Online Reporter
Judith Phiri Zimpapers Business Hub
THE Zimplats Community Share Ownership Trust has reaffirmed that its Empowerment Model will continue to deliver structural transformation and not short-term redistribution.
In Zimbabwe, Community Share Ownership Trusts (CSOTs) were established under the Indigenisation Act to empower local communities with stakes in resource projects, such as mining.
The primary role of these trusts is to facilitate community development and economic empowerment, often through the direct benefit of local natural resources or through donor-funded projects.
The Government has made a major policy shift from the earlier CSOTs to Community Economic Empowerment Trusts (CEETs) in a bid to drive the rural industrialisation agenda in line with the National Development Strategy 2 (NDS2) and the aspirations of Vision 2030.
Speaking at the recent CEETs Policy Dissemination Workshop in Bulawayo, Zimplats Community Share Ownership Trust chief executive officer (CEO), Mr Wilson Chinzou, said the Zimplats Empowerment Model was creating economic resilience.
“The Zimplats Empowerment Model delivers structural transformation, not short-term redistribution. Compared to the Dividend Model (abandoned by Government), dividends alone are passive and consumption-driven, with limited reinvestment impact. The Zimplats model uses dividends as growth capital, compounding wealth through reinvestment and asset accumulation,” he said.
“Compared to the Revenue-Based Model (currently advocated), revenue sharing provides cash without ownership, leaving communities exposed to commodity price volatility. The Zimplats model provides equity ownership, resilience, and long-term wealth creation. Revenue models are transactional, the Zimplats model is transformational.”
He said the Zimplats Empowerment Model creates economic resilience, shared value and intergenerational prosperity.
Mr Chinzou said it also strengthens communities as economic actors, not recipients.
“Policymakers should protect, deepen and scale this model as a national empowerment framework aligned with Zimbabwe’s long-term development objectives.”
He said their support towards National Development Strategy (NDS) 1 and 2, as well as Vision 2030, includes value addition and mineral beneficiation, economic growth and stability, food security and nutrition, health and wellbeing, human capital development, as well as infrastructure and utilities, among others.
