Govt to tighten mineral regime | The Herald

via Govt to tighten mineral regime | The Herald November 9, 2013 by Felix Share

GOVERNMENT — through the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation — will now take an active role in the mining of diamonds and ban all exports of raw platinum until companies in the sector build a refinery to ensure Zimbabwe gets maximum returns from its resources, the President has said.

Addressing the 94th Ordinary Session of the Zanu-PF Central Committee in Harare yesterday, President Mugabe said Government was strengthening systems in the mining sector because it was one of the key sectors expected to fund the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim Asset), the new economic blueprint drafted to turnaround the economy in the next five years.

“We already have big companies mining and we must be present in the operations,” President Mugabe said.

“What is our ZMDC doing? It does not seem to be present in the management of the operations of these mines at all.

“It is folding its arms wanting to be given dividends at the end of the day. Whether it is Mbada, Anjin or the Lebanese, the three big mining companies, we are going to look into these systems,” the President said.

Former Mines and Mining Development Minister Dr Obert Mpofu, President Mugabe said, gave platinum miners a two-year ultimatum to set up a refinery, but nothing has materialised

“Let us close our doors immediately and say no raw platinum will go to South Africa,” he said.

“The former minister gave them two years and we must see them now arranging to build a refinery. If they have not started, after that warning, building a refinery then when the time comes for us to demand that all refining has to be done here they should not blame us.”

President Mugabe said all raw gold should now go through Fidelity, while illegal gold panners should be legalised as small to medium enterprises.

“Don’t tell us we do not have money to steer Zim Asset,” he said.

“We have gold everywhere and it is going to South Africa through makorokoza. Kune tumagroups, ndege dzinomhara musango and there are people ready to receive those boxes of raw gold. That must stop.”

President Mugabe said the 51 percent shareholding equity in companies meant that indigenous Zimbabweans should have a say in the day to day running of the firms.

“This is not what has been happening, we say 51 percent and stay aloof,” he said. “We want 51 percent of active participation and not just of stretching hands. We mean 51 percent of what we worked together. If you are not there in the operations they hide a huge chunk of proceeds from you and that, we do not want.”

President Mugabe said the pledges Zanu-PF made during the elections should be fulfilled.

“Zim Asset must start unfolding and work must start,” he said. “Travel less, meet less and more action.That is Zanu-PF, otherwise people will start asking you where are the pledges you said you would fulfil.

“What is happening in agriculture and industry? There is no change, the roads and railways are still the same. Where is your Zim Asset which you preached to us? The country is ours and we have the resources, but we have to turn them into work and it means action.”

President Mugabe said it was the Zanu-PF election manifesto that saw people dumping the MDC-T.

“We presented real, solid and tangible promises to the people while our contestants, with the backing of their Western masters, tried to sell a dummy to the electorate,” he said.

“The people realised that Team Zanu-PF offered them a more realistic chance of improving their livelihoods. They were able to separate the genuine from the bogus. We, as servants, we must work to get people enriched.”

Everyone, the President said, should shun corruption to ensure Government achieves its goals.

He said Zimbabwe’s problems will only be solved by Zimbabweans not whites, who still saw themselves as superior to black people.

President Mugabe said it was sad that the MDC thought the British and Americans would bring salvation in the country and hence together with their Western masters claimed Zanu-PF rigged the harmonised elections.

“We do not look outside for the source of our own thinking, political ideology,” he said. “If you give them a chance they come, as history has shown, and establish restrictions, rules and regulations that exclude indigenous people from even entering their forests calling it trespassing. Those people are good, as Kwame Nkrumah said, when they are six feet down.”

Added President Mugabe: “Kozouya chinoti chinoda kuchinja maitiro ekuti ana Chimoto (black people) vadzokere kwavanga vari. You go to London, Washington and in your own ignorance you think the matter can be decided at the United Nations.

“The matter is never decided there. People are in control. You sit down and listen to the voice of the nation.It is saying we are now a sovereign and independent people. Zimbabwe will never be a colony again.”

President Mugabe thanked the people for voting resoundingly in the harmonised elections, saying they had ensured that Zanu-PF no longer had any competitor.

“They were shocked with the outcome,” he said. “We have discarded the MDC-T to rubbish bin and let them stay there forever, that is where they belong.

“If one asks me where to bury the rubbish bin so that it does not go into our rubbish pits, I tell them sent it to Washington and London, that is where it would be received amicably.”