ZIMBABWE is digging up billions of dollars in mineral wealth. But for the women living closest to the mines, the riches are increasingly looking like a curse.
That is the damning contradiction exposed by the latest report by the Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG), Impact of Mining on Women’s Livelihoods in Zvishavane, Midlands Province.
While government celebrates record mining earnings, 90% of women surveyed said mining had disrupted water access. Another 85% reported damage to farming, while 70% said their trading activities had been impacted.
Nine in 10 women struggling to access water. More than eight in 10 seeing their farming livelihoods disrupted. Seven in 10 feeling the impact on their businesses.
These are not dry statistics. They are families whose daily struggles get harder every time another load of ore leaves the
ground.
And yet Zimbabwe continues to trumpet its mining boom.
The sector generated US$6,21 billion in the first half of the year, up a staggering 121,3% from the same period in 2025. Mining earns the country desperately needed foreign currency, creates jobs and contributes to government revenues.
But economic growth that leaves mining communities poorer is not development. It is extraction dressed up as progress.
The uncomfortable question, one government and mining companies can no longer dodge, is: what do the people living close to Zimbabwe’s mineral wealth actually get from it?
If the answer is polluted or depleted water, damaged farmland, lost livelihoods and broken communities, then something is seriously wrong.
This is how the resource curse begins.
It is not simply about having too many minerals. It is about wealth becoming concentrated in the hands of a few while the communities bearing the environmental and social costs are left with little more than holes in the ground and promises of development.
Zimbabwe must not allow that to become its mining model.
Mining companies cannot be allowed to arrive, extract and leave while communities are expected to pick up the pieces.
And communities cannot continue being told that their sacrifice is necessary for national development when they see little of the wealth generated from beneath their feet.
The solution is to make mining pay its full social and economic bill.
That means proper consultation before a shovel enters the ground. It means fair and transparent compensation for affected families.
It means environmental laws that are enforced rather than admired on paper. It means mandatory rehabilitation of damaged land. And it means mining revenues producing visible benefits in the communities where the minerals are extracted.
Most importantly, women must have a genuine voice.
The CNRG report shows why. When water becomes scarce, farmland disappears and household incomes collapse, women often carry the heaviest burden.
They cannot be invited to meetings merely to tick a consultation box. They must have a meaningful say in decisions that directly affect their lives.
Government, meanwhile, needs to stop treating regulation as a paperwork exercise.
What good are environmental laws if companies can violate them without consequence? What is the value of compensation frameworks if affected villagers cannot challenge decisions or obtain justice?
Zimbabwe needs far greater transparency over mineral revenues, mining contracts and the benefits flowing to
communities.
The country’s mineral wealth should be visible in functioning water systems, better roads, schools, clinics, local businesses and decent jobs — not just in impressive export figures and corporate balance sheets.
The real test of Zimbabwe’s mining boom is whether a woman who walks for water today has easier access to it tomorrow. It is whether the farmer whose land is disturbed can rebuild her livelihood.
If mining cannot deliver that, then Zimbabwe is not mining its way to prosperity.
It is simply digging its way into a deeper hole.
The post Mining must not become Zimbabwe’s resource curse appeared first on newsday.
Follow the story
