Parliament calls on government to investigate Kasukuwere over Marange–Zimunya Community Share Ownership Trust within 14 days

4.9 Mr. Masanga, Acting Permanent Secretary Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment.

The Acting Permanent Secretary informed the Committee that in terms of Clause 3 subsection 2 of Statutory Instrument 21 of 2010, the Minister of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment, and the company that is exploiting the resources within various communities, have to agree to the value of share and other interests to be disposed to the CSOT taking into consideration the State’s sovereign ownership of the resources being exploited. In this vein, with regards to the Marange-Zimunya Community Share Ownership Trust, he alleged the Minister responsible had met with the mining companies and pledges were made formally in spite of being unable to produce correspondence to that effect.

4.10 Mr. Chizhou Acting Permanent Secretary Mines and Mining Development and ZMDC Acting General Manager.

4.10.1 He informed the Committee that when the President launched the M-Z CSOT, there was a reported USD 50 million initial contribution by the 5 diamond mining companies in Chiadzwa. This meant that each entity was to contribute $10 million. He further pointed out that the launch was conducted solely by the Ministry of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Development with the ZMDC only being invited to attend the event but that it was not involved in meetings prior to the launch or preparations to the launch.

4.10.2 The Committee learnt that the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development called upon ZMDC to ensure that the diamond mining companies deposit an initial amount of USD 200,000 to the M-Z CSOT bank account. The Committee was further informed that ZMDC called for a meeting wherein companies were urged to concur with the Ministry’s directive of making remittances to the Trust. In the meeting, it was noted that each diamond mining company was required to make a payment of USD 200,000 to the account with immediate effect.

4.10.3 The Committee determined that there was no correspondence from Hon. Minister Kasukuwere, the former Minister of Youth, to Hon. Minister Mpofu, the former Minister of Mines in relation to the M-Z CSOT. Mr. Masunga stated that the pledges were verbally made and that there wasn’t any correspondence or existing minutes to that effect. Mr. Masunga emphasised that the pledges were not in writing and they had consulted thoroughly within the Ministry of Youth and had gone through all the files but could not find any correspondence or minutes regarding the pledges.

Continued next page

(631 VIEWS)