The shareholders of Companhia Açucareira do Búzi, represented by the former Minister of Youth and Sports (2009-2014), Fernando Sumbana Júnior, accuse the former Minister of Industry and Commerce (2017-2020), Ragendra de Sousa, of misrepresenting the truth about an alleged withdrawal of foreign investors interested in 'revitalizing' that enterprise.

According to Ragendra de Sousa, the government found Kenyan partners, based in England, to invest in Açucareira do Búzi, but they would have given up on the deal because, "at the last minute," the company's shareholders increased the price of the venture by about $9,200,000.

"They told us that they already had everything ready. But they also informed us that the national partner, who had agreed on $800,000 for [the company's] passage, increased the price to $10 million [dollars]," Ragendra de Sousa said in the interview with the STV television channel last week.

In defense of the Búzi Company, Fernando Sumbana Jr., a partner in one of the shareholder companies, said that the $800,000 referred to by Ragendra de Sousa doesn't even cover the company's cleaning expenses.

"Eight hundred thousand dollars is not even enough to clean up [the land] in the Búzi Company! So these are numbers that are completely out of touch with reality," Sumbana Jr. said Wednesday, while claiming he had never heard of these investors or the numbers.

"But which investors? Who did you talk to? Who did you present those investments to? Even if we had heard the numbers, with the shareholders that are there, no[one] would ever want to make investments of $800,000 when he was paying the bank millions of dollars," the former Minister stressed.

Stupefied by the jump of about $9,200,000 from the amount supposedly agreed upon at the beginning of the negotiations, Sumabana Jr. vindicated that such $10 million would be insufficient to give up the enterprise.

"You have to do some math to make certain statements. And you say that investors jumped from $800 [thousand] to $10 million. [...] But $10 million is not enough to invest in Búzi's company either," he said.

Fernando Sumbana Jr. also said that the statements come at a time when shareholders are already working on solutions and this "seems like an attempt to block them.

"The shareholders of the Buzi Company have not heard about any initiative taken by the former Minister to support the company. I am not talking about the funding. And, due to the size and social impact of the company, it would be desirable and expected that he [Ragendra de Sousa], as Minister of Industry and Commerce, would be concerned about that Company," remarked Sumbana Jr.