Featured
US$5 Million Cheque For Marange Zimunya Community Share Ownership Trust
18 June 2018
Spread the love

By Own Correspondent| Marange Zimunya Community Share Ownership Trust today received a major boost after President Emmerson Mnangagwa availed $5 million for the revitalisation of the Trust.

The cheque, from State entity Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company, was presented to the Marange-Zimunya Community Share Ownership board of trustees by President Mnangagwa.

Said President Mnangagwa: “It is our fervent hope that through this vehicle, some of the developmental needs of these communities will be addressed, further impacting on Manicaland as a whole.

My government remains committed to broad based empowerment through multi faceted strategies including community share ownership trusts.

To this end, I urge all companies to intensify community development programs so that communities benefit from the natural resources endowments in their environments.”

This is not the first time that the Trust has received “money” from mining firms officially handed over through government officials including the Head of State.

Former Local Government minister, Saviour Kasukuwere was in 2015 accussed of lying to former President Robert Mugabe when he presented a false multi million dollar cheque at a colourful ceremony to celebrate the development  in 2012.

The cheque, which Kasukuwere (then Indigenisation Minister) handed over to Mugabe when the ZANU PF leaders launched the Marange-Zimunya Community Share Ownership Trust, was reportedly worth $50 million.

Former President Mugabe officially presented the cheque to the Trust. At the time of the handover, the money had allegedly been promised by five mining firms operating in Chiadzwa diamond fields as part of efforts to ensure proceeds from the diamonds benefitted the local communities.

However, a local publication reported that the money was never handed over to the intended beneficiaries, was never agreed to by the five firms and the cheque given to Mugabe was ‘fake’.

According to the publication, officials from the firms refuted the claims that they agreed to give US$10 million each to the Trust.