Oil discovery to benefit Zimbabweans, says Preside...

Oil discovery to benefit Zimbabweans, says President Mnangagwa

Zim Now Writer

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has emphasised the need to prioritise Zimbabweans primarily for the beneficiation from the vast mineral resources in the country, saying there is need to be firm in negotiations with investors to ensure maximum beneficiation and value addition.

The development comes as there has been confirmation of gas, light oil, condensate and helium deposits by Geo Associates last month, with the discovered oil which fall under the light oil classification, will see the country producing diesel, petrol and jet A1.

In an interview with Brick by Brick magazine, President Mnangagwa said the vast mineral deposits in the country put Zimbabwe into an advantageous position to benefit its people as primary benefactors, adding that it is not the view point of government and Zimbabwe at large to shift from value addition and maximum beneficiation into causing wars or colluding with other countries in their destabilisation schemes.

“We understand that we are endowed with vast reserves of oil. That is point number one. Point number two is, before we discovered that we had oil, we had not planned for them in terms of how to extract the oil and process it.

“Now that we have been told by experts that we have vast reserves of oil, we must say what we do to ensure that this resource benefits our country first. Now we know we have vast oil reserves,” President Mnangagwa said.

He also noted that Zimbabweans do not have the know-how nor the resources needed to process and capitalise on the oil discovery but plans are underway to fix such problems.

“What I am saying is that the position that Zimbabwe has taken is advantageous to Zimbabwe. The minerals are ours and we said to ourselves, what maximum benefit can we drive from our minerals? The simple logic is that we must beneficiate the minerals to maximum value. That is our point of view.

“That there are other people planning to attack us, we are not part of their scheme. Our scheme is to benefit them and benefit our country,” said the President, adding: “What other people are planning about our minerals, we are not involved in their planning against us.

“At the domestic level, whatever minerals we have, Government policy is for us to get maximum benefit from the domestic minerals which we have. At the international level, there are, as you are saying yourself, people who are saying there are strategic minerals and they will do everything they can to get them, including causing war,” he added.