**4. Research method**

Mhondoro-Ngezi, where the study was conducted, is a rural town (in Kadoma District, in Mashonaland-West Province). It is located 156 kilometres south-west of Harare, which is the capital city of Zimbabwe. Mhondoro-Ngezi is made up of 16 wards. Its population of 104,061 people [23] spreads across rich soils. Despite being rich in mineral resources, the community relies on agriculture as the main livelihood option because of the absence of a sound economic sector to create local employment. Mhondoro-Ngezi receives very minimal annual rainfall of 600-800 mm a year that is sufficient for local small scale farmers to grow crops for subsistence purposes. For commercial purposes local farmers rely on cotton farming and cattle rearing. In a good season, cotton now fetching US\$0, 35 per kg gives them significant returns (Sunday Mail, 16 June 2013). However, the living standards in this area are very low and many people live under the Word Bank's poverty datum line of \$1 per day. For the past three decades since Independence in 1980 the

#### *Corporate Social Responsibility*

community has received no meaningful development except for the construction of a few primary and secondary schools, local clinics, dip tanks for livestock and indigenous small shopping centres which serve as the growth point. Many school children walk long distances of at least 6 km to school since there are very few of these in the community. Zimplats is the only major mining company in the area that has provided employment for thousands of workers in Mhondoro-Ngezi and surrounding areas. There are however a few small businesses owned by local people in the retail sector.

Although Zimbabwe hosts many foreign mining companies. Zimplats became the choice for the study because it is the largest company ensuring corporatemediated social provisioning articulated by Akpan [24]. Despite the company being a major agent of community development there have been escalating contradictions and public outburst by stakeholders who have been calling for Zimplats to contribute meaningfully towards social transformation that goes beyond charities and donations. Therefore this kind of relationship coupled with various outcries from stakeholders that include local communities, local politicians, and civil society organisations prompted the researcher to investigate the nature of CSR projects initiated by Zimplats in Mhondoro-Ngezi community.

Both qualitative and quantitative methods were utilised to collect empirical data. The researchers specifically employed semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs) and a mini-survey. A total of 6 semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives from the mining company, a Member of Parliament for Mhondoro-Ngezi, government officials from the Ministry of Youth and Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment. Community leaders were also part of the semi-structured interviews group. For the FGDs, the researcher conducted 6 of them and they consisted of community members from Mhondoro-Ngezi community who are affected by the mining company's activities. In this study the researchers also employed a mini-survey to ascertain the views and perceptions of Mhondoro-Ngezi community members on CSR projects by Zimplats, stakeholder reciprocal duties and the CSR processes. The sample size consisted of 215 participants who were randomly selected from the total population of Mhondoro-Ngezi. By using a survey method, the researcher employed questionnaires to ensure honesty and accuracy of participants' responses.

The central research question for which these empirical data were needed was: What are the processes involved in the implementation of CSR initiatives by Zimplats in the Mhondoro-Ngezi Community?
