‘Midlands province will definitely deliver’

20 Jan, 2019 - 00:01 0 Views

The Sunday Mail

Devolution is enshrined in the Constitution and there is need for some enabling legislation in order for us to get it operational.

Provincial councils are not yet in place and they have not been sworn-in.

It is only after they have been sworn-in that we can start talking of implementing devolution.

On the devolution front, it is up to the Minister of Justice or (Minister of) Local Government to set the framework.

There are quite a lot of things (that need to be assessed), like whether the province will be able to collect tax and so on; that is not for me to talk about.

There are also administrative issues from the judiciary point of view; how does that work with central Government since we are still a unitary State?

Benefits

The benefits of devolution are quite obvious if you look at resources in the Midlands province.

We have minerals, and you can find almost every mineral in the province.

As Midlands province, we are blessed with rich mineral deposits – almost every mineral is found in this province. We have gold, chrome, diamonds, nickel and asbestos, among others.

Over a third of platinum is in the Midlands province and 40 percent of gold being mined and sold in Zimbabwe also comes from the province.

All these minerals we believe they have not been fully exploited, and we will then be looking at getting companies and investors into the Midlands to fully exploit the minerals at a much bigger level than artisanal mining so that will then add a significant amount of money to the fiscus.

We are also looking at skills transfer to our people.

We are looking at artisanal miners and equipping them with the capacity to grow into small-scale miners.

We want their operations to be regularised so that they operate legally, safely and professionally and make them people who will be able to contribute to the fiscus in terms of tax payment and tax liabilities.

If we use these resources to full potential, Midlands has the capacity to immensely contribute to economic recovery.

Agriculture

We are working towards that in the mining sector, but we also have agriculture.

As you might know, 52 percent of all cotton in this country is grown in the Midlands province, in the Gokwe area to be precise.

So we are looking also at getting other investors to come in and partner with Government in outgrower schemes so as to increase the hectarage under cotton production.

That means when we increase cotton production through outgrower schemes, we are also empowering a lot of people at household level.

It also means we are increasing per capita income at household level.

That way, we will be able to achieve the President’s vision of an upper middle-income economy by 2030.

It is something that we will start now by getting other players to participate in the economy.

Right now, the main player is Cottco and then there are some players out there.

We are saying we need competition and we need to get other guys in so that the burden is not on one company, but we have a situation where you are increasing income levels of your people.

And as you grow more cotton, it means we will look at ginneries being established in the Gokwe area, and then Gokwe can become a textile hub of Zimbabwe.

Other than ginneries, you go into spinning yarn and then you go into weaving, where you get your final materials.

We should not just export everything, but we are looking at retaining value in that particular area. So that’s agriculture sector from one aspect.

Milling

Then the other aspect is that there is no milling plant in Midlands; the one which was there closed some time back. We have farms and a large population here. According to the 2012 census, the province has over 1,6 million people.

Even with such a huge population, all the mealie-meal is imported from Harare.

We harvest maize here and transport it to Harare for milling and it is transported back to Midlands as mealie-meal.There is the problem: the costs associated are not viable.

If you establish a milling plant in the Midlands, then it will cut costs, including fuel which is scarce.

A situation where maize is taken for milling to Harare and returned here as mealie-meal is not feasible; that will not take us anywhere.

We are saying our mandate here is to value-add our products in Midlands for the benefit of our local people and we sell the surplus elsewhere.

A market of 1,6 million people is indeed a big market. But, of course, not all of them will buy because of some grinding mills in rural areas, but then that’s not the only area. We are talking of bread also. We should have our own Midlands bakeries, not to wait for deliveries from as far as Marondera and Harare.

That’s how we retain value, that’s how we create jobs and that’s how we add to the GDP (gross domestic product) of the province.

Job creation is at the core of Government plans for youth empowerment and with employment opportunities in the province, we are going to employ thousands of people.

I am very much eager on the issue of enhancing the GDP of the province so that we come out as the number one province in the country.

I have very big plans for that and (I am) working on conducting roadshows where we will be going to various capital cities around the world, telling them to come and invest in the Midlands province.

And then we are going to have investment conferences where we will bring people together and show them opportunities in the province.

We are also creating a website with the motto ‘invest in the Midlands’.

Anybody, wherever they are, they should just check Midlands Zimbabwe to see investment opportunities the province is offering.

I speak very authoritatively because I am running that programme myself and I believe that as a province we will deliver.

Senator Larry Mavhima is Minister of State for Midlands Provincial Affairs. He was speaking to The Sunday Mail reporter Norman Muchemwa on the province’s prospects ahead of devolution.

 

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