Abstract
In the 1990s, government authorities in Zimbabwe introduced internationally praised policies to formalize the artisanal and small-scale mining sector, using a combination of district-administered and nationally administered licensing and capacity-building measures. While “decentralization” efforts in the 1990s and early 2000s were hampered by insufficient resource and power transfers, the model was seen by environmental scholars as a source of optimism. However, as economic crisis deepened in the 2000s, national officials (a) revoked the power of Rural District Councils to regulate riverbed alluvial gold panning and (b) increased barriers to formally licensed small-scale primary ore mining. This article examines the recentralization of power in this growing informal sector, exploring how heavy-handed implementation of national reforms contributed to livelihood insecurity. The study emphasizes how national officials invoked “formalization” rationales for mining policy shifts that obscured their underlying political and economic drivers, disempowering local district authorities and deepening the marginalization of informal livelihoods.
Highlights
In the 1990s, government authorities in Zimbabwe introduced internationally praised policies to formalize the artisanal and small-scale mining sector, using a combination of district-administered and nationally administered licensing and capacity-building measures
The analysis adds to the work of Mawowa (2013) that describes how patronage networks evolved in the ASM sector before, during, and after the temporary ‘‘Government of National Unity’’ between the ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National Union—Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF)—and the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), lasting between 2009 and 2013
Some national government officials blamed rural district councils (RDCs) for having poorly managed riverbed panning in the past; the president of Zimbabwe Local Government Association (ZILGA) attributed the shortcomings of RDC involvement to the fact that national economic policies prevented councils from collecting mineral revenues, noting that RDCs receive less than 0.001% of mining revenues
Summary
In the 1990s, government authorities in Zimbabwe introduced internationally praised policies to formalize the artisanal and small-scale mining sector, using a combination of district-administered and nationally administered licensing and capacity-building measures.
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