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This was revealed during a recent meeting of NIEEB and Gwanda CSOS/T members, which was held in Gwanda town where trustees  raised their concerns on the so-called loan yet they understood that this money should have been  part of the $5 million that Blanket Mine had pledged to give to the Trust.

At the meeting, the trustees were stunned to hear that the $2 million they had been given for the development of their projects should be paid back.

NIEEB compliance manager, Mr Rangu Nyamurundira, told the meeting that the issue of this money, which was given as a loan, would be investigated.

“We are making a follow up on that issue, as what we understand now is that Blanket Mine had no money readily available to contribute to the Trust, but had borrowed some money from its shareholders,  which should be paid back as a loan,” he said.
However, this statement did not go down well with some trustees, who said it was not their business to source money from elsewhere, but expected the mine to contribute the money it had pledged during the launch of the Gwanda CSOS/T.

“Then if that is the case, the loan should be between Blanket Mine and its shareholders, because they cannot commit us in absentia. Blanket Mine has an obligation to  give us money,” said one of the trustees.

“The problem might be that Blanket Mine used the Trust’s name to borrow money from its shareholders,” said another trustee.
An NIEEB official, Mr Zwelibanzi Lunga, is said to have convinced  the chairman of the Gwanda CSOS/T, Chief Mathema, into signing the document that landed the Trust into this debt trap without the knowledge of the trust’s board members.

“We want Mr Lunga to come and clarify the issue,” said a trustee.

The main worry of the trustees has been that this issue of the loan was only peculiar to Gwanda CSOS/T while other districts in the province had nothing of that nature.

Blanket Mine has already reportedly released $3 million to the Trust of which $2 million was a loan while another loan of $2 million was on its way.

The trustees also raised concerns that the negotiating team that encourages the companies to contribute their shares towards the Trust was being done by people who were all from Harare and none from the local community.