Online Reporter
Farirai Machivenyika-Senior Reporter
The Ministry of Industry and Commerce will next week convene a stakeholders’ conference in Chinhoyi to discuss modalities for reviving Community Share Ownership Trusts (CSOTs) following last week’s Cabinet decision to resuscitate them to ensure communities benefit from natural resources in their localities.
Industry and Commerce Permanent Secretary Dr Thomas Utete Wushe said this yesterday when he appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Industry and Commerce, chaired by Zaka South legislator, Cde Clemence Chiduwa.
He said that following last week’s Cabinet decision, they had been given three weeks to come up with an operational plan for the CSOTs’ revival.
“We are required to come back with an operational plan within week three, so we are going to workshop on it, and honourable Members are to come to Chinhoyi at Chinhoyi University of Technology on the 17th of June to input into this instruction from Cabinet on how we should restructure this important issue,” said Dr Wushe.
He added that the empowerment of indigenous Zimbabweans from the proceeds of their natural resources was a constitutional issue.
“This is embedded in our Constitution that whoever is involved in the extractive industry has an obligation to ensure that local communities benefit,” he said. “We have finally realised that it is something that is serious and could be a pathway to industrialisation and a pathway to empower our people.”
Dr Wushe said 60 CSOTs were established under the legal framework that existed in 2013, but only seven were operational, with plans afoot to revive the other 53 by the end of the year.
“By the end of August, we should have structures for them, and by the end of the year, they should be operational; that is the promise that our Minister (Mangaliso Ndlovu) took to Cabinet,” he said.
He also said a new Empowerment Bill is with the Attorney General’s Office before it is gazetted for debate in Parliament.
Speaking during last week’s post-Cabinet press briefing, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Dr Jenfan Muswere said Cabinet had approved proposals to operationalise and strengthen the CSOTs and Reserved Sectors policy, originally designed to give communities hosting mining operations a share in the profits of companies exploiting their local resources.
“Community Share Ownership Trusts were established to ensure that local communities benefit from the extraction and exploitation of natural resources within their areas,” said Dr Muswere.
He added that the Government will conduct a comprehensive review of the implementation framework and extend corporate rescue support to struggling CSOTs. Dr Muswere confirmed plans to draft a robust economic empowerment policy and regulations to guide the effective and transparent management of CSOTs.
The CSOT model requires mining companies to allocate 10 percent of their shareholding to these Trusts, with profits intended to fund local development projects, from roads and clinics to schools and clean water infrastructure.
