Chisumbanje farmers want their land back from Rautenbach
By Tichaona Sibanda
6 September 2012
The MDC-T legislator for Chipinge South has said villagers who lost their
land through the construction of the Chisumbanje ethanol plant are still
waiting for a cabinet resolution of how they will be compensated.
Three years ago Macdom Investments took over Chisumbanje Estate from the
Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA). The ethanol plant is
owned by controversial businessman Billy Rautenbach who has strong links to
ZANU PF ministers.
In 2009 the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs in the President’s
Office, Didymus Mutasa, gave Rautenbach permission to take over 5,000
hectares of land at ARDA’s Chisumbanje Estate to grow sugarcane, to be used
in the production of ethanol fuel. On 19th March 2009, 16 days after the
formation of the inclusive government, Mutasa reportedly signed a letter
authorising Rautenbach to operate the ethanol project at Chisumbanje, but
never disclosed this to Cabinet.
Local MP Meke Makuyana said the company also illegally grabbed thousands of
hectares of additional land from farmers in Chisumbanje.
‘According to a contract that they signed with ARDA, Macdom is only entitled
to 5,112 hectares of land, which is in black and white. We also pointed out
this to a cabinet task force team that visited the plant recently, led by
Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara,’ the MP said.
‘The villagers were promised compensation for the land they lost and that
they would get their land back which had been taken away by the estate. My
understanding is that cabinet has already discussed the issue and we are
waiting for a response.’
The US$600 million Green Fuel ethanol plant has stopped production after
running out of storage space as the company struggles to push its product on
the local market.
Energy Minister Elton Mangoma recently shrugged off attempts by the company
to try and arm-twist the government into forcing mandatory blending of fuel
for all motorists.
The Minister said despite calling for mandatory blending at all fuel
stations, the company had not put in place logistics on how it will blend
the fuel.
This led to Makuyana complaining that the whole project has raised tensions
in his constituency with counter-accusations between farmers, villagers,
plant owners and politicians of sabotage.
‘You have a group of farmers and villagers accusing Macdom of sabotaging
their livelihoods. On the other hand you have officials from Macdom accusing
certain politicians of sabotaging the project, while politicians are
accusing Macdom of wanting to arm twist government.
‘It’s a mess and I hope the cabinet committee set up to look into the matter
would resolve the crisis,’ the legislator added.