The Sunday News
Vincent Gono, Features Editor
IN 2012 President Mugabe launched Community Share Ownership Trusts (CSOTs) in terms of the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act which requires foreign firms to sell 51 percent of their stake to locals to empower the communities.
The expectation was and still remains that the trusts would help transform the lives of the people in communities where the firms were operating, especially in the mineral rich areas of the country.
The majority of the trusts failed to kick off amid allegations of wanton abuse of trust funds by the community leaders tasked to oversee their operations.
Sunday News Features Editor, Vincent Gono (VG) speaks to the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board (NIEEB) chief executive officer Mr Wilson Gwatiringa (WG) on the operations of the CSOTs and compliance of companies with the indigenisation laws as well as the allegations of abuse of trust funds by community leaders.
He, however, strongly refuted allegations of abuse of money by those entrusted with the funds saying the reports were unfounded and a figment of the media’s imagination.
He said the good thing about CSOTs in communities where they were working was that it was the community that decides what development they wanted.
NIEEB was constituted and given the mandate to administer and see to it that there is adherence by the foreign companies with the Indigenisation and Empowerment Act.
Excerpts of the interview are below:
VG: I understand the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board (NIEEB) was constituted and given the mandate to oversee compliance with the Indigenisation and Empowerment Act. How far have you gone in ensuring adherence by companies to the law?
WG: There has been significant enforcement of the law. However, in line with the Government’s thrust on ease of doing business, the indigenisation law is currently being reviewed in line with that thrust. Its implementation is further being aligned with the clarification done by His Excellency President Mugabe on 11 April 2016. The law is being amended to reflect this thrust.
VG: Are there any challenges and in which specific sectors have you dealt with those that are refusing to comply?
WG: As stated above we are currently reviewing the law hence I cannot say there are challenges in any particular sector as things are moving slowly now because of the reviewing process.
VG: What are your targets and objectives and have you managed to achieve them yet?
WG: We are reviewing our targets and objectives in line with the current policy thrust and once the amendment is gazetted then we will be able to clearly pronounce. However, the alignment will not deviate from the main objective of economically empowering indigenous Zimbabweans but will instead offer various economic empowerment strategies.
VG: The issue of Community Share Ownership Trusts that were launched in 2012 has been one of interest. I understand at one time there were 61 CSOTs that were registered and had pledged more than $66 million. How many are they now in the country, are they all functional and are they honouring their pledges?
WG: Yes, we have 61 registered Community Share Ownership Trusts (CSOTs) in the country, 60 of which are rural and only one is urban. Of these, 26 have been capitalised and are functional. They have embarked on a number of social, infrastructure and economic empowerment projects in their respective communities in line with their mandate. On the issue of pledges, we have qualifying businesses in the resource based sector that pledged seed capital to CSOTs and the correct position is that the total amount pledged is US$128,506 million of which close to US$40 million has so far been disbursed. Qualifying businesses with outstanding pledges are being engaged by the Government for them to honour their pledges.
VG: How much has been paid so far and how many are not functional and what is the challenge with those that are not working?
WG: Of the US$128,506 million seed capital pledged, close to US$40 million has so far been disbursed to 26 CSOTs in nine of the country’s 10 administrative provinces.
The only administrative province that does not have funded CSOTs is Bulawayo. All funded CSOTs are functional.
VG: How have the Community Share Ownership Trusts transformed the lives of the communities where they have been established and how far true are allegations of abuse of funds by community leaders?
WG: CSOTs are involved in programmes and projects that are aimed at improving the living standards of their respective communities. They have done a lot in terms of social services provision — that is construction/development of education, health and such other social facilities, infrastructure development (dams, roads and electricity infrastructure) and economic empowerment projects.
Allegations of funds abuse by community leaders are unfounded and very unfortunate. Media houses are urged to go on the ground and get accurate information on the operations of CSOTs.
VG: From those that you have visited, is the concept working well and do you have any good examples of some that are really doing a great job?
WG: Yes, the concept is working perfectly well. In fact one of the key features in the structure and modus operandi of CSOTs is that decisions on the selection of projects to be implemented by CSOTs in their communities are done by the communities themselves through their participation in community needs identification surveys and community engagement programmes.
To this end, projects and programmes embarked upon by CSOTs have gone a long way in addressing pressing needs in these communities. We have schools that have been established with the support of CSOTs in areas which previously did not have any and pupils used to walk 15 km or more one way, to the nearest school.
VG: What will be done to those that reneged on paying their pledges and those that failed to kick off despite having promised to do so?
WG: NIEEB in conjunction with line ministries will continue engaging those companies.
