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Minister Mike Bimha

Harare Bureau
INDUSTRY and Commerce Minister Mike Bimha says Essar Africa Holdings Limited is still around, contrary to reports that the Indian investor had pulled out.

The Minister said Essar was actually working with the government on some challenges that had arisen when the investor took a break during the period of the Inclusive Government.

“The major factor why the deal has taken this long to implement is because of the inclusive government which was characterised by a lot of bickering and because of that, the investor decided to take a break.

“Not many investors who take a break come back, but after the tenure of the inclusive government, Essar came back but a lot of things had changed and that is what we are now working on together,” he said without elaborating on the new challenges.

Bimha said that was the only time that Essar had taken a break and the reports implying otherwise were a misrepresentation of his response to a question on the issue that was raised during the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce congress in Victoria Falls last week where he was guest of honour.

“This is what I said in my response to the question on the deal. I said they took a break then and not now as is being implied,” he said.

Essar Africa Holdings Limited took over the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Zisco) on August 3, 2011. The same event also saw Zisco being renamed NewZim Steel (Private) Limited and the creation of NewZim Minerals (Private) Limited that was going to take over vast iron ore deposits formerly held by Zisco.

This was after it had signed a $750 million deal with the government to take over and resume operations at the defunct state-owned Ziscosteel.

Since then, not much has happened in terms of resuscitating NewZim Steel although negotiations have been taking place.