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THE Office of the President and Cabinet has taken a supervisory role over the implementation of key projects critical to the success of the government’s economic blueprint – ZimAsset. This has seen the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Misheck Sibanda, making site visits to projects in different provinces to assess progress and ensure that they are on track to meeting their completion deadlines.
Last week, Sibanda and his team were in Seke where they toured the Dema Emergency Generation Power plant where they were told that Zimbabwe will by June 21, add 100 megawatts to its national grid after the plant comes on stream. They also heard that all the 200MW from the plant will be added to the grid by July 10.
Cabinet gave Zesa Holdings the nod to go the route of emergency power as a stop gap measure after the country experienced acute load shedding during the last quarter of last year. The outages saw residents going for up to 18 hours without electricity due to declining water levels at the Kariba Dam. Sakunda Holdings won the Dema contract and is leasing generators from Aggreko, the world’s leading temporary power generation company.
The country decided to move towards emergency power generation to augment the current power generation capacity. Power is very critical to economic turnaround efforts and even emergency power is expensive, it is necessary at this point for Zimbabwe.
The government is working on various projects, chief among them expansion of Kariba South Power Station (300MW) and Hwange Units 7 and 8 (to 600 MW). While the big projects materialise, the Dema project will be implemented and complemented by another 120MW that should come from the Mutare Peaking Power Plant.
The plant is also one of the priority projects targeted under Zim-Asset and the contractor, Helcraw Electrical (Pvt) Ltd, is already on the ground. Sibanda and his team have also visited Bulawayo where they toured companies such as Datlabs to get an appreciation of their challenges and assistance they need to rebound.
In a sign that the government is serious about reviving ailing industries, it has injected $27 million to bail out struggling pharmaceutical giant, Caps (Pvt) Ltd. This will significantly lower the cost of drugs which will now be manufactured locally. The country’s two Vice Presidents have also taken the lead in supervising the various ministries under their portfolios.
VP Phelekezela Mphoko has toured industries in Bulawayo and been to other projects of national importance around the country to get a first hand appreciation of the situation on the ground. His counterpart VP Mnangagwa has been visiting Arda estates around the country to assess progress being made to resuscitate them.
Last week, VP Mnangagwa was on a two-day tour of industries in the Midlands where he witnessed the remarkable work being done by companies which are thriving despite the challenges bedevilling the economy. At the conclusion of his tour which took him to firms in Gweru and Kwekwe, VP Mnangagwa said the economy had turned the corner and is now on a firm recovery path as evidenced by rising foreign and local investment in some major companies.
He said after touring industries in the Midlands province, he had come to agree with Industry and Commerce Minister Mike Bimha that some companies were reopening through foreign or local partnerships.
VP Mnangagwa said countrywide, there were investments in all sectors of the economy which should be highlighted in the media for Zimbabweans to know what was happening in their country. “I now agree with Minister Bimha. There are companies that are opening for the growth of the economy but such positive news is not being reported.
‘‘The media only focus on ailing or folding companies. But after touring the companies in Midlands, we can see that there is positive growth of the economy,” he said. The VP said on August 24, President Mugabe would officially launch the actual plant at the Australia-based exploration company — African Chrome Fields — in Kwekwe which has started working on a $1 billion chrome project.
The state of the art exothermic chrome smelting plant will be a game changer in the chrome industry. We welcome the positive developments taking place in sections of the country’s industry and urge the government to support firms which are thriving despite inherent challenges in the sector.
The strides made by the country particularly in the energy sector are remarkable and can only assist in attracting much needed investment. The hands-on approach employed by Cabinet is bearing fruit as evidenced by the successful execution of key national projects and we commend the OPC for diligently carrying out its duties.
We also applaud the efforts of the two Vice Presidents for leading by example and tackling their assignments with vigour. Zimbabwe can only come out of the woods with unity of purpose and a single-minded determination to extricate the country from the clutches of sanctions-induced economic stagnation.
Online Reporter
derick.khumalo