Moved by Colonial Electricity Dams, Rural Zimbabweans Uprooted again for Chinese "Smart Energy Deals"

As decarbonization becomes a global catchphrase, Zimbabwe has become a vital supplier of critical lithium ore and several platinum group metals that are key to the green transition. According to the Supply Chain Intelligence for the Energy Intelligence, Zimbabwe is the fourth largest producer of lithium mined globally. But in Magunje, western Zimbabwe, the remnants of indigenous Zimbabweans displaced by colonial dams' construction 100 years ago are enduring a new wave of forced displacement, this time for the benefit of cash-flush Chinese lithium hunters.

It's a "Wild-Wild-West" tale of exploitation cropping up widely across Zimbabwe. 

Under siege

“We are under siege,” says Headman Kapere, a tribal leader in Kapere village of Magunje who, along with some of his subjects, has been hauled before a nearby magistrate court for daring to protect their land rights. 

Beginning in January last year, dozens of Chinese trucks, workers, fencers, and heavy machinery were stationed on the grazing and farmlands that the locals have held since the 1950s. They didn't ask for locals' consent, but went on to survey, drill, and excavate large mining holes sometimes with police escort, Kapere says. Within a few months, Black and Chinese laborers were busy drilling, blasting, raising dust, and laboring to extract lithium ore, among other minerals, such as lime, for onward shipping to processors far away in China.

“We feel violated,” he says.

Nearly 20 families have been displaced to date, he adds.

The locals who now call Magunje home, a largely rural district in north-west Zimbabwe, have been on the land since the 1950s. They were brought here after British colonial authorities forcibly uprooted their forefathers from the nearby Zambezi Valley to make way for the construction of Kariba Dam, the world’s largest man-made water reservoir, and a key source of hydroelectric energy for Zimbabwe and neighboring Zambia. Magunje is a harsh district, and modern life amenities are few. However, over the last century, the locals have worked hard to create sustainable livelihoods for themselves through cattle ranching, corn cultivation, and tobacco farming. 

Lithium footprint

China has invested heavily in Zimbabwe's lithium extraction sector, with operations ranging from open-cast mining and hauling the ore to nearby Indian Ocean ports. Total funds committed to date by firms from all countries reach $1.2bn according to figures from the China Global South Project. Although operations are continuing in plain sight, there is no publicly available database with a known number of registered Chinese companies mining for lithium in Zimbabwe. Unregistered one-man bands of Chinese lithium miners and dealers are spread across Zimbabwe's rural districts, working along riverbanks and hills where the rich ore seams are found. Police sometimes make sporadic raids to arrest these illegal lithium miners.

The flagship of China's presence in Zimbabwe's burgeoning lithium mining is the Sabi Star Lithium Mine, a $130 million extraction operation located in the Buhera District, at the heart of the country. Chengxin, the Shenzhen-listed company which owns significant equity in BYD – the trend-setting Chinese EV car maker – is the mine's owner. This is a testament to a sophisticated global footprint that links "backwater outposts" like Buhera, or Magunje in Zimbabwe, with global glitter of EV cars like BYD, Tapiwa O'Brien Nhachi, a former researcher with the watchdog, Zimbabwe Natural Resources Governance Centre, says. 

The tranquil rural life that Magunje residents have led for the last century is at the mercy of disruption to fill China's appetite for raw lithium.

Magunje prize

Wanting to dominate the global supply chains of critical minerals key to decarbonization, the Chinese are going for the 'ultimate prize' of maximum, rapid extraction in African enclaves Magunje, explains Farai Maguwu, a publicly fierce critic of opaque mining deals in Zimbabwe, and head of the Center for Natural Resources Governance. 

Maguwu has been on the ground, supporting the indigenous people of Magunje as they take on both the Chinese lithium hunters and Zimbabwe's political elites. 

According to local news reports, Labenmon Investments, a little-known company, has been collaborating with China-based Whi-Zim to construct a US$1 billion multi-mineral plant that processes lithium, lime, and cement. A 100MW power plant has been installed to guarantee uninterrupted energy to the operation. The government of Zimbabwe claims that the Magunje project will create 5,000 jobs. 

‘Scandalous’

The tranquil rural life that Magunje residents have led for the last century is at the mercy of disruption to fill China's appetite for raw lithium and dominance of the Renewable Energy Supply Chain. 

“I confronted the Chinese lithium prospectors on why they are invading our land without consent; I lost the fight,” says Charu Shumba, a tribal elder and local who was also arrested for challenging mining equipment placed on the grazing land that his cattle feed on. 

None of the families whose land has been uprooted to facilitate mining in Magunje has been offered compensation, says Maguwu. Fraudulent consultations have occurred in which Chinese miners and senior government officials have talked down to locals, he says. According to Zimbabwe's law, extensive consultation to request consent must be held at the rural-village level before any mining company digs in indigenous lands. 

The Zimbabwe Mines Ministry, the police, and the Zimbabwe Environmental Management Agency ignored requests for explanation that The Energy Pioneer sent them. However, reports of Zimbabwe's rulers allegedly accepting bribes to issue mining licenses to Chinese fortune seekers are well-documented. 

More worrying, extensive mining is polluting the vital Magunje Dam, which is crucial for the health of livestock, humans, and crops. Effluent discharge for relentless mining and dust from humming haulage trucks are taking a toll.

“The water has turned orange,” says Shumba, detailing how gardens and livestock's suffering is worsening food insecurity in Magunje. 

Most of the laborers hired to work in lithium extraction operations are non-locals parachuted from elsewhere; locals are marginalized, he says. For the lucky few locals to be hired, like Lameck Mutswa, the lithium mining labor conditions are not for the faint-hearted.

No masks for dust, being thrown to machinery without proper training, a lack of contracts, and low wages, pegged below the rates set by the Zimbabwe National Employment Council, are the order of the day. Mutswa couldn't tolerate the double loss of his family's farmland and being hired to do exploitative work. He clashed with the Chinese mine managers only for the police to arrest him alone without questioning the Chinese as well, he says.

“It’s scandalous,” says Nhachi, the mineral rights expert. 

The global energy transition supply chain is being oiled by corporate impunity towards the land rights of indigenous people across Africa.