adminDumisani Nsingo, Business Reporter
THE Kusile Rural District Council in Lupane is working on terminating Asmara Timbers’ contract barring the company from harvesting timber from its concession as the local authority considers venturing into the business as part of its efforts to boost its coffers.
KRDC chief executive officer Mr Christopher Chuma said the local authority will terminate Asmara’s contract for breaching part of the contractual obligation.
The company signed a five-year contract with the local authority which was due to lapse on 30 April but Mr Chuma said KRDC would not wait that long as it was already working towards terminating the standing agreement between the two parties.
The local authority is accusing Asmara of under logging at its Zinapi-Tshongogwe concession over a period of time, in contradiction of the addendum on memorandum of agreement made and entered into by the two parties in 2011.
Clause 19 of the agreement states that: “notwithstanding any clause in the agreement should the concessionaire fail to exploit any forest produce for any period during the duration of this agreement, the Commission requires it to pay and the concessionaire shall pay the council a sum of money equivalent to 150 cubic metres per month and to the Commission any fee due for that period”.
In November, KRDC terminated a contract with Rise Gate Timber, which was operating at its Shabu-Manase concession.
In 2010, the local authority was also forced to cancel Platinum Timbers’ contract after the company failed to pay royalties amounting to about $120 000 accumulated over a period exceeding a year.
“Timber logging companies operating in our concessions have completely let us down. Asmara has been under cutting and hardly met their monthly allotted requirement of 400 cubic metres and as such we are in the process of terminating its contract.
“As for Rise Gate Timber they hardly did anything and as such we terminated their contract in November last year. If the two companies were operating at full throttle we should be getting revenue of about $24 000 per month and that would go a long way towards improving service deliveries and meeting other obligations,” Mr Chuma said.
In one of its lowest timber harvesting month, Asmara harvested 26 476 hectares and the local authority realised a paltry $773 from the proceeds.
Asmara Timbers judicial manager Mr Chrispen Mwete of C Mwete and Company acknowledged that the company was under logging and hinted that it was largely due to financial constraints and a subdued market.
“I haven’t discussed with them (KRDC) but I am not denying the issue of under cutting, it’s there because we are facing financial challenges and we are hoping to improve this year.
“The other thing is that the market is depressed, you have to cut and know where to supply and at the moment we only have one client and it has promised to increase its order and that way we can improve supplies,” Mr Mwete said.
As a result, the local authority said it was now making efforts to embark in timber logging soon with the prospects of establishing a saw mill to add value to the wood also on the pipeline.
Mr Chuma said there are some companies that have made inquiries over decking timber and Kusile was ready to supply.
“We hope to start logging soon as we have already acquired a tractor and very soon we will buy a trailer for that purpose. An environmental consultancy firm is in the process of finalising an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report before we start at Shabula-Manase concession.
“In the near future we intend having four tractors to effectively exploit the timber in all our concessions and next year we are looking at setting-up a saw mill in Jotsholo, which is similar to the one being operated by the Forestry Commission at St Lukes as part of value addition and that way we will be able to get maximum benefits from the resource,” Mr Chuma said.
The environment consultancy firm, Environmental Guardians Services carrying out an EIA at Shabula-Manase said 90 percent of the work had been completed.
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