Chinese miner remanded in custody for shooting workers

Munyaradzi Musiiwa

A 50-year-old Chinese national from Gweru who allegedly shot and injured two of his subordinates in a pay dispute has been remanded in custody after he failed to get a certified interpreter for mandarin.

Zihang Xuelin, a manager at Reden Gold Mine in Gweru, appeared before magistrate, Edwin Marecha facing attempted murder charges.

He was not asked to plead and was remanded in custody to July 7 2020.

Marecha said the accused, who is a foreigner and was represented by Ignatius Mupfiga of Gundu and Dube Legal practitioners, could not give his plea because he did not bring a certified interpreter.

For the state, Mr Fredrick Macheza told the court that on Monday morning, the complainant, Mr Kenneth Tachiona was among the 30 employees of Reden Mine who were gathered at the mine premises where they were having a pay dispute with the employer.

The court heard that the employees were demanding to be paid in hard currency while the employer insisted on paying them in local currency.
This did not go down well with the employees resulting in an altercation and a mini demonstration.

The employees led by Mr Tachiona then charged towards the accused who is said to have fired two warning shots in the air but the group continued to charge at him.

The prosecution told the court that the accused then used the company FN pistol he was in possession of to shoot Mr Tachiona three times on both legs.
The accused again shot at the group of employees and a bullet grazed the chin of another employee, Mr Wendy Chikwaira, the court further heard
Mr Tachiona is still admitted in hospital while Mr Chikwaira was treated and discharged.