CHISUMBANJE — Acting President Joice Mujuru has assured villagers and other stakeholders that the closed Chisumbanje ethanol plant will be reopened next week.
OBEY MANAYITI
The ethanol plant has not been operating since last year owing to fighting between villagers and plant owner Green Fuel, over among other issues, boundary disputes.
The parties have since resolved their disputes.
“We came here to see what is causing these problems we are having at this plant. Last week, a group of women from this area came to me asking for my intervention. This is a Zanu PF project started in 2008. This was in fulfilment of Zanu PF policies. I saw people who wanted to reap where they did not sow and that will not be allowed to happen,” Mujuru said amid wild cheers from the villagers and workers.
“From Monday onwards, Green Fuel will be operating.People are talking about hunger and non-employment here. How can we solve that when we don’t want to open the plant? I want to thank the women who came to my office in Harare last week and told me about these problems. If you vote for Zanu PF in the next elections, there will be no repeat of this.”
Mujuru was accompanied by several Zanu PF officials, among them national political commissar Webster Shamu, secretary for administration Dydmus Mutasa, national chairman Simon Khaya Moyo, Agriculture minister Joseph Made and women’s league boss Oppah Muchinguri.
Platform for Youth Development Trust director Claris Madhuku, who has been advocating for the villagers’ rights over land boundaries, non-employment of locals and issues of compensation, welcomed Mujuru’s stance.
