Over 70 per cent of the workers registered with the National Employment Council for the mining industry have been vaccinated against the COVID-19.
This was revealed by the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe (CoMZ) chief executive officer, Isaac Kwesu. He said:
What we know is that quite a significant number, in fact, a majority of miners have been vaccinated and the figure is well above 70 per cent.
The mining sector has more than 45 000 workers registered with the National Employment Council (NEC) for the mining industry, according to CoMZ.
Meanwhile, Kwesu said that one of the major challenges facing the mining industry was increased demand for payment of mining consumables and services in foreign currency. He added:
The issue is all about the increase in demand for payments in foreign currency.
You find most local suppliers who provide services to the mining industry are demanding payments in foreign currency and when they accept local currency, they are charging at parallel market rates.
The official exchange rate on the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) auction market is at about $109 to the United States dollar but on the parallel market, the Zimbabwe dollar trades at $230 to the greenback.