×
NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

21 out of 61 community share trusts fully capitalised

News
ONLY 21 out of 61 community share ownership trusts (CSOTs) received seed capital from qualifying businesses within their jurisdiction, as required by the indigenisation law that businesses should contribute 10% towards CSOTs.

ONLY 21 out of 61 community share ownership trusts (CSOTs) received seed capital from qualifying businesses within their jurisdiction, as required by the indigenisation law that businesses should contribute 10% towards CSOTs.

BY VENERANDA LANGA

This was disclosed in the National Assembly on Wednesday by Youth deputy minister, Mathias Tongofa.

He said to date, $134 million had been pledged by qualifying businesses to capitalise CSOTs, of which most of the amount has not been paid.

Tongofa was responding to a question from Mabvuku Tafara MP James Maridadi, who wanted to know if companies had finally complied with their obligations to capitalise CSOTs.

“To date, $134m has been pledged by qualifying businesses, and out of the 61 CSOTs, 21 have received seed capital from qualifying businesses within their jurisdiction,” Tongofa said.

“A total of $38 182 698 was released to the trusts and has been directed towards socio-economic infrastructure development in the communities. The trusts have managed to provide goods and services to their respective communities to the value of $14,6m to date. The balance of $23,7m remains in the accounts of the trusts for various purposes including investment,” he said.

James-Maridadi

Tongofa said some of the qualifying businesses that fully honoured their pledges to CSOTs included Zimplats, Unki and Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC).

“Zimplats pledged $10 million to Mhondoro Ngezi, Chegutu and Zvimba CSOTs. Unki pledged $10m to Tongogara CSOT and Pretoria Portland Cement pledged $3m to be shared equally between Gwanda and Umguza CSOT.”

He said some of the qualifying businesses had submitted their payment plans, which were approved by his ministry, while the ministry was engaging the companies to ensure they fulfilled their pledges. 60 CSOTs are rural, while Mabvuku Tafara is the only urban CSOT.

On the issue of Zimunya Marange CSOT, Tongofa disclosed that out of the $50m pledged by diamond mining companies, Mbada Diamonds, Anjin, DMC, Marange Resources and Jinan, which had pledged to pay $10m each to the CSOT, only $250 000 was released by Marange Resources and $200 000 by Mbada Diamonds.

The issue has spilled into Parliament, with investigations ongoing as to whether there was a signed agreement between the Youth ministry and the mining companies on the pledges.

According to the list given to the National Assembly by Tongofa, several mining companies are struggling to pay their pledges to CSOTs.