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NewsDay

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Zanu PF youths threaten to take over timber firm

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ZANU PF youths in Mutasa district have implored government to speedily indigenise Wattle Company’s Nyanga Pine Estate in Dunsinane, Manicaland province, after they were allegedly summarily dismissed.

ZANU PF youths in Mutasa district have implored government to speedily indigenise Wattle Company’s Nyanga Pine Estate in Dunsinane, Manicaland province, after they were allegedly summarily dismissed.

BY CLAYTON MASEKESA

The call, which comes after Wattle Company dismissed local contractors, also comes hard on the heels of meetings between the youths and Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment minister Patrick Zhuwao held in Mutare.

The Zanu PF youths on Friday told NewsDay that Wattle Company’s recent dismissal of local contractors and leaving behind Chinese saw millers was “a shame”.

“This is our country. Our fathers died for this country and we should benefit from the sweat and blood of fathers. Why are the Chinese benefiting? Why have the Chinese controlled everything?” an aggrieved Zanu PF youth, Nhamo Mheterwa, who was the spokesperson of the group, fumed.

CDE-PATRICK-ZHUWAO

The youths called on Zhuwao to let them take over the company, as little was being done towards ensuring employment creation for the people.

“Wattle Company has stopped us from milling at Mutasa Estate. So what can we say about value addition, beneficiation and empowerment? What we are experiencing, as youths, is disheartening,” Mheterwa said.

Wattle Company community affairs manager Maxwell Kuhudzayi said he was not at liberty to comment on the matter.

“If anyone has a problem, they should come and approach us,” Kuhudzayi said.

However, an inside source at the estate said the sacked Zanu PF youths were not performing as agreed in their contracts.

“They [Zanu PF youths] failed to meet the targets that they had agreed in the contracts. The Chinese are meeting the targets. That is why they were left there,” the source said.

Zhuwao said he would look into the matter.