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The Minister of Finance and Economic Development Professor Mthuli Ncube and his Minister of Mines and Mining Development counterpart Winston Chitando have been dragged to court by Save Odzi Community Network Trust (SOCNET) for failing to clarify on how the country’s minerals resources are exploited.
Attorney General Prince Machaya is also a respondent in the matter.
Socnet is requesting that the government gazettes a bill in line with Section (315) 2 of the constitution which deals with the country’s minerals in 90 days.
This Constitution’s section states that “an Act of Parliament must provide for the negotiation and performance of…. joint ventures, contracts for the construction and operation of infrastructure and facilities and concessions of mineral and other rights. “
In their affidavit SOCNET through their chairperson Zakeu Nhachi stated that the trust had been deprived of transparency, honesty, competitiveness and cost effectiveness in joint venture contracts and concessions of mineral rights and other rights in the mineral sector.
Nhachi added on saying, “It is my belief that by including section 315 (2) of the Constitution, the aim was to ensure full realisation of Zimbabwe’s minerals by the public through a transparent mechanism and culture.”
“Given these circumstances it is difficult to achieve the transparency, honesty and cost effectiveness envisioned in section 315 (2) of the Constitution. SOCNET emphasized on the fact that there had been no specific provision on transparency giving reference to the joint venture between ZMDC and Alrosa a multinational company
Nhachi revealed that the only information that was in the public domain is that Alrosa gets 70 percent of their intended development project and Alrosa would get 30 percent, matter of fact the whole deal was shrouded.
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