Chisumbanje ethanol plant closure sends wrong signals

logically politicians should always have the interests of the people at heart before serving their own interests.
It is the lives of the people we are talking about, the majority of whom were expecting an improvement in their standard of living, either through direct employment or downstream activities.
All the high expectations of a better life has come to a screeching halt because politicians cannot agree on how to proceed with the project, in which US$600 million was injected to bring it to life.
At a time when industry is still performing below capacity and securing a job a nightmare, no person in their right senses would advocate for the closure of the plant given the potential it has of creating employment and cutting the country’s fuel import bill by US$73,1 million per year.
Imagine what this amount of money would do in propping up other ailing sectors of the economy!
We are told the project was expected to employ over 10 000 people and also result in massive infrastructural development.
Quite a number of buildings had come up, with banks and companies setting up shop, a development even the politicians should have been proud of going into general elections.
It is sad that corruption seems to have taken over the mental faculties of some of our politicians to an extent that if their hands are not oiled nothing moves.
There just has to be something in it for them to start blowing the trumpet about how good and beneficial a project is to the country.
Our politicians have been blinded, again to an extent that they cannot differentiate between projects that are of national interest and those that benefit their different political parties.
We see nothing wrong in the revival of the Chisumbanje Ethanol Plant given the background that its closure in the first place was based purely on political and not on economic considerations.
If economic considerations had been the basis, then surely the plant would not have been closed as the benefits accruing from it far outweigh the perceived disadvantages.
Besides direct employment, the community was also going to benefit from outgrower schemes supported by the company and for us there is no better way to transform a community than through a project of the magnitude of Chisumbanje Ethanol Plant.
It is a pity that we seem to be resisting to learn from our mistakes.
We have the case of Essar Holdings that has a 60 percent controlling stake in NewZim Steel where an impasse over the renegotiation of shares has stalled progress in resuscitating operations at the steel-making company.
The Government has 40 percent stake, but in line with the country’s indigenisation policy, the ratio of shareholding should give Government 51 percent and the foreign investors 49 percent.
We do not need to be fighting over control when we should be worried about luring investment.
We should also be concerned with what the disagreements would also do to future investment.
Now there are no operations taking place at NewZim Steel inasmuch as there is nothing going on at Chisumbanje and we believe the situation should never have been allowed to go that way given that the catchphrase these days is “luring investors”.
We have also watched in dismay the jatropha plant in Mt Hampden turning into a “white elephant” with virtually nothing taking place.
We thus want to encourage authorities to be serious with economic development and to ensure that anything that helps us towards achieving economic transformation must be fully pursued.