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Under the $750 million deal, Essar Africa Holdings Limited took over 60 percent controlling stake in NewZim Steel (Pvt) Ltd leaving the Government with 40 percent. The Government also has a 20 percent stake in NewZim Minerals (Pvt) Ltd formerly Buchwa Iron Mining Company (Bimco) while Essar Africa Holdings Limited owns 80 percent.

Addressing guests at the commissioning, President Mugabe said once fully operational, NewZim Steel was going to breathe life back into the surrounding communities of Redcliff, Kwekwe and Gweru. The new company was expected to create more than 5 000 in direct employment at both the Redcliff and Chivhu projects.

Essar Africa Holdings Limited committed itself to retaining the defunct Zisco’s 3 500 workers. It is now about ten months since the commissioning of NewZim Steel and not much has been done in terms of preparations to resume production. Essar Africa Holdings Limited, which had started paying workers who are reportedly owed about $12 million in salary arrears, has since stopped payment of salaries to press Government to finalise the takeover deal.

The Minister of Industry and Commerce Professor Welshman Ncube is insisting that the delays in finalising the takeover deal is as a result of the delay by Minister of Mines and Mining Development Dr Obert Mpofu to issue the new investors with a certificate of mining rights. This has, however, been refuted by Minister Mpofu who said Minister Ncube was entirely responsible for the Essar deal. The finger-pointing by the two ministers has prompted the Industry and Commerce Parliamentary Portfolio Committee to summon the two ministers to appear before it so that they could explain what is stopping  Essar Africa Holdings Limited from starting operations.

We want to believe when the President, Cde Mugabe was invited to commission the new company, most of the groundwork had already been done and any sticking points addressed. We do not want to believe Government ministers would take the President, the highest office in the land, for a ride by asking him to commission a project with outstanding issues yet to be resolved.

The ministers involved owe the President, Cde Mugabe, the workers of NewZim Steel, the Midlands community and the nation at large an explanation. What we want is to see production resuming at NewZim Steel as soon as possible and workers being paid their outstanding salaries.

The buck-passing by Ministers Mpofu and Ncube does not assist us in anyway because we have a national project that has been put on halt thereby adversely affecting the livelihoods of thousands of families as well as the growth of the national economy.

When President Mugabe commissioned the new company, the impression created was that everything was in order and it was just a question of a few months before production started. There is now uncertainty regarding the future of NewZim Steel and the situation has been aggravated by the Essar Africa Holdings Limited’s decision to suspend payment of salaries. The new investors, it seems,  no longer have the confidence that the project will ever take off the ground.

The bickering has to be addressed as a matter of urgency so that the project, which will have a huge impact on the country’s industrial growth, takes off without further delays. What is it that the Government and Essar are failing to resolve after the commissioning of the new company? We want to once again call on the responsible ministers to urgently address the issue of NewZim Steel. The nation is not interested in how good the ministers can outsmart each other but what the people want is progress at NewZim Steel so that life returns to normal in Redcliff which is now almost a ghost town.