By: Channel Africa

The Government of Zimbabwe has formally banned all foreign nationals from participating in the country’s artisanal mining sector.

The new regulations have listed artisanal mining as a sector exclusively reserved for Zimbabweans. This means foreign nationals are prohibited from owning, or exercising beneficial control over artisanal mining activities in the country. Independent Policy Researcher and Political Economist, Kevin Tutani has criticised the implementation of the policy.

Zimbabwe makes around $2 billion a year from remittances from the Zimbabwean expatriates, that is the Zimbabwean exported labour which works overseas, within SADC and within Africa. Apart from that, part of these remittances which are a north of $2 billion are also coming from Zimbabweans investment in other countries, when you look at its export structure, you would say more than 10% of Zimbabwean exports is coming from expatriated labour, foreign investment of Zimbabwean capital invested in foreign countries,” he said.