Sino-Zimbabwe Cement Company (SZCC) has requested that government grant it the title deeds for Indiva Farm, where the company is located.
The state-owned Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe (IDCZ) provided SZCC with the land in 2001 when it first began operations, however the deeds were never officially transferred to the company and therefore Indiva Farm is still considered state land. As a result SZCC claims it is failing to access lines of credit on the grounds of the absence of collateral.
Managing Director of SZCC, Wang Yong, said, “We have been on this piece of land for the past two decades, but up to now we are still to get title deeds. We have engaged the Minister of Industry and Commerce (Mike Bimha) who has promised us that the issue will be tabled before Cabinet. … Without title deeds there is nothing we can do to get lines of credit to invest in the business, hence we have been solely relying on our shareholders for funding. We also intend to rope in other investors to come on board to set up an industrial park, but the issue of title deeds is a major stumbling block since there is no security of tenure.”
