President Robert Mugabe is expected to launch the Marange-Zimunya Community Share Ownership Trust in a move that will see villagers in Chiadzwa and surrounding areas directly benefiting from diamond mining, Rapaport reported citing the Herald.
Four companies are mining diamonds at Chiadzwa in Manicaland Province. Manicaland's governor and resident minister Chris Mushohwe confirmed the development in a recent interview.
"The Marange-Zimunya Community Share Ownership Trust will be launched by the president in July this year but I cannot give you the exact date," he said.
Governor Mushohwe said the launch of the trust will change lives in communities in Marange and Zimunya. "It is a quite exciting development. It will change lives of people in Manicaland province.
"Imagine if all the four companies were to give an advance of $10 million. One would be talking of $40 million from contributions by the four companies operating there. It would be the biggest trust in the country," he said.
Mushohwe said communities in Marange have been neglected for too long and the Marange- Zimunya Community Ownership Trust was coming at the right time. Villagers living in Marange and Zimunya survive on food hand-outs as the area is arid. The Marange-Zimunya Community Share Ownership Trust becomes the fifth such scheme.
President Mugabe has since launched community trusts at Zimplats (Mashonaland West), Mimosa and Unki (Midlands) and recently the Gwanda Community Share Ownership Trust in Matabeleland South.
Community Share Ownership Trusts are a countrywide government initiative spearheading development and empowering rural communities by giving them 10 percent stake in all businesses that exploit natural resources in their areas.
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