State-linked Mutapa Energy Resources is preparing to move 104 families off land at Sandawana Mine in Mberengwa to clear the way for a US$300 million lithium processing plant, with more than 52 graves inside the proposed plant footprint also due to be exhumed.

Chief executive Innocent Rukweza told a briefing at the mine that model houses had already been built for inspection by government officials and traditional leaders, and that the company was aiming to finish all 104 homes between 20 September and the end of that month. Each family is to receive a four-roomed house with a kitchen and ablution facilities, at an estimated US$28,000 a unit, according to reports by Mining Zimbabwe and ZimLive.

“We are targeting September 20 to about the end of September to finalise all the 104 houses,” Rukweza said, adding that the affected families would then be moved.

The exhumations are expected to begin around 1 September, subject to outstanding burial orders being issued. “Once we do that, then I think land clearing will start,” Rukweza said.

Beyond the houses, Mutapa says it will fence the new settlement, install water reticulation to each household and relocate the primary school, clinic and police station that currently sit inside the mining lease. Supporting works include the upgrading of a 52-kilometre road from York to Sandawana, a water pipeline and a 132kV power line.

The company is targeting November 2027 to commission the concentrator. In the meantime Sandawana is toll-processing its ore at the Gwanda lithium plant, and Rukweza said the operation had generated more than US$80 million in revenue from those ore deliveries so far this year.

Mutapa Energy Resources is the mining and energy arm of the state-owned Mutapa Investment Fund, and the Sandawana project sits at the centre of Zimbabwe’s push to process more of its lithium at home rather than exporting raw concentrates.

Sources: Mining Zimbabwe; ZimLive

Blue Ribbon, one of Zimbabwe’s largest millers, has shut its Bulawayo milling operations along with 23 medium and small-scale millers, after the industry told government it can no longer find enough locally grown maize to keep the plants running.

The closures were disclosed in a letter from the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe’s southern region chairperson, retired Major David Moyo, whose remit covers Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South. The letter went to the ministries of industry and agriculture and to Bulawayo’s provincial affairs minister.

“The grain milling sector in the Southern Region is currently experiencing operational challenges due to declining availability of locally produced maize,” Moyo wrote, saying supplies from farmers had fallen sharply and millers could no longer maintain consistent production or build adequate reserves. In a pointed reference to official harvest claims, he added: “We can’t find the much-taunted bumper maize harvest.”

Millers also objected to Statutory Instrument 87 of 2025, whose levies took effect in April 2026 and require an upfront payment of US$40 per tonne on imported maize. Moyo said the requirement had cut millers off from the 30- to 60-day payment terms they previously used to buy imported grain, and argued the levy no longer served its purpose of equalising imported and local maize prices “because there is no more local maize supplies”.

Some of the maize that is available has been affected by insect infestation, pushing up the cost of making it fit for human consumption.

Moyo accused Agriculture Minister Anxious Masuka’s ministry of failing to prioritise the southern region, calling the situation “a replay of the same sad predicament of last year”.

The Standard reported that industry associations have warned the levies could push a 10kg bag of roller meal from US$4.60 to US$5.20, a rise of about 13%. It also noted that the millers’ report gives no figures for current maize stocks, the number of consumers affected, or how long the closures are expected to last.

Sources: NewZimbabwe.com; The Standard.

Zimbabwe’s annual ZiG inflation slowed to 2.9% in August from 3.2% in July, the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) said on Tuesday, extending a run of low single-digit readings that the central bank is presenting as evidence its policies are working.

ZimStat said month-on-month ZiG inflation was unchanged at 0.1%. In United States dollar terms, monthly inflation fell to 0.0% from 0.3% in July, while annual US dollar inflation held steady at 3.1%. The agency attributed the low readings in both currencies to exchange-rate stability during the month.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mushayavanhu said the figures showed prices had risen at broadly the same pace in ZiG and in US dollars since August 2025, and argued that businesses should therefore be “indifferent in terms of pricing and accepting payment in either foreign currency or ZiG”. The central bank expects annual ZiG inflation to average around 5% by the end of 2026, with monthly inflation staying below 1%.

Economists quoted by Nehanda Radio were more cautious about what the numbers mean for households. Fintech commentator Jabulani Simplisio Chibaya said the real test of monetary stability was “not simply whether inflation is low, but whether people voluntarily choose to hold, save, price and transact in ZiG”, adding that “stable prices are not the same as affordable prices, and macroeconomic stability is not the same as rising living standards”.

Economics graduate Zondai Last Tsonzeni made a similar point, saying “stability is not the final destination” and that the harder question was whether it could be converted into sustainable growth.

The gap between the official and parallel exchange rates remains the clearest measure of that hesitation, though estimates of its size differ. Nehanda Radio reported that on 21 August the official rate was around ZiG26.63 to the US dollar against parallel-market rates of about ZiG33 — a premium of roughly 24%. Citigroup’s chief Africa economist David Cowan, in a client note reported by Bloomberg this week, put the premium at under 20%.

Sources: NewZimbabwe.com; Nehanda Radio; Xinhua.