Inside Zimbabwe’s gold underworld
The decriminalisation of digging for gold was supposed to open Zimbabwe’s metals sector. Instead, it’s given rise to a violent, criminal underworld
26 November 2020 - 05:00
One night in October, soldiers at a military base near the Zimbabwean city of Bulawayo woke up to find that artisanal gold miners, amakorokoza, had breached a security area a few metres from the base’s perimeter wall.
The miners had set up rudimentary equipment, preparing to dig up the area, seemingly indifferent to the fact that they could be shot dead...
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