Staff Writer 
RECENT public statements circulating in the media have sought to recast a lawful, stabilised artisanal mining operation as a problem requiring “intervention.”
This framing is misleading and diverts attention from a far more serious concern: the increasing substitution of intimidation and pressure tactics for lawful process.
At the centre of the matter is Botha Gold Mine, a duly registered local operator that, over several years, transformed a historically volatile makorokoza hotspot into a regularised, structured and productive artisanal mining environment.
This transformation is evidenced by measurable outcomes:
• a marked reduction in criminality and violence;
* orderly and accountable artisanal mining activity;
* predictable and lawful livelihoods for miners and contractors;
* a boost in socioeconomic development; and
* improved safety and community stability.
These gains were achieved through compliance, administration and engagement, not coercion.
Bullying by Pressure: When Power Is Used to Intimidate, Not Resolve
Of grave concern is the manner in which the dispute has been pursued. Instead of engaging established regulatory and judicial mechanisms, the approach adopted by Freda Rebecca Gold Mine has relied on pressure, fear and confusion to force outcomes outside due process.
This pattern of conduct has included:
* the circulation of public notices and messages calculated to induce panic among artisanal miners and workers before any lawful determination has been made;
* shifting assertions of authority that deliberately blur legitimate control, leaving people exposed and uncertain;
* the repeated invocation of criminal consequence or exclusion without charge, hearing or adjudication; and
* the direct targeting and intimidation of innocent third-party contractors, individuals and small operators with no ownership dispute, no regulatory breach and no decision-making power, who have been threatened, unsettled and pressured simply for carrying out lawful work.
Taken together, these actions amount to bullying through imbalance of power, where institutional weight is deployed not to resolve a dispute but to intimidate, destabilise and exhaust a compliant local operator and the wider community that depends on it.
This is not governance.
It is coercion by proxy.
The Human Cost of Intimidation
The impact of these tactics is immediate and real. Contractors who invested in lawful operations now face uncertainty and fear of sudden displacement. Artisanal miners who had worked peacefully under a structured framework are once again subjected to anxiety and instability. Women and other vulnerable participants have been drawn into conflicting narratives they did not create and cannot control.
When power is exercised in this way, livelihoods are not merely disrupted, they are weaponised.
When ‘Empowerment’ Becomes a Smokescreen
Particular concern has been raised over the use of highly publicised empowerment narratives, including those invoking women’s economic participation, in an environment marked by pressure and implied consequence.
True empowerment is voluntary, informed and protective. When empowerment language is deployed alongside intimidation and confusion, it ceases to empower and instead serves as a smokescreen for destabilisation.
Empowerment must never be used to legitimise coercion.
Order should not be punished
It is both ironic and troubling that a model which successfully reduced disorder and criminality is now being portrayed as illegitimate. Stability built through compliance should not be dismantled through pressure-driven tactics or narrative force.
Formalisation, regularisation and community calm are explicit national objectives, squarely aligned with Zimbabwe Vision 2030, which prioritises structured artisanal mining, reduced criminality, inclusive economic participation and sustainable livelihoods rooted in the rule of law.
By transforming a previously dangerous and unregulated mining zone into an orderly, productive and compliant operation, Botha Gold Mine has been advancing, not undermining, the country’s Vision 2030 agenda. To destabilise such a model is to reverse policy gains and send a damaging signal that compliance and formalisation are liabilities rather than national imperatives.
A call for lawful resolution
The focus should not be to inflame tensions, but to reaffirm a foundational principle:
Disputes in the mining sector must be resolved through law, evidence and due process; not through intimidation, confusion or the targeting of innocent third parties.
No court of law has found wrongdoing on the part of Botha Gold Mine. Until competent authorities determine otherwise, lawful operations that deliver safety, livelihoods and stability should not be disrupted through pressure tactics masquerading as governance.
The broader implication
If stability can be bullied aside by narrative dominance rather than legal finding, then compliance itself becomes a liability. That is not a future consistent with the rule of law, nor with Zimbabwe’s development ambitions.
Order must be protected, not punished.
