TINASHE MAKICHI
Meat processor, Cold Storage Company (CSC)’s partners, Boustead Beef Zimbabwe and Fabow, have over the past two years injected US$6m to refurbish Dubane Ranch in Gwanda, Business Times can report.
About 52 paddocks were refurbished.
They currently hold about 2 000 cattle.
“…We have been face-lifting this ranch for close to two years now.
“We have invested close to US$6m to refurbish the paddocks and reviving roads in this ranch.
“This is a 30 000 hectare ranch and we have developed half of that so far in terms of fencing,” ranch manager, Steve Collins said.
CSC, which three years ago entered into a 25-year joint venture agreement with Boustead Beef, a United Kingdom entity to facilitate the revival of the company under a US$400m deal, is also in the process of refurbishing the Bulawayo facility.
The State-entity, which is under administration, has since received equipment imported from the United Kingdom and China, which will be used to revive the Bulawayo plant.
The plant is expected to be re-opened before year-end.
The progress by Boustead Beef had been derailed by severe fights, with the company’s former employees who had continued to maintain a grip on the company’s assets.
Some senior government officials have also been implicated in the Auditor General’s report.
They were accused of misappropriating more than 10 000 head of cattle in the government cattle breeding schemes under CSC.
It is also understood that some senior officials at the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement, are not keen to implement audit findings as some of them were part of the CSC previous board.
