Mines ministry officials lied to former President Robert
Mugabe in 2016 about the Chinese setting up a $100 million facility to support
small-scale miners, Parliament was told on Tuesday.
The issue was revealed when the Mines ministry permanent
secretary Onesimo Moyo and officials from the ministry appeared before the
Temba Mliswa-chaired Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines to speak on the
ministry’s bids for the 2019 budget.
This was not the first time that Mugabe was made to mislead
the nation. In 2013, he was made to present a $10 million dummy cheque to the
Chiadzwa Community Share Ownership Trust, which also never materialised.
Dangamvura-Chikanga legislator Prosper Mutseyami (MDC
Alliance) demanded that the Mines ministry officials explain whether the $100
million equipment facility announced by Mugabe in the State of the National
Address that year was released and to who.
Mines ministry director of finance, Morgan Makina, then
disclosed that the $100 million Chinese facility, which was meant for
procurement of equipment for small-scale miners, never materialised.
“Yes, the $100 million facility never materialised because
after it was agreed with the Chinese, they then demanded that government pays
for insurance and freight of the equipment and that is where it ended,” Makina
said.
Pincipal director for technical services in the ministry,
Charles Tahwa, added: “The $100 million facility could not proceed because of
those technical issues. It was going to come as equipment to be given to
small-scale miners.”
Makina said the facility was an agreement between the
Finance ministry and the Chinese through a Chinese company, FCMG, but they
refused to pay the insurance and shipment costs of $35 million, which would
mean that the project was going to end up costing $135 million if it had
materialised. Newsday
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