Masvingo engages DTZ

The provincial leadership here will soon engage the Development Trust of Zimbabwe (DTZ) over plans by a private investor to set up a US$400 ethanol plant on its vast tracts of land at the Nuanetsi Ranch in Mwenezi.

DTZ controls the Nuanetsi Ranch, which straddles over 100 000 hectares and was slated to be home to Zimbabwe’s second ethanol plant by the Zimbabwe Bio-Energy (ZBE) fronted by businessman Mr Billy Rautenbach.

ZBE currently runs crocodile, animal husbandry and wildlife operations on part of Nuanetsi under a lease from DTZ.

The firm wanted to further consolidate its footprint by setting up an ethanol plant using cane produced under irrigation from Tugwi-Mukosi Dam water.

The company had applied to the Masvingo provincial leadership for 10 000ha to grow cane at Nuanetsi to feed the planned ethanol project.

The Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs Ezra Chadzamira yesterday said the provincial leadership would get direction on the future of Nuanetsi projects from the new DTZ board.

He said the board appointed by President Mnangagwa early this year had the final say on any developments at Nuanetsi.

“ZBE led by Mr Rautenbach applied to us for land to grow cane for an ethanol plant at Nuanetsi Ranch in Mwenezi but that land is under DTZ, so we cannot make a decision on land that is not ours so nothing has moved with regards to the ethanol project,” he said.

“President Mnangagwa appointed a new board (for DTZ) and we are waiting for them to come up with plans on what they want to do with their land. The new board will inform us about their plans with Nuanetsi land and we stand guided by their plans,” he said.

Besides the  planned ethanol plant by ZBE, Nuanetsi is also home to more than 3 000 families that were displaced by Tugwi-Mukosi Dam from their ancestral homes in Chivi.

The families are currently settled on one-hectare plots and Government insists they remain top on the priority list of beneficiaries of the dam’s water when irrigation eventually starts.

Plans are also afoot to relocate them to more spacious plots at Nuanetsi as the families are not happy with the current plot sizes.

ZBE wants to open an ethanol plant at Nuanetsi owing to its strategic location, close to the railway line at Mbizi where the firm can easily transport the product to the market.

The land is also close to the confluence of Tugwi and Runde rivers that provide perennial irrigation water for cane fields.