Women in mining: A view into disability consciousness
The mining industry in Zimbabwe has been a male dominated field for many years, a situation that has made it difficult for women to penetrate into the market without experiencing inhibiting factors.
By Minenhle Moyo
Women with a keen interest in mining continue being discouraged by entrenched patriarchal beliefs and steep funds required to operate a mining business. Women with disabilities have not been spared from these constraints as they too are marginalised from most economic activities.
Mrs. Lusinga from Bubi Constituency who owns a gold mine said women are marginalised in the mining sector as they are not regarded as capable to own and run mine businesses.
“Women are deemed as powerless to run mining businesses. When such issues are discussed in communities women are not given a place to contribute effectively in decisions that are made.”
“The processes of acquiring land also discourages women from penetrating into the mining sector. There is a lot of money that is needed to process all the documents necessary to run a gold mine legally. Even if they get the land, it then becomes hard for women to intensively mine gold because machinery is expensive and they do not have adequate resources,” said Lusinga.
Infocus News caught up with Soneni Gwizi, an Action in Disability Development Ambassador and Women with Disabilities Activist who echoed similar sentiments emphasizing that women with disabilities face obstacles in their quest for equal opportunities.
“Women continue to experience hurdles when they seek to penetrate the mining sector because societal attitudes and beliefs are still negative towards women with disabilities within that sector. It is worse for women with disabilities who face numerous challenges in life such as lack of equal opportunities within the mining industry or better yet acquiring loans.”
“There is a huge interest among women with disabilities to strengthen their influence in the sector and women with disabilities are extremely capable to handle the pressure because all it takes is proper planning, having a business vision and delegating.,” she said.
In light of these challenges, media reports indicate that the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community and Small and Medium Enterprise Development engaged TogaBless Mining Investment Company to assist women with acquiring gold claims.
In an interview with Agatha Mandala, the Coordinator of TogaBless said the aim of the partnership is to empower vulnerable women across the country so that they can be self-sufficient.
“We are mainly targeting the most vulnerable women in societies. We are looking for women with disabilities and those without sources of income but interested in mining. So far, we have assisted 36 women but our project is still on going.
“We depend on investments from other companies so that we can be able to help as many women as we can. Unfortunately for now we have exhausted all our investments for the month and we are calling upon prospective investors to pitch in with finances to help us so that we can help as many women a possible in turn uplifting our nation,” she said.
Cultural, institutional and structural challenges continue to affect women in the mining sector and this has led most women to resort to illegal mining in order to make a living, in turn putting their lives at risk as most of them work with handheld machinery as opposed to proper mining equipment.