Insider mediators help resolve violent conflicts between miners and farmers in Zimbabwe

Read Allanviny Murozvi and Billian Matambo’s story!

Our insider mediators in Chiadzwa after discussing how farmers and miners can share land in a sustainable way that benefits everyone at a stakeholder consultation meeting. Photo © Billian Matambo

While farming has always been the backbone of the Zimbabwean economy, especially in rural communities, the country is also rich in much sought-after raw materials like platinum, chrome, or coal. Therefore, in many regions, farmers and miners compete for the use of land, which leads to conflict and can even escalate into intimidation or severe physical violence. In addition, conflicting legislation on mining, agriculture and environmental protection creates uncertainty and encourages arbitrary decision-making across these sectors, which not only causes conflict among institutions, but also exacerbates conflicts between farmers and miners on the ground.

In Chiadzwa, a ward in the Mutare District in eastern Zimbabwe, these conflicts were escalating when a national mining company and artisanal miners started forcing farmers out from their land, using state security actors to enforce these actions. But also farmers and pastoralists who had not been forcibly removed suffered from the mining activities. Often, their livestock was in danger of falling into unclosed mining holes or getting poisoned by the mines’ dumping sites. The intense mining activity in the region also had degraded soil fertility and led to farmers and miners competing for water access.

Two insider mediators from our network, Allanviny Murozvi and Billian Matambo, decided to start a mediation intervention to prevent the conflicts from escalating further and to help the miners and farmers find a mutual agreement. To do so, they brought together representatives from the conflicting parties, traditional leaders, policymakers, security agencies, and party officials for a mediation and dialogue process. At the dialogue meetings, the conflicting parties spoke directly with each other for the first time.

The communication workshop with its active listening components was the most useful aspect of our training. [W]e could apply it in our mediation interventions in a way that made all sides feel heard[…].

Before starting the process, Allanviny and Billian had taken part in the mediation and dialogue training that we co-organise with Africa University where they had learned about active listening methods. They applied these techniques during the mediation process and were able to help the conflict parties better understand the root causes of their conflict. “The communication workshop with its active listening components was the most useful aspect of our training. [W]e could apply it in our mediation interventions in a way that made all sides feel heard and solutions were more easily found because of it”, Allanviny and Billian told us.

Through the dialogues that the insider mediators facilitated, the farmers and miners saw that besides the conflicts over the use of land and environmental degradation, they both suffered from a high unemployment rate and had difficulties sustaining their livelihoods. With the insider mediator’s support, they agreed on how to share water resources sustainably. The local communities agreed to let the mining companies operate, as long as they agreed to reserve a set percentage of jobs for locals and committed to empowering and training local youth through scholarship programmes and traineeships. The mining company committed to redistributing a significant portion of its profits to the local community.

Allanviny and Billian’s mediation intervention laid the ground for community-driven solutions to resolve local disputes between the farmers and miners in Chiadzwa.

This project is made possible through the generous support of the European Union.

Contact

Elisabeth Meyer
Senior Strategic Partnerships Manager
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