Public Accounts Committee chairperson Caston Matewu says Parliament is prepared to allow the Mtapa Investment Fund to explore ways of rescuing Zisco Steel from its current challenges.
Before falling on hard times, Zisco Steel was one of the country’s leading steel producers. However, the company has since been crippled by numerous challenges, including mounting debts and obsolete infrastructure.
Previous government efforts to revive the company failed to yield results, leading to its placement under the Mtapa Investment Fund.
In an interview, Honourable Matewu said Mtapa has already brought stability and improved governance to several parastatals and should therefore be given a chance to see if it can turn around Zisco Steel.
‘’…So we’ve been to Zisco Steel and we’ve ticked, no, these people probably can’t give anything to the country, rather they need to rescued themselves. But however, maybe Mtapa (Investment Fund) can come up with a smart way that they can actually make this company give something back to this country.
‘’The positives which we are seeing now is that these failing companies, or parastatals, are now being made to change their whole corporate governance system. And you know, Rome was never built in a day.
‘’But what we have seen now is that there is now proper professionalism in government, where these companies are being forced to act in terms of the constitution and also in terms of the corporate governance, a public act, and act professionally to do the job they are supposed to be doing, other than being cash cows for a few people who are corrupt and misuse parastatals for their own good.
‘’So just in this brief time that Mtapa has been there, we have seen a lot of a seismic shift in terms of corporate governance, which will begin to yield dividends and profit to all these entities for the future of this country,’’ he said.
Matewu applauded the Mtapa Investment Fund strategy, arguing that it benefits the country more than privatisation, which he said mainly benefits a few individuals.
‘’Privatisation means that you are putting these entities into someone’s pocket who wants to make a profit for them, not for the good of the country, but for their own good and their shareholders.
‘’So Mtapa is owned by the government. So we know that if Mtapa professionalises these entities, they will become professional and whatever dividends they yield will come back to benefit the people of Zimbabwe, not the few rich people who will be owning these companies as private entities,’’ he said.
However, Matewu believes it will be difficult to resuscitate Zisco Steel in its current state and suggested that the company may need to refocus on areas where it still has opportunities and capacity.
‘’So we are not going to jump the gun and say no, Mtapa cannot resuscitate Zisco Steel. They heard what we said, they heard what the management said, they heard the challenges, and we noted that that infrastructure would need to be changed completely, but we have learned, and we have expertise, and we have people who have been with Mtapa for a very long time, and also with Zisco Steel for a very long time.
‘’…we did a tour of Zisco Steel, and we spoke with the management, and as a result of that, we noted that Zisco Steel has obsolete infrastructure. Trust me, it has magnificent infrastructure, from the blast furnaces, to the cork reactors, to the gas pipes, but all that equipment is old, rusty, and also in terms of technological advancement, that infrastructure was built a long time ago.
‘’So it is our view that it will be impossible to resuscitate that infrastructure in its current state, but Mtapa has come in less than two months ago, and they are making their own assessment, and we want to leave them to make that assessment as to whether they can resuscitate Zisco Steel,’’ he said.
