to allocating and spending the $10 million in guaranteed dividends over the next three years from their 10 percent stake in the Zimplats mines in their areas.
This should not be that difficult, especially since the chiefs are at the centre of the trust and can call on people from their areas for assistance.
The first step is for the trust to ensure that all money it receives is accounted for.

Well, there must be an adequate group of professionals, lawyers and accountants, who hail from these areas who will be glad to perform those duties, without charge.
This will ensure professional management of the funds without the sort of fees normally charged for this work.
Secondly, the communities need to make it absolutely clear that no payment will ever be made to an individual. All payments will be made to businesses for specific services rendered, and even then prices will be set in advance.

Setting prices is not that hard; the professional advisers already giving their services for free can help there.
Basically, the procedures will involve a call for tenders.
There would be nothing wrong in allowing local businesses to tender, and for some of the work, where there is enough competition, to restricting the tenders to local businesses.

In other cases the main tenderers could be asked to ensure that there was some local supply and work done locally.
In this way the maximum amount of development can be obtained for the minimum price with the optimum amount of local content pumping money into the local community.
The main problem will then be what projects are done, and when.

Here the local councils will have to be involved.
Every councillor will, of course, have a list of things that just have to be done in his or her ward. They would be very bad councillors if they could not produce that list.
And, everyone knows right now, the combined list of things that must be done will cost far, far more than the money available.

So at some stage there will have to be debate on which projects will be selected and what order they will be done in.
Here, balances will have to be struck, so that the most critical projects are implemented first and to ensure that there is a reasonable spread of development work.

But, so long as no individual is paid anything, so long as no one gets “travel and subsistence allowances”, so long as everything paid out goes on things that have actually been done, we are sure that the communities will go along with what list is finally agreed.

Chiefs are already worried about politicians; and we suspect that political leaders are already worried about chiefs.
And no doubt, outside every bar in the lucky districts there have been serious worries expressed over assorted people who might try and enrich themselves in the process.

This is why it is so important to have the rules set now, before there is any money, and to have professional advisors, willing to give their time free, lined up in advance.
It is also important, before a cent has come, to have the provisional list and costing of each project; councils already have administrative budgets and staff so can do this as part of their normal work.

The chiefs were correct when they stated that all the expected money guaranteed for three years, and the normal dividends likely when Zimplats start paying those, should go on capital development rather than individual enrichment.

That is why they need to start now in setting up the rules and regulations and voluntary committees so that as the money trickles in it can be immediately spent on capital projects on an agreed list.

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