Indigenisation and empowerment in Zimbabwe has become the political hot potato. Moves towards elitism and Eastern dominated trade deals have challenged and continue to challenge the authenticity of Indigenisation and empowerment.
Against this background, this article responds to these developments. More specifically it argues that without state holder-ship policies and sound public sector structures Zimbabwe is moving towards a greatest pillage ever. It thereby demonstrates that, personal agendas and politics are at the heart of indigenisation.
The idea that indigenisation empowers Zimbabweans is so flawed, to put it bluntly it’s regressive. Firstly let’s deal with what the writer calls empowering Zimbabweans so that we can discern facts from deception. Zimbabwe being a rich and spacious country should use its resources to benefit and better off its natives as whole.
Firstly Zimbabwe could subdise health, education and provide financial assistance (welfare) to its people through the money from its resources such as platinum, diamonds, gold, coal and many more. Secondly Zimbabwe being a spacious country, Land should a birth right of every Zimbabwean meaning no Zimbabwean should suffer from the problem of squalor or be a squatter. Having said that let’s dig around some implicit facts.
What should be Happening
Education and health should be free in Zimbabwe. Educational and health institutions should be financed by the money provided by the government. This could done through the government directly setting up companies that sell these precious resources abroad and then plough back the money into the educational and health institutions.
On the contrary some will attempt to level the argument of pooling bigger companies for technology reasons. The government could still tax those companies responsibly and plough back the money from taxes into the educational and health institutions. The other option is that a Zimbabwean public company could team up with a foreign company to pool in technology and this should not be confused with indigenisation because public companies are accountable to the public.
The government should also deal the problem of settling people. Not everyone in Zimbabwe wants land for farming. Some people just land to live a descent peasant life and some just want descent housing. The government can do this by channelling in money into housing and by having a clear and transparent land strategy. The money channelled into housing will either be drawn back from the public through rents and selling the housing then it is re-ploughed to build and provide more housing.
In short Zimbabweans will be empowered because;
• Education and Health Inequalities will be reduced,
• Poverty will be reduced,
• Ownership of resources stays with the Zimbabwean natives,
• Zimbabweans will be benefiting from their natural birth rights,
• Zimbabweans will be educated and employed by their resources.
Before moving on to moving on to discuss what is actually happening, let’s start by understanding the underpinnings of the so called Indigenisation policy. The policy is based on an Eastern based policy mainly used by China and India on joint ventures, alliances and partnerships with foreign companies. What this highlights is that this policy will favour companies or those with companies, to be more precise indigenisation benefits Some Zimbabweans not Zimbabweans. With this mind let’s turn to what is actually happening.
What is actually happening
Those occupying higher positions in the social hierarchy have the capacity of making the most out of indigenisation. Some will benefit through making deals and some approving deals. Company owners both local and international ones involved in joint ventures, alliances and partnerships will have uncontrolled access to the precious resources of Zimbabwe. What’s more is that they will be accountable to only a few government officials and to their shareholders. The money made from the precious resources will go in the pockets of the private individuals and to those who helped secure those deals. To simplify things the process disempowers Zimbabweans through accumulation by dispossession meaning that the rich accumulate wealth by dispossessing the people (Zimbabweans).
In short Zimbabweans are being disempowered because;
• Indigenisation takes away their public rights on national resources and gives them to a few private individuals,
• Money from the resources goes into the pockets of a few private individuals,
• Zimbabweans don’t get to benefit from their national resources,
• Joint ventures, alliances and partnerships are not open to public scrutiny and
• The gap between the poor and rich in health, education, housing and poverty will increase.
Doing the right thing the wrong way for the wrong reasons
Let me digress briefly to highlight some short comings and deceptions by recapping on the Land Issue. Remember the Land issue where people acknowledged that the right thing was done the wrong way and for the wrong reasons, precisely for maintaining a grip on power. If the government of Zimbabwe is transparent enough it would be interesting to learn who benefitted most out this and who has the best farms and many farms today. There is nothing wrong with empowering Zimbabweans but if the so called empowerment is meant to benefit a few elite by ripping Zimbabwe’s national resources through legal pillage, then it’s not worth it.
It’s not a secret who will benefit from Indigenisation; you can tell from those defending it. I think there is need to question how and why things are being done. When people do the right things the wrong way, it means we will spend most of our time trying to fix the short comings. It does not matter whether your house has 50 rooms when the foundation is crooked. What is evident in Zimbabwe is that they are deliberate and wrong moves in the name Zimbabweans. May be the crooks and cronies are sensing an end game and they are going for the biggest appropriation.
In conclusion it’s all about politics; the people making decisions for Zimbabweans make wrong decisions then wrong solutions to try to deal with their mess. Furthermore the government seems to be out of depth. All these controversial policies exhibit a lack of initiative because they are all based on policy transfer and they are not tailored or fine tuned to fit Zimbabwe. Some people question whether there is an option or not? The answer is Yes there is; the government should go for a state-holder ship approach. By so doing it would own the majority of shares instead of individuals. This will then enable it to subsidise education, health, housing and the welfare of people through public services and reduce inequalities.
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