" Chinese miner in Zimbabwe grave rights abuses storm" 3 July 2025

The Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG) has called on the Zimbabwean government to urgently intervene and halt alleged human rights abuses being committed by a Chinese-linked mining company operating in Magunje, Mashonaland West. CNRG accused China-based West International Holdings, in partnership with local firm Labenmon Investments, of widespread violations, including forced displacements, environmental degradation, intimidation, and labour exploitation linked to their billion-dollar cement and mining projects in the area. The two companies are jointly investing US$1 billion to build a large-scale cement manufacturing plant with a production capacity of 900,000 tonnes of cement and 1.8 million tonnes of clinker annually. The project, which includes a 100MW captive power plant, is expected to create 5,000 jobs. However, local communities say the cost to their lives, land, and environment is too high.

"The promise of economic opportunity is being undermined by allegations of land grabs, community exclusion, and rights violations in the host area," CNRG said in a statement following a fact-finding mission. According to CNRG, families in Kapere and surrounding villages were uprooted from their ancestral land without compensation, following fraudulent and poorly conducted consultations. In some cases, villagers were allegedly misled or coerced into giving up land.