Back to Index

Chisumbanje villagers elect committee for the Ethanol Plant
Platform for Youth Development
November 14, 2012

The challenges and politics affecting Chisumbanje Ethanol project nears resolution as a committee popularly elected by the affected villagers is established.

The committee, elected on the 7th of November 2012 is a fulfilment of the resolutions approved by the cabinet of Zimbabwe. Article 2.8 of the Inter-Ministerial committee report produced on the 19th of September 2012 called for this committee.

The establishment of the committee had some false start as contestation and jostling for positions took centre stage. This committee comes into existence to replace a Green Fuel handpicked committee that was dominated by political players aligned to ZANU PF.

Those elected into the committee include Claris Madhuku who is the Director of Platform for Youth Development Trust, Memory Zvinongoza Dube who is a farmer in Chinyamukwakwa, Jerry Moyana who is a farmer and businessperson and Wedzerai Gwenzi who is a farmer and youth activist. The committee has been distinguished as a reflection of the community interests that goes beyond political gerrymandering. Local traditional leadership participated and endorsed the results as a true reflection of the people of Chisumbanje.

The duties and responsibilities of the committee are to create co existence between the Green fuel/Macdom and the villagers. Relations between the two parties had taken a confrontation approach where the company had ploughed crops belonging to villagers down, on the other hand, villagers had refused and resisted the company going beyond her mandate, into their communal land, without Chipinge Rural District Council (CRDC) approval. The conflict had produced ugly scenes that only needed intervention by the government.

When asked for comment soon after her victory Memory Zvinongoza said, "I am excited that eventually, the affected villagers had been accorded an opportunity to elect their representatives as opposed to imposition. We know our challenges but we are sure we will be able to interpret the interests of the community to ensure we are not taken advantage by the investor". Claris Madhuku whose organisation (now nicknamed Green fuel) is fighting for compensation and economic justice expressed hope that relations between him, his organisation and the company will improve

"We are very confident that the company will be able to accept working with representatives from the community among other stakeholders. We all respect the intervention from the government and the report produced by the cabinet. I know that our relations with the company has been characterised by court cases and high emotions but now we need to be forward looking and work together in representing our different mandates, I understand that the villagers may not be homogenous due to political and economic interests of bigger players. The task before us is achievable since our duty as a committee is to listen intelligently and unite the villagers in order to achieve co-existence with the company"

The committee is also supposed to conclude on the issue of compensation. The cabinet report had found that the company had illegally disadvantaged the community for four years and must now work with the affected villagers on compensation. The compensation reviews on livestock which was killed when wastes from the Ethanol plant contaminated Jerawachera River. The committee will now work hand in hand with the government, ARDA and the company to establish the cost of the loss for the satisfactory recompense of the villagers.

Platform for Youth Development calls for other civic society stakeholders to intervene and ensure that these newly found relations are managed ahead of a watershed election expected early next year.

Professor Arthur Mutambara who chairs the cabinet inter-ministerial committee has a responsibility to harmonise relations where political interests particularly from MDC-T and ZANU PF seeks to outdo each other. From the direction that the Chairperson is taking, Jerry Moyana has expressed confidence that Professor Mutambara will be able to use his neutral position to hand hold some of the stakeholders to own up to the approved resolutions from the cabinet report.

Visit the Platform for Youth Development fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP