adminAuxilia Katongomara Chronicle Reporter
A TOTAL of $23 million is being held in the bank accounts of community share ownership trusts, waiting to be used for development. The Deputy Minister of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment, Mathias Tongofa, told Parliament on Wednesday last week that his ministry had established 61 Community Share Ownership Trusts (CSOTs).
“My Ministry has established 61 community share ownership trusts which have been duly registered with the Deeds Office. “Out of the 61 registered CSOTs, 60 are rural and Mabvuku-Tafara is the only urban CSOT.
“To date, a total of $134 million has been pledged by qualifying businesses. Out of the 61 Community Share Ownership Trusts, 21 have received seed capital from qualifying businesses within their jurisdiction,” he said.
The deputy minister said a total of $38,182,698 has been released to the trusts and has been directed towards socio-economic infrastructure development in the communities.
“The trusts have managed to provide goods and services to their respective communities to the value of $14.6 million to date. The balance of $23.7 million remains in the accounts of the trusts for various purposes including investment,” he said. Deputy Minister Tongofa named some of the mining companies that had already honoured their pledges towards the community trusts.
“Some of the qualifying businesses have fully honoured their pledges and these are Zimplats, Unki and Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC). Zimplats pledged $10 million to Mhondoro-Ngezi, Chegutu and Zvimba Community Share Ownership Trusts. Unki pledged $10 million to Tongogara Community Share Ownership Trust and PPC pledged $3 million to be shared equally between Gwanda and Umguza Community Share Ownership Trusts,” he said.
“Some of the qualifying businesses have submitted their payment plans which were approved by the Ministry. We’re continuing to engage the companies so that they fulfil their pledges”.
He disclosed that in Gwanda, three out of the four mining companies had already fulfilled their pledges save for Farvic which is facing financial constraints. PPC has paid the agreed seed capital of $1,535m in Umguza and Metallon Gold Mine in Umzingwane has pledged to pay $29,000 every month.
“In Umzingwane Metallon Gold which pledged $5 million has so far released $10,000. The company will release $1 million every year for five years,” said Deputy Minister Tongofa.
Communities in Hwange, the deputy minister said, have not yet benefited from the trusts as companies there are facing financial challenges. The trusts were launched by President Mugabe in 2012 and were expected to transform communities in which mining companies operate. Last year, the government investigated the then 59 Community Share Ownership Trusts following allegations of abuse of funds and failure by some companies to honour pledges.
In some cases, chiefs and powerful local politicians are accused of abusing the trust funds.
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