Zimbabwe's Chisumbanje Ethanol plant fails Indigenization test

It has been revealed at a House of Assembly Committee on Agriculture, Water, Lands and Resettlement that Chisumbanje Ethanol and Sugar plant need to comply with Zimbabwe's indigenization laws.

The deliberations at the committee were a response to the open letter written by the residents of Chisumbanje to the government of Zimbabwe. The residents penned a petition to raise their concerns against the partnership entered by Agricultural and Rural Development Authority with Macdom Rating, Green Fuel Investments and Macdom Investments.

In their petition the residents likened the agreement to recolonization since the community has not been involved and neither are they aware of the intentions and plans of the business interests of the project. The view of the community is that the agreement must be thoroughly investigated.

Brokered in 2008, the deal is a contradiction to the government policy on land as well as the objectives of the indigenization laws. Platform for Youth Development (PYD) welcomes the call by the committee for the agreement at Chisumbanje to be reviewed and if found necessary, repealed.

Platform for Youth Development continues to be worried by the manner in which the partners continue to unashamedly bulldoze their way by forcing the residents to endorse this illegal and clandestine deal where residents are not fully briefed of the missing details. A case in point is a meeting done at Chisumbanje primary school on March 1, 2011.Instead of taking the opportunity to plead with residents, the signatory to the agreement boosted that the community has no mandate to be consulted because work has started in an irreversible manner.

We are shocked at this development. Consultation meetings done by our team through community meetings at Chisumbanje, Chinyamukwakwa and Mashubi residents came out equivocally clear that the community has not been consulted and until that happens they would have nothing to do with the details of the agreement.Mr Basil Nyabadza, Mr Mundeta, Mr Mundoma and the representatives of Macdom stay accused of side stepping the community to protect personal interests.

Platform for Youth Development is reminding these men to remember that land is a natural resource that led Zimbabweans to go to the liberation war against the settler regime. This defense option is still available if procedural justice is not respected in this agreement. We are now in an independent Zimbabwe and therefore expectations are that the agreement should involve and empower the community.

While we commend the Water, Lands and Resettlement committee for this clarion call to revisit the agreement, we are calling upon the government of Zimbabwe to intervene with expediency before the community takes the law into their own hands.

Platform for Youth Development Trust (PYD) is a non-partisan, non-discriminatory and grassroots based youth organization that was formed by victimized youth to act as a platform, network and bridge for the youth in all spheres of life to articulate issues affecting them particularly relating to development, democracy, good governance, peaceful co-existence, human rights and the rule of law in Zimbabwe. PYD therefore seeks to bring together marginalized youth in rural and urban areas, farms, growth points and resettlement areas, church-based youth organizations including youth organizations for young women with a view to empowering them and to ensure their meaningful participation in championing the cause of democracy, respect for the rule of law, peaceful co-existence and good governance.