THE community in Chisumbanje has bemoaned the absence of a tripartite committee to avert the on-going clashes between the ethanol producing company, Green Fuel, and the local community.
BY NDAMU SANDU SENIOR BUSINESS REPORTER
There have been battles between Green Fuel and the community over boundaries and the failure by the ethanol producing concern to adhere to the agreed plan such as ensuring 75% of the employees should be from the community. This has resulted in clashes.
However, the community believes the clashes could be averted if the parties came to the negotiating table, community representatives said last week.
The villagers said the tripartite committee must be composed of members of the community, government and company representatives.
“We fear the investor risks losing confidence. We want the investor to know that he can’t dump the local community,” said one of the community representatives, Wedzerai Gwenzi. “There is no need to engage the police and other agencies. The best security is to have a good relationship with the community.”
Gwenzi is a member of the District Ethanol Project Implementation Committee (Depic) — an all stakeholders’ committee formed to resolve the crisis between the company and the community.
During a visit to Chisumbanje last year, Energy minister Dzikamai Mavhaire said the local MP, Enock Porusingazi, councillors and traditional leaders should handle the concerns of the community, rendering the Cabinet-instituted Depic irrelevant.
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Gwenzi said the Platform for Youth Development (PYD) had been given mandate by the community to air their grievances.
He said the committee has faith in the Parliamentary Portfolio committee on Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment chaired by Gokwe Nembudziya legislator, Justice Mayor Wadyajena.
The committee last week called members of the community to update legislators on what is happening on the ground in Chisumbanje.
An elder in Chisumbanje community Robinson Peyisai Nyakurwa said some politicians were abusing the name of President Robert Mugabe to cream off money from Green Fuel at the expense of the community.
The former councillor said Green Fuel was encroaching into the community’s land.
On Thursday, a letter was brought to the parliamentary portfolio committee saying that PYD had been banned from the community.
“The MP is claiming that the investor has done more than enough. We believe that he is doing that probably because he was not affected,” Gwenzi said.
Porusingazi said he was in touch with the investor who told him of constraints they were facing even though the community thinks the investor was awash with money.
“Yes, he has not moved with speed on promises and I am saying let’s give him time,” Porusingazi said.
He said he never closed his doors “on any progressive groups from seeing me”.
“But I have to weigh which one is for development and which one is not.”
Porusingazi said he knew PYD as a pressure group that was aligned to MDC-T. The Chipinge South legislator said they hold monthly meetings with the community in which “genuine people who want to check on progress attend”. PYD director Claris Madhuku disputed the existence of monthly meetings, saying Porusingazi should provide the minutes of such meetings. “If the MP says there are monthly meetings, it shows a parallel process indicative of the MP’s approach to those he wants to exclude — Depic and PYD. This gives more reason for the committee to visit the area. It must not be a fight between Madhuku and Porusingazi,” he said.
