Who Owns the Gwembe Valley?

By Pamela Kapekele

The government has issued over a thousand mining licences for both prospecting and mining activities in Gwembe valley. These licences have been granted to a mix of foreign and local owners, some of whom have leveraged their political connections to obtain them.

The valley is home to a diverse range of precious stones and mineral resources, including copper-cobalt, gold, gemstones, various industrial minerals, and potential energy resources such as uranium, coal, and hydrocarbons.

The Gwembe valley is the local name for the middle Zambezi valley area, stretching along the Zambezi river after it plunges over the Victoria falls and emerges from a series of steep gorges. The valley covers about 6,000 square kilometres, from Chiawa through Chirundu and Siavonga, up to the Zimba district.

It is infamous for evictions, as in 1958, the government displaced the inhabitants from their ancestral homes to make way for the construction of the World Bank-funded Kariba Gorge hydroelectric dam for electricity generation.

According to the mining cadastre portal, Zambia has 4,246 active mining rights, 1,000 of which are in the valley. Of these mining rights, 1,429are large-scale explorations, while 118 are actively mining. Among the large-scale explorations, 132 are in the valley.

In Zambia, a mining licence holder has the right to displace locals to carry out mining operations.

According to the University of Zambia researcher Veronica Kathleen Scott, prospective miners and mining rights licence holders can use the law of compulsory acquisition of land to displace the locals.

Scott noted in one of her research papers that while this may not seem like a pressing issue at the moment, the increasing economic investments from both foreign and local investors will heighten the demand for viable land.

She observed that land or an interest in it is considered compulsorily acquired if it is purchased or taken under statutory powers without the owner’s agreement. She further explained that compulsory acquisition of land, regardless of whether it is termed compulsory purchase, essentially involves the coercive taking of land and interests in land for public purposes.

“The rationale advanced for compulsory acquisition or the law relating to it is that if real property were a res nullis, meaning the property of no one, it would be valueless in the economic sense and basically there would be no purpose for compulsorily acquiring it as it would in effect belong to no one. Conversely, if all land belonged to the state, there would be no need for compensation either. The state, in its all-encompassing power, could simply divert that land, irrespective of whether or not it was occupied,” she explained.

In short, the government can use this law to force the people of the Gwembe valley to relocate.

MakanDay has established that the coverage, in hectares, for these issued licences is nearly a third of the valley. The licences were acquired mainly between 2018 and 2021, with some approved in 2022. These licences are owned by a few individuals and companies, and many licence holders were not registered as legal entities at the company registration agency – the Patents and Company Registraion Agency (PACRA), meaning their mining activities may not attract taxes.

Section 117 of the Mines and Minerals Development Act 2015 states: “Any information furnished or information in a report submitted to the Minister, Committee, Director of Mines, Director of Mines Safety, Director of Mining Cadastre or Director of Geological Survey or any authorized officer under or for the purposes of this Act by a holder of a mining or non-mining right shall not, for so long as the mining or non-mining right has effect over the land to which the information relates, be disclosed, except with the consent of the holder of the mining or non-mining right.”

Our investigation revealed that some licence holders had as many as 50 licences, defying the order by mines minister Paul Kabuswe, who, in 2022, ruled that an individual could not hold more than five mining licences.

Join us for part II of this story as Chief Sinazongwe and Gwembe valley advocate Winter Mavumbo take us through the implications of mass evictions for his people.

Main photo is for illustration purposes