Cabinet approves multi-million-dollar deal between Essar and Ziscosteel

Industry and Commerce minister Welshman Ncube said the Cabinet on Tuesday unanimously approved the multi-million-dollar deal between Ziscosteel and Indian company Essar Africa Holdings without amendments, clearing the way for the reopening of the company.

"It was unanimously resolved that the agreement would be honoured and implemented," he said.

"We hope Essar will start work immediately. We will meet with the leadership of Essar for them to take over and start rehabilitating the plant."

The endorsement by Cabinet was done before MDC-T and Zanu PF MPs called for an investigation into the way Ncube negotiated the deal on Wednesday.

The MPs claimed they suspected that Ncube, who leads the other MDC formation, took bribes to facilitate the agreement.

Meanwhile, the MDC yesterday reacted angrily to the allegations by the MPs who were debating a report on Essar produced by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Industry and Commerce in the House of Assembly.

MDC spokesperson Nhlanhla Dube told NewsDay that Zanu PF and the MDC-T had found it convenient to set aside their well-known political disputes to pursue a common cause of embarrassing Ncube.

But he vowed they would be "forced to eat their self-served humble pie with the same amount of brouhaha and bravado".

"Such assaults on Ncube and the party will not stop our resolve and fight for democracy that entails empowerment of local communities through devolution of power," he said.

Dube singled out Kambuzuma MP Willias Madzimure of the MDC-T whom he accused of leading MPs in abusing parliamentary privilege in making unsubstantiated accusations of corruption against Ncube and Essar.

"When Madzimure says that money exchanged hands corruptly, one would expect the Honourable Member to avail that same information to the law enforcement agencies," he said.

"That level of reckless and careless statements unfortunately only serves to discredit our Legislature."

Last Friday, Madzimure told a public discussion in Harare that there was secrecy surrounding contract negotiations and accused the Executive of bullying Parliament into ratifying badly-negotiated deals.

He questioned the wisdom of Cabinet in agreeing to the Essar deal, which gave away 80% of Zimbabwe's iron ore worth billions to the Indian company for only $700 million.

"Should we trust the Executive to negotiate without the knowledge of Parliament after they gave away 80% of Zimbabwe's iron ore worth billions to an Indian company for only $700 million?" Madzimure queried.