Chronicle Editor
Martin Sibanda, Business Reporter
ZVISHAVANE-BASED platinum mining firm, Mimosa Mining Company, says it will continue supporting corporate social responsibility programmes setting aside at US$2,5 million every year for the projects.
Speaking during a Press conference on the sidelines of its long-service and superior performance awards last Friday, the firm’s head of corporate affairs, Ms Elizabeth Nerwande, said:
“We continue to have a budget set aside every particular year, a certain percentage of our total revenue and it has always been in the region of between US$2,5 million and US$3 million per annum.
“What we have done this year is to try and look for sustainable projects.”
She said Mimosa will continue with corporate social responsibility initiatives as the platinum producer aims to foster mutually beneficial relationships with its clients and stakeholders.
“We have in the past concentrated on quite a number of schools and hospitals but we said we now need to focus on sustainable projects in our area of operation (in and around Zvishavane) as well as at national level where there is national significance and impact,” said Ms Nerwande.
Among other sustainable corporate social responsibility programmes, the mining company has come up with livestock revitalisation and irrigation programmes in a number of wards within Zvishavane and surrounding areas.
“We have also come up with irrigation programmes in a number of wards around us as well as orchards and nurseries in the areas where we know there is a lot of influence in communities.
“For example, we started with our chiefs to create that culture of planting and we are happy to say the Mtshingwe Nursery is one of the biggest nurseries in any mining house.
“We are in partnership with Friends of the Environment, EMA (Environmental Management Agency) as well as the Zimbabwe Agricultural Society,” Ms Nerwande said.
“What we are now trying to do is to enhance that particular nursery because we have realised there is a lot that we have spoken about in terms of what is there after mining.”
On educational and vocational training skills, Ms Nerwande said they have also constructed a double-storey structure that offers accommodation to children at a local vocational centre in addition to curriculum development.
“We have gone around in areas where we have built schools to actually carry out a post-mortem to say what has been the pass rate within those schools, what else is needed and we have realised that quite a number of children have not been going to school.
“We have partnered with the school to pay fees for those kids who cannot come to school but looking at those indigent and intelligent students who can add value either to our mining sector or the entire economy,” she said.
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