Police Boss Summoned To Parly Over Mineral Smuggling

3 years agoSun, 16 May 2021 12:20:31 GMT

Police Boss Summoned To Parly Over Mineral Smuggling

Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Commissioner-General, Godwin Matanga has been summoned to appear before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committees on Defence, Security and Home Affairs together with Mines and Mining Development over mineral smuggling in the country.

The Parliamentary committees wanted the police boss to appraise them on what was being done to stop cases of mineral smuggling across the country’s borders.

Matanga is summoned in the wake of increased reports of gold smuggling the latest known case being that of Zimbabwean Tashinga Nyasha Masinire who was arrested at OR Tambo after being found in possession of 23 pieces of gold worth US$783 000.

The Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence, Security and Home Affairs Retired Brigadier-General Levi Mayihlome confirmed that Parliament summoned the police boss to explain cases related to the smuggling of minerals. He said:

_As a committee, we have summoned the ZRP Commissioner-General together with the Officer Commanding Minerals and Border Control following the alarming mineral smuggling cases._
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_I would want to believe that these people who then get caught will probably not be doing it for the first time. As such we want to understand the nature of the problem._
_We want to ascertain whether these cases are a result of human mischief or inadequate resources to detect such criminal activities._
_If all the gold was being taken to Fidelity Refiners and Printers then we would not have cases of smuggling. As such we need to understand how mineral movement is monitored from small scale to large miners._

Zimbabwe is reportedly losing billions of dollars per year through fraud, theft or embezzlement in the mining sector.