GREAT Dyke Investments chief operating officer Munashe Shava faces contempt of Parliament charges after he failed to disclose the shareholding structure of the firm which has platinum and coal mining claims that have been lying idle for years.
by VENERANDA LANGA
Shava last week appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines to give oral evidence when MPs grilled him over the company’s share ownership structures. Great Dyke investments is suspected of having links with the Zimbabwe National Army.
Asked to give the corporate structure of the company, Shava quipped: “The corporate and its governance structures — unfortunately — I am not in a position to be spokesperson for government.”
“The company runs the Darwendale platinum project and it is a private company owned by the Russians, and in Zimbabwe, Great Dyke Investments has nothing to do with Hwange Colliery and has nothing to do with coal,” he said.
But committee chairperson Temba Mliswa rubbished his responses, saying the committee had asked for the shareholders’ names, not the information that Shava was providing.
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“That mine has been there for four to five years, and yet it has not taken off. You have refused to give us its shareholding structure and as Parliament, we will deliberate on the issue of charging you with contempt of Parliament,” Mliswa said.
Dangamvura-Chikanga MP Prosper Mutseyami said it was important to know the shareholding structure of the company to avert a situation where terrorist organisations end up getting mining claims in the country.
Mberengwa North MP Tafanana Zhou then warned Shava, saying Parliament’s Standing Rules and Orders 25 (b) gives powers to MPs to summon individuals and ask them to produce documentary evidence, failure of which that person could be charged with contempt of Parliament.
“The Great Dyke Investments was given one of the platinum concessions and it has not been performing. Can you give us the CR14s for both Great Dyke Investments and Localise, which took over the Hwange Western area concession?” Mliswa then directed the question to Mines secretary Onesimo Mazai Moyo who said he was going to find out from the Deeds Registry’s office the ownership structure of the company.
Shava was ordered to come back on Monday afternoon with the names of the directors, but he did not report back.