Zim GBC News | Health and Environment
INYATHI – The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care has issued a stark warning after discovering that illegal gold miners are actively digging tunnels directly beneath Inyathi District Hospital in Matabeleland North, threatening to cause the facility’s collapse.
The shocking discovery was made during the committee’s nationwide verification tour of rural health centres, which aims to assess the state of medical infrastructure, equipment, and drug availability.
Led by Hon. Daniel Molokele on behalf of committee chairperson Hon. Dr. Thokozani Khupe, the team found that artisanal miners, known locally as amakorokoza, have extended their operations from the surrounding areas to directly under the hospital grounds.
“One of the things that we found at Inyathi District Hospital is that amakorokoza are now doing their gold mining right under the hospital,” Molokele told Zim GBC News.
“They used to do it outside, but now they have gone beneath the facility. There is a real risk that the infrastructure might collapse because of the underground pressure. This is lawlessness that the government urgently needs to address.”
Molokele stated that the situation highlights critical governance failures and the lack of enforcement in mining communities, where unregulated activities are escalating public safety and environmental risks.
The illegal mining is also placing a direct strain on the hospital’s emergency services.
“Most of the cases that patients come with are physical wounds — largely injuries from violent clashes among the amakorokoza,” he said.
“There’s a lot of violence happening there, and it is putting a heavy burden on an already under-resourced hospital.”
The committee, which has also visited facilities in Insiza, Masvingo, and Buhera, is compiling a comprehensive report for Parliament.
“We will produce a report that will have clear recommendations,” Molokele confirmed.
“The National Assembly will debate it, and the Minister of Health will use it to engage the Minister of Finance, especially in the upcoming budget process. We are hoping for a renewed focus on rural healthcare centres, which have been neglected and underfunded for many years.”
The crisis at Inyathi Hospital underscores the severe challenges facing Zimbabwe’s rural health infrastructure, where drug shortages and dilapidated buildings are now compounded by the immediate physical threat of collapsing into mining tunnels.
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