All That Glitters is Not Gold: Turmoil in Zimbabwe’s Mining Sector Africa Report N°294 | 24 November 2020 Headquarters International Crisis Group Avenue Louise 235 • 1050 Brussels, Belgium Tel: +32 2 502 90 38 •
[email protected] Preventing War. Shaping Peace. Table of Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... i I. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 II. The Makings of an Unstable System ................................................................................ 5 A. Pitfalls of a Single Gold Buyer ................................................................................... 5 B. Gold and Zimbabwe’s Patronage Economy ............................................................... 7 C. A Compromised Legal and Justice System ................................................................ 10 III. The Bitter Fruits of Instability .......................................................................................... 14 A. A Spike in Machete Gang Violence ............................................................................ 14 B. Mounting Pressure on the Mnangagwa Government ............................................... 15 C. A Large-scale Police Operation .................................................................................. 16 IV. Three Mines, Three Stories of Violence ..........................................................................