Zimbabwe government has set up a committee to handle the paperwork on the sticky issue of iron claims ahead of the projected start of operations at NewZim Steel in January.
Industry and Commerce Minister, Professor Welshman Ncube has said that the committee, comprising officials from Essar Holdings. Mr Ncube said that "The issue of claims needs to be addressed urgently as we are now at implementation stage. We have agreed that we will have a meeting between Essar, our colleagues and ourselves in the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development to finalise all the issues to do with joint exploration and the transfer of mining rights to NewZim Minerals. We are hoping that everything will be in place by early January and the committee will do the paperwork."
Prof Ncube said the team could have met earlier to facilitate the swift resumption of operations at the Redcliff-based giant steel company, were it not for the festive season holidays.
He said Government had put in place mechanisms to ensure the project springs to life. He added that "We have put in place a Cabinet team to monitor the process. The team will be playing a supervisory role. I hope all ministries will co-operate this time and allow operations to commence. We could have facilitated the meetings to start this month, but everyone is on holiday. We are hoping, however, to move swiftly once the holidays are over."
The minister expressed hope that Essar and Ziscosteel paid the NewZim Steel workers part of their December salaries following an understanding that was undertaken.
He acknowledged that things were not yet running smoothly at NewZim Steel, although he remained optimistic.
Prof Ncube said that "The workers were supposed to be paid 50% of their December salaries. That was the understanding between Essar and Ziscosteel. Ziscosteel was supposed to meet 25% of the salaries while the other 25% was to come from Essar. We, however, expect things to have normalized once operations start in January next year.”
