KWEKWE – The wrangle between Kwekwe Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM) and Midkwe Enterprises over control of Chaka Gold Plant has taken a new twist with the latter filing a report at Kwekwe Central Police Station alleging that KCGM had stolen its electrical motors.
REPORT BY OWN CORRESPONDENT
Senior KCGM workers were quizzed by police last week on Friday over the alleged theft.
The lawyer representing KCGM, Valentine Mutatu of Mutatu and Partners Legal Practitioners, confirmed that senior officials at the company had been interrogated by police over the issue.
“I can confirm that there are allegations of theft being levelled against my client. The matter is yet to be brought to court by police,” Mutatu said, adding that the matter was a sensitive one.
However, a KCGM top official, who declined to be named, maintained that the electrical motors in question belonged to their organisation.
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He said police were being used to act on behalf of Midkwe Enterprises jointly owned by the member of Parliament for Buhera North, William Mutomba, (Zanu PF) and Gweru businesswoman Simeli Dube.
“The police are used to harassing and intimidating our workers in order to protect the interests of Midkwe, a move calculated to allow the company to continue with illegal mining at Chaka Gold Plant. We know that the local police are taking instructions from a senior official at the CID Minerals Border Control Unit headquarters in Harare,” the official said.
He said the electric motors were sent for repairs at Rodor Electric sometime between 2009 and February 2012 by Carslone Enterprises which had an agreement with KCGM that expired last year.
However, when Rodor Electric ceased operations, all its clients, including Carslone Enterprises, were advised to collect their electrical items from Full Scale (Pvt) Ltd which had taken over the premises.
KCGM collected the electrical motors after Carslone Enterprises wrote to them to do so in October last year. The two companies have a long standing dispute over ownership of the Chaka Gold Plant, currently before the courts.