Maravi

(HERALD) Indigenisation, empowerment foster total independence

Indigenisation, empowerment foster total independence
Sunday, 17 April 2011 21:40
By Professor Jonathan Moyo, MP

TODAY as we celebrate our country's 31st anniversary of hard won independence, please spare a thought for some of our compatriots who over the years have had an unhelpful tendency to discover and wonder what's happening in our country only after important historical things have happened and who then become negative and even treacherous as if to hide the fact that they did not read the writing on the wall when things started happening.

These same compatriots might have typically missed the import of what happened just this past weekend when Zanu-PF launched the historic national indigenisation and economic empowerment programme across the country. A new revolutionary and final chapter, whose significance will undoubtedly redefine our national politics, was opened and its mission is to seal Zimbabwe's quest for total political and economic independence as inalienable and irreversible gains of our liberation struggle.

After everything is said and done don't say you did not see it coming or you were not told or you were left out. This is the time to be part of it. During the weekend launch of the historic indigenisation and economic empowerment programme which has now gone to the people, there emerged four critical questions about the programme, namely:

l What is the ideological grounding of indigenisation and economic empowerment and how does that grounding relate to the realisation of the aspirations of Zimbabweans given the country's past and current challenges?

l What is the programme's legal framework in relation to its ideological grounding?

l What is the policy thrust of the programme given its ideological grounding and legal framework?

l And in view of its ideological grounding, legal framework and policy thrust, what role should be played by those in leadership positions across our country but especially within Zanu-PF structures in view of the party's vanguard position in the formulation and implementation of the indigenisation and economic empowerment programme?

In ideological terms, the indigenisation of our economy which is now fully underway is the ultimate revolutionary process in the heroic struggle for our total emancipation and indivisible quest for self-determination which started in the First Chimurenga and whose fires were lit by luminaries of our liberation history such as Mbuya Nehanda, Sekuru Kaguvi and King Lobengula among others.

The fundamental ideological question before us, especially the youth who are crying out for economic empowerment is whether our own self-consciousness today is as indigenous as was the self-consciousness of Mbuya Nehanda or King Lobengula? Are we as indigenous Zimbabweans as they were? Do we have indigenous minds? Do we globally feel, think and act Zimbabwean in an indigenous way whose permanent spiritual and traditional roots are to be found in the legacies of Mbuya Nehanda and King Lobengula as expressed by the selfless sacrifices of the gallant sons and daughters of the soil some who gave their lives during the protracted armed struggle in the Second Chimurenga for us to enjoy our freedom today?

Do we understand that the regime-change agenda of the US and EU imperialist forces which they are pursuing with the help of shameless collaborators in our midst is exactly the same as the slavery and colonial agenda which was resisted by our heroes of the First and Second Chimurengas when the same forces sought to subjugate us with the help of local collaborators who included prominent chiefs whom they corrupted? Answers to these and related questions are there for the asking.

The essential ideological point is that, as we revel in our independence today, we must use the occasion to indigenise ourselves if we are to undertake a successful programme of indigenising our economy in the times ahead of us. We cannot be fractionally Zimbabwean and expect total economic empowerment through economic indigenisation.

A major reason why it is Zanu-PF and not any other political party spearheading the indigenisation and economic empowerment programme is because our revolutionary party, which is a product of the Chimurenga tradition, is not apologetic about being totally Zimbabwean, yes 100 percent Zimbabwean. There's no need for any Zimbabwean or any political party in our country to pretend to be anything outside their national roots. As such, if you want to be part of the indigenisation and economic empowerment programme launched in the provinces over the weekend then you must first indigenise yourself as a total Zimbabwean. And next time, if some regime-change collaborator in the MDC tells you to "chinja maitiro" ask them to first indigenise themselves! The time to indigenise has come. Given that the ideological grounding of Zanu-PF's indigenisation and economic empowerment programme is an indigenised self-consciousness by Zimbabweans, what then is the programme's legal framework? In the first place it is important to note that the indigenisation and economic empowerment programme is legally defined and is thus not a lawless process. This means that, at law, the programme is for everyone and not just Zanu PF members.
Against this backdrop, the law in terms of the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act of 2008 defines indigenisation as "a deliberate involvement of indigenous Zimbabweans in the economic activities of the country, to which hitherto they had no access, so as to ensure the equitable ownership of the nation's resources". In the same vein, empowerment is defined as "the creation of an environment, which enhances the performance of the economic activities of indigenous Zimbabweans into which they should have been introduced or involved through indigenisation".

