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A haulage trucks delivers equipment to Hwange Colliery Company in this file picture

Oliver Kazunga Senior Business Reporter
HWANGE Colliery Company Limited (HCCL) board chairman Farai Mutamangira has described as “hogwash” reports that the recently commissioned $31.2 million equipment is second hand.

Weekend reports had suggested that the new equipment, which was officially commissioned by Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko in the presence of Cabinet ministers and international financiers on June 19, was giving the colliery’s management headaches.

The new equipment consists of excavators, dump trucks, front end loaders, graders, water bowsers, dozers, drill rigs and a wheel changer.

The reports insinuated that some of the procured machines were second hand despite having been bought with a sovereign guarantee.

ZBC news quoted unnamed “highly placed” sources as saying the equipment was always down with reports of oil leaks and failure “even to lift a bucket of coal”.

One of the cited sources in the report alleged the equipment could be second hand, considering multiple problems being realised on a daily basis, adding that one engineer who was part of the delegation to India from where some of the equipment was sourced, raised the red flag when the equipment arrived in the country after noticing differences with the one they had inspected in India, reported ZBC.

A disconsolate Mutamangira yesterday scoffed at the reports saying the process of procuring the new machinery was done above board.

“To say that the recently commissioned equipment is second hand is hogwash. Why should we take a pedestrian approach to say that the equipment is second hand because there’re oil leaks?” he blasted.

“When this equipment was bought, it was inspected before and after shipment and certified that it’s brand new. For example, even if oil leaks occur at Mimosa Mine, do we have to make news about that?

“We know where such reports (that the equipment is second hand) are coming from. It’s the work of our known detractors (some of the former employees) whom we’ve fired because they’ve been stealing from HCCL.”

Mutamangira said the new machinery was financed by reputable international finance institutions — Exim Bank of India and the PTA bank.

He said alleging that the equipment is second hand was tantamount to saying that the international financiers do not know second hand equipment.

“Moreso, BEML is owned by the national defence of India, so there’s no way the government of India could have allowed the deal to sail through if the equipment is second hand. On the other hand this equipment was guaranteed by our government through the Ministry of Finance,” the HCCL board chair explained.

“By saying the equipment is second hand, are we also saying the government is irresponsible to the extent that it can’t distinguish between brand new and second hand machinery?”

BEML is owned by the government of India and was engaged in design and manufacturing of mining and construction equipment over the last five decades.

The firm has a major market share for such equipment in India and has exported similar products to more than 60 countries globally where the machines have been successfully deployed.

Asked about how the new HCCL machinery was performing, Mutamangira said: “Its early days to comment as the company is still in the phase of commissioning the equipment but we hope it will perform according to expectations”.

The equipment was secured following the successful closure of two capitalisation transactions that were vendor-financed through the PTA BELAZ facility to the tune of $18,2 million and the India Exim Bank’s $13,03 million BEML facility.