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Business Reporter
LISTED agro-industrial concern, Hippo Valley Estates Limited, has appointed Mr Canaan Dube as its new chairman with effect from next month.

Mr Dube joined the Hippo Valley Estates Limited board in August 2020 as a non-executive director.

His appointment follows the resignation of Mr Daniel Marokane with effect from May 1, 2021.

“The board wishes to advise shareholders of the appointment of Canaan Farai Dube as chairman to the Hippo Valley Estates board with effect from 1 May 2021,” said the company in a notice.

“Canaan is an accomplished lawyer and senior partner in one of Zimbabwe’s leading law firms, Dube, Manikai and Hwacha Legal Practitioners.”

Mr Dube also serves as a director in a number of companies listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange and is the chairman of Delta Corporation Limited.

Hippo Valley, which is a subsidiary of the South Africa-headquartered sugar milling group, Tongaat Hulett, said Mr Dube has extensive knowledge and experience in corporate Governance, mergers and acquisitions and trade and investment law.

The company hopes that the incoming chairman would bring the much-needed legal and public relations guidance to the board.

“He is highly experienced in corporate leadership mandates and investment analysis and holds the distinct honour of having contributed significantly to the National Code on Corporate Governance in Zimbabwe in 2014,” it said.

In February this year the company announced that despite funding constraints holding back the implementation of the US$40 million Project Kilimanjaro, it has begun clearing vast tracts of land where extensive sugar cane crop will be planted.

The project is expected to develop virgin land into vast swathes of sugar cane plantations at Triangle and Hippo Valley estates in Chiredzi as part of the firm’s drive to increase aggregate sugar output while also empowering indigenous out-grower farmers.

Through the project, farmers will be allocated plots on the nearly 3 300 hectares being developed on a cost recovery basis.

The Government has assured Hippo Valley that it would be granted security of tenure by way of a 99-Year Lease on Hippo Valley North (23 979 hectares) while maintaining freehold title on Hippo Valley South (16 433 hectares).