It is made up mostly of hills spanning about 550 km. It is host to vast ore deposits, including gold, silver, chromium, platinum, nickel and asbestos. This makes it a very strategic economic resource with significant quantities of chrome and platinum. Economic concentrations of nickel, copper, gold and platinum group metals (PGM) exist in the dyke.
First discovered in the middle of the 19th century by European explorers, its vast mineral wealth was only known in 1918.
Now it has dramatically been turned into a major source of conflict.
The new indigenisation method launched recently by the Zanu PF half of the inclusive government and put into effect recently at Zimplats by no less a person than President Robert Mugabe himself sounds well-intended and, if run properly, communities in which major economic activities are taking place will benefit immensely.
But the concept of community share trusts immediately alienates huge chunks of Zimbabweans who do not live anywhere near the Great Dyke. At its broadest, the dyke is only 12 km wide. Outside the dyke there is a sprinkling of minerals here and there but huge swathes of populations live in semi-arid lands that have little to offer but subsistence agriculture and angry young men. This is how the concept becomes problematic.
Mugabe called the launch at Zimplats “a commendable development in the implementation of our indigenisation and economic empowerment laws,” but failed to appreciate its implications on other issues that have dogged efforts to economically empower all Zimbabweans. Land reform, for example, benefited only a few. It is true, as he said, the country is endowed with natural resources mined over the years by multinational corporations without benefiting the people. But to craft a policy that would result in oases of prosperity dotted across the country that are surrounded by large deserts of debilitating poverty is to discriminate people according to a whim of nature.
Chrome is mined throughout the dyke, especially in the Darwendale, Lalapanzi and Mutorashanga areas. So, only the communities in those areas will benefit when the three largest chrome mining companies, Maranatha Ferrochrome, Zimaloys and Zimasco are also forced into community share ownership schemes.
Besides the Zimplats venture at Ngezi, platinum group metals in the dyke are mined at Unki Mine near Shurugwi by Anglo American and Mimosa Mine near Zvishavane by Zimasco. Again, only communities around these areas will benefit.The president said whereas in the existing model in which the communities did not directly benefit from economic activities in their areas, such communities relied on government and donor funding for social and economic infrastructure development. At face value it might sound wrong for communities to depend on government. But if we take away the donor factor, it is the duty of government to fund social services and infrastructural development; that is why companies pay taxes.
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Controlled centrally, these taxes could be distributed equitably throughout the country thereby benefiting everybody including those who, for historical and geographical reasons, find themselves living in less natural-resources-endowed regions. This does not reinforce a dependency syndrome; it enforces natural justice.
“Community Share Ownership Trusts are a vehicle for broad-based participation in shareholding in various businesses by our communities. The proceeds from such participation shall be used for the provision of social and economic infrastructure in line with the priorities of the communities concerned, such as the provision, operation and maintenance of schools, clinics, dipping tanks, roads, water works, sanitation, soil conservation and prevention of environmental degradation,” Mugabe said.
Is this some kind of devolution? Many regions have, in the past, called for devolution to be enshrined in our national constitution without success mainly because of the potential dangers it poses to national unity. But after the launch of the community share ownership trusts it becomes impossible to stand in the way of devolution; only the devolution this time would not be according to provinces but according to little communities living around rich areas. This will splinter the nation into fragments of few rich and many poor clans who will naturally turn against each other. Most conflicts are fights for natural resources.
Mugabe said the proceeds from the community share ownership trusts should be properly accounted for and used in projects that benefit communities but this is well-nigh impossible, not just because of the corruption such schemes naturally sp-awn, but also the impracticality of traditional leaders overriding the dictatorships of the political leadership.
But already we have seen politicians circling the programmes like vultures; infighting has already escalated among the political leadership and the traditional leaders have also turned against each other as they already smell foul play. This is just a microcosm of what will happen when the scheme goes national.
It would seem the share ownership scheme project is gimmick to purchase votes in anticipation of the watershed elections likely to come next year. This is reinforced by the fact that the schemes are not government projects but are driven undisguised by a political party. Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment minister Saviour Kasukuwere has said this over and over again, that the schemes are a Zanu PF project. But this is likely to backfire and alienate communities against Zanu PF.
If the taxman, in this case the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, has failed to collect taxes thereby necessitating this extra-judiciary tax on foreign-owned companies then Zimra should be revamped to make it more effective. But Zimra has generally been doing a good job; sometimes too good to the extent of exercising extortive measures to collect revenue.
The problem has been that government has been profligate in spending the revenue and the now-all-pervasive corruption has taken its toll. So, it’s not entirely because of lack of money that government has failed to fund community development projects and social services but because of bad governance which has resulted in the national kitty leaking like a sieve.
Share ownership schemes should be controlled centrally and the money distributed equitably among all communities regardless of where they live; to do otherwise is to fail in nation building.
