THE Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement, Dr Anxious Masuka, has clarified the appointment of Mr Ngoni Kudenga as rescue manager for the Cold Storage Company (CSC) and dismissed as false, allegations of any conflicted involvement.

Responding to an earlier article published by this paper on the appointment of prominent lawyer, Mr Vonani Majoko, as the CSC interim rescue manager April 2, the minister said the report following a recent creditors’ meeting in Bulawayo was misleading.

During the meeting, creditors replaced Mr Kudenga of BDO Zimbabwe with Mr Majoko as CSC interim rescue manager.

“The Honourable minister is unhappy with this article because it is misleading and full of lies,” said the minister in a written response this week through the chief director in his office, Brigadier General (Retired) Dr Herbert Chingono.

“Firstly, Mr Ngoni Kudenga of BDO was appointed the interim corporate rescue practitioner by the late Air Chief Marshal P. Shiri when he was the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement. He was not appointed by Hon Dr AJ Masuka.

“Secondly, it is false to report that Dr AJ Masuka sits on Mutilikwi board, a subsidiary of Tongaat Zimbabwe. He has never sat on that board.”

The ministry, through a High Court application, had successfully placed CSC under reconstruction, interdicting creditors from attaching the parastatal’s assets.

During the recent CSC first creditors’ meeting under interim corporate rescue held in Bulawayo before the Master of the High Court, creditors had claimed that Mr Kudenga’s alleged close relationship with Minister Masuka and perceived previous involvement in CSC presented a conflict of interest.

On behalf of the CSC workers, Mr Dumisani Dube of Mathonsi Ncube Law Chambers, in particular, had alleged that Dr Masuka sits on the board of a subsidiary of Tongaat Zimbabwe called Mutilikwi with Kudenga allegedly sitting on the Hippo Valley board.

Business Chronicle unreservedly apologises to the minister for any inconvenience caused by the factually incorrect narrative and regrets the failure to grant him the right of reply in the initial report.

Government is working on measures to revive CSC, which, at its peak, handled up to 150 000 tonnes of beef and associated by-products annually.

The company used to export to the European Union, where it had an annual quota of 9 100 tonnes of beef and used to earn the country about US$45 million per year.