Maravi

(HERALD) ‘National cake will be shared equally’

‘National cake will be shared equally’

EVER since Government launched the consolidated indigenisation drive, making it mandatory for foreign investment worth more than US$5000 000 to cede 51 percent to indigenous people, detractors of the programme have called it chaotic and lacking vision. Industry and International Trade Minister Welshman Ncube recently said the programme had been shelved due to what he called teething problems. FEATURES EDITOR ISDORE GUVAMOMBE (IG) talks to National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Fund chairman Mr David Chapfika (DC) about this and other issues involving indigenisation.

IG: It is almost a year since you were appointed chairman of the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Fund. Industry and International Trade Minister Welshman Ncube was quoted in the media recently as saying the indigenisation process had been shelved. Is that true?

DC: No, no, no! I respect him as a Cabinet minister but I would also want to believe he was misquoted and I hope he was misquoted. I don’t expect Ncube to say that because as Cabinet minister, that decision was passed with his support and I am reliably informed that the decision to indigenise was unanimous. Cabinet was unanimous. I am very much aware that by saying that Ncube would be opposing himself and the people of Zimbabwe. Honestly, my first reaction when I read the story was that he was misquoted because he is aware that there is no going back on that programme. If you want to be an enemy of the people of Zimbabwe, then oppose indigenisation. So I still hope he did not say it.

IG: There are also others saying the process has been chaotic . . .

DC: No, no, no! They don’t know what they are talking about. You see, anything that is good is bound to attract criticism. There are some people who were born greedy, people who are greedy and don’t want to see others come in to share the national cake. When the whites took over everything in Rhodesia they did it to enrich themselves and to dehumanise the blacks. So what do you expect from them? We were more of servants as they wanted us to be workers only. Only a few blacks were assimilated on patronage and not on competence. We were prejudiced for almost a century. So, any reasonable Zimbabwean would never oppose the indigenisation programme. We don’t mind people coming up with valuable criticism and ideas.

IG: Let us move to funding. How much is the indigenization supported by the fiscus?

DC: Well, we were only allocated US$5 million in the 2011 Budget announced by Minister Tendai Biti and obviously that is not adequate for our day-to-day operational costs.

IG: What about funding for the real projects?

DC: There was nothing and there is nothing we can do to raise funds at the moment because there is no legal support in terms of statutory instruments. We cannot issue bonds at the moment and we cannot collect levy. I am sure by February the Government will have issued the enabling statutory instruments to enable us to collect levy and to borrow money through the prescribed asset route. It is only through that, that we will only be able to fund our operations.

IG: Have you not received any funding from Government ever since you started?

DC: We received US$1 million from Government and some banks have been sympathetic and providing us with bridging finance. We remained thin, throughout the year. We needed cars, offices and furniture. We needed to recruit staff. That means we needed capital.

IG: There are black farmers who got land under the land reform or under earlier resettlement schemes or those who were spared from the land reform who are now leasing out the land. What is your position?

DC: It is a serious problem that falls under the Minister of Lands but it is clear that these people do not deserve the land, in the first place. They are breaking the law. They are reversing the gains of the struggle and the struggle was centred on regaining the land, on regaining the control of the economy of this country and on regaining our dignity as black people. I am sure the minister will deal with that.

IG: In terms of real work, what have you done to justify your mandate?

DC: You remember that January will be our first anniversary. We are implementing broad-based economic indigenisation. We have consulted everyone who matters, I mean all stakeholders as we have no monopoly over ideas. We have covered a lot of ground.

IG: What about real work?

DC: Well, we have made an organogram and recruited and filled all positions. We are going to be dealing with all sectors of the economy so we have general managers for the five key departments and we have recruited the IT, public relations and human resources managers, as well. We are now ready to roll. So as soon as those statutory instruments are gazetted we start serious work. Those we have hired need offices, furniture, cars and salaries. That means we urgently expect money.

IG: Can you explain how you are going to make sure that the same people who benefited from previous black empowerment programmes do not benefit at the expense of ordinary or other people?

DC: These are public funds and we cannot allow people to exploit others. Every Zimbabwean, regardless of political affiliation, is entitled to benefit. We will have a data base that will capture every beneficiary. This is why we have recruited people in IT and we will tell people that they have already had their share. This does not mean that we are closing our people who benefited before but we are saying we are going to share fairly, the national cake.

isadore.guvamombe@zimpapers.co.zw

Labels: DAVID CHAPFIKA, INDIGENIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT ACT (ZIMBABWE), INTERVIEW, ISDORE GUVAMOMBE

posted by MrK @ 12:18 AM