ZANU PF Spokesman Chris Mutsvangwa was briefly interviewed by ZimEye’s Simba Chikanza, over how and why his company, Dinson Iron Steel Pvt Ltd has shut down, barely a year after launch. The following is the transcript-
ZimEye: Voice call, No answer.
ZimEye: Cde Mutsvangwa will you address the nation now that the Manhize Steel you say is better than South Africa’s steel industry, is shutting down?
Simba Chikanza, ZimEye
ZimEye: Voice call, No answer
Chris Mutsvangwa: Sadly you are the one shutting down because of congenital negativity…not the plant. You can never wish good for your country.
Chris Mutsvangwa: Fyi. Blast furnaces also do need routine maintenance.
ZimEye: Voice call, No answer
ZimEye: 1. The question related not to any negativity but to the national-flagship that Manhize has for a while carried in your press conferences; so highlighting a nation address might clear out the sudden cloud of doubt
Chris Mutsvangwa: I have answered you. You gleefuly celebrated a wishful but negative wish which had no basis in fact.
This is understandable, but please explain if other companies launched before Manhize, ever experienced this sudden shut down, after barely a year since initial operations launch.
• b) Has any steel company ever paid employees below the poverty datum line like Manhize has been doing (US277) per month?
• (c) Was the company being properly managed and or monitored to see if the nation is not suffering extraction exploitation by foreigners?
• (d) Was the company reporting and paying taxes?
• (e) How can this shutdown not be sabotage by foreigners who were given too much control over our natural resources?
• (f) Will you now revise your measurement of Manhize’s potential now that results have turned out that it is a company that can shut down a feThe Chinese owned Dinson Iron and Steel Company (DISCO) facility, also called Manhize, located in Mvuma, Midlands, was hoped would transform the economy, per projections published by ZANU PF, but it has as of today, sent home over 1600 employees. Up to the time of its winding down, the company was paying employees an average of no more than US300.
In a tense exchange with ZimEye, ZANU PF spokesman and Manhize director Chris Mutsvangwa dismissed claims of collapse as “filthy fiction” and “congenital negativity,” insisting the plant is merely undergoing “routine blast furnace maintenance.”
The questioning centred on whether Manhize — launched to much fanfare last year — is paying its employees below the poverty datum line, failing to remit taxes, or allowing foreign investors to exploit Zimbabwe’s natural resources without accountability. ZimEye also raised fears of sabotage, resource extraction, and employee welfare, pointing to workers’ wives and children suddenly left without salaries during the stoppage.
Mutsvangwa, however, repeatedly rebuffed calls for a national address, telling critics to “start your own steel plant” and accusing the media of pushing “hate-filled fantasies.”
The confrontation marks a major public relations test for ZANU PF’s flagship industrial venture, which has been a centrepiece of government press conferences touting economic resurgence and regional dominance over South Africa’s steel industry.
