A NEW town is set to be born between Mvuma-Chivhu and Manhize where Tsingshan Group Holdings, a Fortune 500 listed company is set to build a world class iron and steel plant that will also come with ferrochrome furnaces.
Already, siting for a dam along Munyati River, urban
planning, logistical and other infrastructural development projects are
underway in what is the fruition of one of President Mnangagwa’s flagship
investment programmes under his Zimbabwe is open for business mantra.
The project will be carried by Tsingshan’s subsidiary,
Dinson Iron and Steel Company which will be the largest steel plant in Southern
Africa.The US$1 billion investment project will have an annual turnover of
US$1,5 billion from the processing plant and iron ore mine from next year.
Equipped with a 1,5km-by-600-metre carbon and steel plant,
an iron ore mine, and a ferrochrome plant, the project will have a capacity of
1,2 million tonnes a year, while between 4 000 and 5 000 people will benefit
through employment across value chains.
The project, which was almost scuppered by G40
functionaries in 2014 as a powerful figure allegedly demanded a 60 percent
shareholding in the US$10 billion investment that Tsingshan had earmarked for
Zimbabwe, comes at a time when the country’s economy is on a rebound.
Back then Tsingshan Group, whose annual revenue in 2018,
according to Forbes exceeded US$28 billion took their money to Indonesia and
only returned to Zimbabwe after the birth of the Second Republic under
President Mnangagwa’s rule.
In an interview, former Norton legislator and Zimbabwean
Ambassador to China Mr Chris Mutsvangwa, who has followed the project since its
inception said President Mnangagwa’s vision is on display as Tsingshan, whose
chairman is Mr Xiang Guangda, transforms Mvuma, Chivhu and Manhize.
“Mr Xiang Guangda was already an investor in Selous and
wanted to expand in Zimbabwe but was turned down because an influential figure
in G40 wanted 60 percent of the company under the Indigenisation Act. That
explains why the first thing that President Mnangagwa did when he came into
power was to repeal the Indigenisation Act,’’ he said.
While he was Vice President, President Mnangagwa in 2016
went to China to revive the project but was undone by the G40 elements who
stopped some of the members of the team from travelling to the Asian country.
“On two occasions, the G40 elements stalled the project.
The G40 were blind moles, they didn’t see where this project was going. Look at
where the company is now. In 2020 Xiang was number 329, the previous year he
was number 361, and now he is 279 on the Fortune 500,” said Ambassador
Mutsvangwa.
For the local communities, the project is a game-changer as
it will bring employment and also give economic pulse to a region that has lost
in terms of investment over the years.
The epicentre of the multi-million-dollar project is around
the mountainous Manhize escarpment which forms the border with Mashonaland West
and slightly protruding into Chirumhanzu but with its backbone in the Chikomba
District, within an area under the traditional jurisdiction of Mambo Nyoka of
the Museyamwa lineage.
Recently a site visit was conducted by the company
representatives and the local leadership led by Chief Chirumhanzu within the
Manhize area, to facilitate the commencement of feasibility research that will
lead eventually to project implementation. Chronicle
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