The main stumbling block is that the abattoir currently does not have any operating cold rooms.
Shoko confirmed that the cold rooms were not working yet but the chillers were.
A source, however, said this was not true because if the chillers were working the abattoir could start slaughtering.
The Insider understands that CSC-Boustead Beef acquired ammonia needed to get the cold rooms working but it does not have the engineers to fix the plant.
The Insider has questioned the CSC-Boustead Beef deal since 2019 as the man behind the deal, Nick Havecroft, is more of a speculator than an investor.
In an article on 4 August 2019 entitled:Can Havercroft really revive Zimbabwe’s largest meat processor?, The Insider said Havercroft seemed to be seeking finance from various sources around the globe to turn-around the CSC.
He did not have cash of his own (and if he did he did not want to invest his own money). According to CSC workers whom Havercroft found at the factory, he was using rents from CSC properties to pay their wages.
It appears that this is what he is still doing, raising questions as to why the government is allowing this as the agreement that he signed with the government was that Boustead Beef would pay the government US$100 000 a year in rentals during the first five years of the agreement.
It is also not clear why Boustead Beef has been allowed to continue operating when the government announced a corporate rescue plan for the CSC in December 2020 because Boustead Beef had failed to fulfill its part of the agreement with the government.
Vice-President Chiwenga was also told a chain of lies when he officially opened the factory like that the plant had been closed for 22 years and Boustead Beef had invested US$24 million.
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