Zim firm �nudged� out of oil factory deal

Officials at United Refineries Limited in Zimbabwe have indicated that they do not know why their partnership deal with United Refineries Botswana (URB) never materialised, even though they did technical preparatory groundwork with local investors. Last year, URL managing director Busisa Moyo said his company would be opening its doors in Botswana, through a partnership vehicle with locals called URB. However, early this month it emerged that URB, which is due to begin operations next month will be a 100 percent citizen owned company.

When contacted for comment on the latest developments Moyo sang a different tune. “We did business proposals and technical plans to be submitted to organisations such as CEDA together. I don’t know what happened after that. Maybe they chose to partner with other people. We, however, still have other technical agreements regarding the running of the business,” he said.