Illegal Miners With Firearms Invade Athens Mine In Mvuma

Illegal miners armed with firearms are reportedly invading Athens Mine in Mvuma, a development which demonstrates the need for the country to deal with the property rights issue, Hopewell Chin’ono has said.

Posting on Twitter this Thursday, the prominent journalist and filmmaker said:

Athens Mine located in Mvuma is being invaded as you are reading this tweet. Ongoing violence. Illegals who are invading it have firearms. This is a BIG issue of PROPERTY RIGHTS that @steve_hanke has been talking about! NO investment will come to Zimbabwe without Property Rights.

The development resembles several other cases in which machete-wielding gangs just invade mines belonging to other people.

Analysts have been saying that lack of a clearly defined government position on property rights was scaring away investors who feared that their properties can be seized willy nilly.

The remarks by professor Steve Hanke and Chin’ono were also echoed by former MDC legislator, Eddie Cross who recently said that the government needed to urgently deal with the matter as it has a huge implication on the growth of the economy.

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