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IT is almost three years since then Industry and Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube inked a deal (March 9, 2011) for the disposal of 54 percent of Government’s shareholding in the former steel manufacturing giant, Ziscosteel.
Considering its critical importance, many people from Government, Zisco employees, residents of Redcliff and the generality of Zimbabweans rejoiced ahead of the expected re-opening of the company.
But bungling within certain quarters of Government seems to have stalled progress towards realisation of benefits that could be derived from the deal.

All this is because those entrusted by Government to oversee the new investment into Zisco have bungled on the best way to ensure mutually beneficial shareholding in a company that supplies iron ore feedstock to Zisco.

Everyone is getting sick to the bone over endless promises that the deal would be concluded soon while the economy and everybody that should benefit from the revival of Zisco wallow in the anguish of its continued closure.

Firstly it was political posturing during the tumultuous inclusive Government and then secondly Cabinet signed the deal off without proper scrutiny.

Then issues started emerging later; there was loss of credibility on the part of Government.
They were now being forced to renege on a signed deal and so in the final analysis what emerged was that there was no proper and thorough due diligence done upfront on the deal.

This work should have been done first and the whole issue of the iron ore rights owned by the Zisco subsidiary which became the bone of contention would have been avoided.

Lastly the lack of transparency still persists . . . right now the deal is supposed to be going ahead as the headline showed yesterday but we are never told what refinements have been made to the deal and whether the issues that were raised earlier on have been finally amicably resolved.

The same secrecy that shrouded the deal during the inclusive Government, when political expediency reigned supreme over economic sense, seems to persist with little explanation over exactly what is going on.

Deals involving public enterprises should not be done secretly – but should be open to public scrutiny.
Certainly, it is time Government gets its priorities right by laying clearly its expectations in terms of the investment by Indian conglomerate Essar Global, especially regarding the arrangement on iron ore mining rights.

Complications stalling the revival of Zisco (renamed NewZim Steel) pertain largely to differences over how the mining rights of Buchwa Iron Ore Mining Company (NewZim Minerals) should be handled.

This is because while Zisco falls under the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, BIMCO is under the purview of the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development.

All we have been told is that concerted efforts are underway to conclude outstanding issues and ensure that Zisco is re-opened before the end of this year.

The question which seemingly has no answer is; whose interests are being served or protected in the protracted negotiations for the revival of the mothballed company?

The whole nation needs to know what progress has been made in addressing sticking issues on rights to the BIMCO iron ore mining rights.
From what we know, it appears Government simply has to increase its stake in the firm such that benefits from BIMCO operations also benefit the State.

While there are reservations about handing almost the entire stock of the country’s iron ore reserves to Essar for an investment amount of close to a billion dollars, expediting an arrangement for mutual benefit should be the least problematic issue for two whole Government ministries.

Zisco is a national asset central to the industrialisation of Zimbabwe and Africa.
Zimbabwe is haemorrhaging from the devastating impact of illegal sanctions imposed by the west yet the revival of Zisco to its olden glory days is of utmost importance to neutralising the negative impact of the embargo.

For almost half a decade bungling around the overdue revival of Zisco has cost Zimbabwe billions of dollars and employment opportunities considering the firm’s capacity to produce 1 million tonnes of steel annually and up to 4 000 potential jobs when operating at peak of its capacity.

Overall, we believe that these guys (Essar) should be made to commit to creating and preserving high value jobs.
Value addition to the minerals ie properly resuscitating Zisco; and this included making the steel in this country and not exporting ore to some faraway place using the excuse that it’s much cheaper to ship it out.

Surely it must cost the same amount to transport 10 tonnes of iron ore and ten tonnes of steel!