Boustead Beef, a United Kingdom investor entered into a
25-year joint venture agreement with the Government in January 2019, to
facilitate the revival of the company under a US$400 million deal. The company
was recently put under a corporate rescue scheme now led by a prominent
Bulawayo lawyer, Mr Vonani Majoko, who was elected by creditors to allow for
its recovery under protection from litigation.
Speaking during a tour of the Bulawayo factory by the
Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce, Raj Modi on Monday afternoon,
CSC-Boustead Beef Zimbabwe consultant, Mr Reginald Shoko, said engineers were
on the ground working on upgrades and were likely to resume operations by the
second quarter.
“The whole plan of the revival of CSC is now within the
premises of the corporate rescue practitioner and in our plan, we would have
told you that by the end of August we will be up and running but we have a
process where we have to pass through,” he told the Deputy Minister.
“What we have direct control of now is to make sure that
everything is working. The parts have already been ordered and paid for and the
engineers are already on the ground preparing for the arrival of parts.
“By the end of the second quarter we believe things will be
ready to work if creditors allow everything to go through.”
Mr Shoko said the giant CSC plant had been operating below
capacity for over 20 years hence the need to properly conduct engineering
assessments and repair and replace most of the components.
“The parts that are required to revive or light on CSC have
already been procured and they are on their way. We are now waiting for the
fitting of the parts, commissioning and testing,” he said.
“In the long run there is a solar plant that will be set up
as the licensing has already been worked on and for water there are over 10
boreholes here.”
Mr Shoko said a proposal has been put forward to work
closely with farmers in revitalising the whole value chain.
“We are moving away from the former setup whereby farmers
would just sell their cattle to CSC, get their money and go. Now the whole idea
is that even if they put their cattle into the CSC paddocks, they are paid
their money upfront for whatever they are charged,” he said.
“When cattle come in for slaughter after 60 or 90 days from
the paddocks, farmers also have a benefit of added value in the sense that they
get a certain percentage if their cattle weigh more after the deduction of the
expenses of keeping it to a certain standard.”
Mr Shoko said CSC was critical to the National Development
Strategy 1 (NDS1:2021-2025), a key building block towards achieving Vision of
2030.
“We need the local and majority farmers in control of the
value chain and the cycle or the meat industry. CSC is the backbone of the Wet
Blue Industry in Zimbabwe as well,” he said.
In his response Deputy Minister Modi said the tour helped
him get a real picture regarding some of the concerns that were being raised by
the media.
“Two weeks ago, I saw on the media that there were a lot of
negative issues about CSC pertaining to people who are said to be stealing all
the equipment and selling it as scrap and all that,” he said.
“So, that is why I thought of coming to see personally what
exactly is happening. But what you see in the media and what you see here on
the ground is totally different.
“I’m very happy to let the people of Bulawayo and the
country as a whole know that there is nothing like that. What is happening is
that there is progress in work and they promised that soon within three months’
time they will be operational. It’s good news for all Bulawayo people and
Zimbabweans.”
Deputy Minister Modi said the revival of CSC was a big step
for Bulawayo as it presents huge employment opportunities of up to 450 when
production resumes, and a broader window for exports.
“They are going to create more and more employment with new
technology. They were also talking about making gluten that is something new
for us in Zimbabwe because the gluten we are currently using is being
imported,” he said.
“Once we start making it here, we can sell to the locals
and export some to other countries to generate foreign currency for the country.”
CSC-Boustead Beef Zimbabwe senior executive, Mr Isaiah
Machingura, said the company has full orders from the market.
“We have got some compilation of orders internationally and
also locally, which is quite a great interest in all that we are trying to do
to make sure that this Bulawayo abattoir operates,” he said.
“And it is going to operate on a different style not the
old style both on how we are going to supply our products to the export markets
and as well as the bottom line of the source of raw material, which is the
farmer.”
CSC expects to resume operations with 450 workers at its
Bulawayo plant starting with daily slaughter of 800 cattle and increase volumes
as time goes on. Herald
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