation or alternative livelihoods. The organization has also documented the destruction of grazing land and sacred sites, alongside deepening socio-economic inequalities in the affected areas.
CNRG warns that while the project is marketed as a symbol of Zimbabwe’s economic revival, it has come at a high cost to local communities who bear the brunt of environmental degradation, air and noise pollution, and now increasingly, threats to personal safety.
The increasing number of accidents involving DISCO’s haulage trucks is seen as part of a broader pattern of extractive development that prioritizes profit over people and disregards the principles of community consent and environmental justice.