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(TALKZIMBABWE) Nyambirai wrong on empowerment

Nyambirai wrong on empowerment
By: Kurai Masenyama
Posted: Thursday, November 11, 2010 4:22 am

AFTER reading a submission by TN Holdings Chief Executive Officer Mr Tawanda Nyambirai in The Sunday Mail of 7 November titled ‘Empowerment Debate Controversial’ I felt compelled to respond to some of the issues he raised.

To recap Nyambirai’s submission, the businessman cites three things as controversial in Zimbabwe’s Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment programme.

These are: (1) The timing of the implementation of the programme; (2) Supposed overemphasis on the acquisition of controlling interests in companies; and (3) Failing to correctly identify parties obliged to fund the programme.

I do not see any controversy in any of the three issues Nyambirai raises. Let’s examine the facts in detail.

Timing of the indigenization programme

For Nyambirai the timing of the implementation of the empowerment programme is wrong. This is surprising to say the least. Why should one of the most successful indigenous entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe like to delay the entry of people of his ilk into the mainstream economy?
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The burning question is up to when should indigenous Zimbabweans wait to control their resources and economy?

The resounding answer from a majority of fair-minded Zimbabweans is: ‘Now or never’.

Actually, after the successful implementation of the land reform programme, this is the opportune time to get into the next gear and consolidate the gains of the Revolution.

Ownership of manufacturing industries will augur well for our agro-based industries as we seek to process our agriculture products and sell them after value addition.

Hence, if Zimbabweans spoke in support of the land reform, they are now screaming for the controlling stake in key sectors of the economy.

There is no need to wait for the ‘appropriate time’ as Mr Nyambirai suggests, while foreigners continue to plunder our resources.

Supposed obsession with acquiring controlling stake

My Nyambirai further accuses the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act of fuelling an obsession with acquiring a controlling stake in foreign owned companies. What is wrong with controlling Chiadzwa diamonds, oranges from Mazowe, sugar cane from Triangle or coal from Hwange, if you are a Zimbabwean?

Does he not hold the controlling stake in TN Holdings? Why is it wrong for other Zimbabweans to seek such control over their resources and economy?

Yes, Zimbabweans are obsessed with controlling their resources, their economy and their destiny.

In fact, some of the companies Nyambirai is blowing the horn for did not bring any investment or resources into Zimbabwe at all.

For example wholesalers like Bhadella set up shop in Zimbabwe, imported goods from South Africa and started selling to indigenous Zimbabweans.

I am sure he knows that any Zimbabwean company with minimum access to financial resources can be able to do that.

So who needs investors like Bhadella or thousands of other foreigners in our retail industry to boost our economy as he claims? Doing away with such opportunistic investors is not wrong or immoral as he suggests.

Mr Nyambirai goes on to criticize the empowerment programme for what he terms ‘its failure to correctly identify the parties obliged to fund the acquisition of stake’.

While the Act clearly spells out the funding mechanism for the programme, I believe that if is about obligations it is these big foreign companies who has been expropriating our natural resources that have to devise creative ways of financing the programme.

This will not be new to Zimbabwe, but has happened in other countries.

In fact, in South Africa the acquisitions were mainly funded by loan advances to partners repayable over a period of five to ten years of profit making. So why should those companies operating in Zimbabwe be allowed to be different?

Mr Nyambirai's futile attempt to close the space for the development of other black indigenous business people like himslef boggles the mind. The employee share ownership and profit sharing schemes do not create entrepreneurs, but actually delays the genuine economic empowerment of indigenous people.

The likes of Patrice Motesepe, Tokyo Sexwale and Cyril Ramaphosa were not empowered by employee profit-sharing, but by genuine and fair acquisition and strategic management of controlling stakes in key sectors of the South African economy. Zimbabwe can certainly follow suit.

What visionary Zimbabweans need to do now is to take vantage positions in anticipation of the steamrolling of the empowerment programme.

The government has played its part in crafting the enabling legislation and the onus is now on indigenous people to take advantage of the opportunities at hand. I will certainly play my part and claim my share of our resources.

Hence, I find nothing controversial in the empowerment programme save for the imagination in Mr Nyambirai’s head.

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Kurai Masenyama is the CEO of ZvaVabudya Empowerment which specializes in Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Acquisition and Foreign Investor Compliance Advisory Services. He can be contacted on pmasenyama@yahoo.co.uk

Labels: INDIGENIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT ACT (ZIMBABWE), TAWANDA NYAMBIRAI

posted by MrK @ 6:58 PM