Furthermore, the same law defines an indigenous Zimbabwean as "any person who, before the 18th April 1980, was disadvantaged by unfair discrimination on the grounds of his or her race, and any descendant of such a person, and includes any company, association, syndicate or partnership of which indigenous Zimbabweans form the majority of the members or hold the controlling interest".

That is the law at the level of principle and the rest are details. Anyone who wants to be part of the Last Chimurenga through the programme launched over the past weekend by Zanu-PF's provincial coordinating committees across the country must thus develop a legal kit of the programme which includes the following key statutory instruments (as amended): Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act (14:33), Statutory Instrument Number 21 of March 2010 and General Notice Number 114 of March 2011.

As there are 13 key sectors of the economy to be indigenised starting with the mining sector, it is important to note that each one will have sector specific regulations that will form part of the must-have and must-know legal kit. If you do not have the kit or you have it but you are not familiar with the provisions of its components then please you will have to shut up and not say or do anything about indigenisation and economic empowerment until you have done the needful. Given the foregoing, the historic indigenisation and economic empowerment programme launched over the weekend has a clear policy thrust whose objective is to ensure not only that there's equitable ownership of the nation's resources by enshrining at least 51 percent of equity in Zimbabwean hands but also equitable benefits from all economic activities that take place in our country by enforcing a supply-side driven empowerment through a procurement strategy.

What this means in policy terms is that the indigenisation and economic empowerment programme is in fact two pronged: (1) the indigenisation component will be achieved through at least 51 percent Zimbabwean equity while the empowerment component will be achieved through ensuring that at least 51 percent of procurement of inputs in an indigenised enterprise with minority foreign ownership is done by Zimbabweans as defined by the law.

For policy purposes, and to avoid the risk of having some corrupt and greedy individuals running away with the loot under the convenient cover of indigenisation, it should be illegal for any Zimbabwean with equity in an enterprise to also be part of the procurement process in the same enterprise. Indeed, as an expression of economic empowerment which is a step below indigenisation, and to ensure a broad-based process with a clear and visible popular participation in the procurement process of enterprises should be legally reserved for ordinary people in the form of employment clusters of workers and community trusts and nothing else.
Over and above this fundamental consideration, it is important to remember that every major policy is made unique by the demographic profile of its main beneficiaries. For example, and notwithstanding that other interest groups ended up with some of the action, the beneficiaries of the historic land reform programme were mainly peasants who were confined and congested on barren land and who supported the liberation struggle for that reason.

Accordingly, and from a policy point of view, the main beneficiaries of the indigenisation and economic empowerment programme should be the economically active youth between the ages of 18 and 45 all who have either collateral equity in the form of educational, vocational and professional skills or sufficient investment or who are jointly or severally in a position or who can be assisted by the State to acquire majority equity or who can be responsible for majority procurement of inputs in a foreign owned enterprise.

How all this is going to be done, by whom, when and how progress will be measured are all relevant questions of policy details that will have to be addressed. What is clear and not negotiable is the principle thereof. In the meantime, and by way of conclusion, all this imposes a serious and onerous responsibility on the national and provincial leadership to lead by example, especially within Zanu-PF, which is leading the historic indigenisation and economic empowerment programme. As a melting point which not only brings together all Zimbabweans from Limpopo to Zambezi but which also hosts the Government as well as owners, managers and players in the national economy, Zanu-PF's Harare province has a special place and a special role in the indigenisation and economic empowerment programme both which makes the province a deserving candidate for deliberate assistance in the national interest. This is an obvious yet very serious point, which does not deserve to be belaboured.
In this case, if Harare works Zimbabwe will work.

Labels: INDIGENIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT ACT (ZIMBABWE), JONATHAN MOYO

posted by MrK @ 3:41 AM