By A Correspondent| Mutapa Energy Resources’ plan to construct a US$300 million lithium processing plant at Sandawana Mine in Mberengwa has sparked outrage after revelations that 104 families will be evicted and 52 graves exhumed without a court order or free, prior, and informed consent of the affected communities.
This forced relocation, scheduled for September, violates Section 74 of Zimbabwe’s Constitution, which prohibits eviction without judicial oversight, and represents a grave assault on cultural dignity and human rights.
The situation is particularly alarming because women and girls constitute nearly 80 percent of the targeted communities, making the eviction a gendered crisis. Mining activities and displacement disproportionately affect women, stripping them of farmland, homes, and livelihoods while excluding them from decision-making processes.
Girls face disrupted education, heightened risks of poverty, and exposure to violence, while women-headed households are uprooted with little protection. The planned exhumation of ancestral graves further disregards cultural heritage, with women traditionally responsible for safeguarding spiritual and communal memory.
Community Solution Zimbabwe (CSZ), a women-led, youth-focused organisation operating in Midlands Province, has condemned the relocation and reburial plan. CSZ leader Panashe Khumbula declared:
“This is a gendered human rights crisis. Women and girls, who make up the majority of the affected communities, are being evicted and stripped of their dignity without consent or judicial protection. Development cannot proceed by violating constitutional rights and cultural heritage.”
CSZ is demanding the immediate suspension of relocations and grave exhumations, the enforcement of court-sanctioned processes, and the inclusion of gender-sensitive safeguards to ensure women’s voices are central in decision-making. The organisation also calls for independent monitoring by civil society and human rights institutions to prevent further abuses.
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