Mandiwanzira, Mliswa clash at AAG meeting
Tuesday, 25 October 2011 00:00
Herald Reporter
Tempers flared at a meeting called yesterday to discuss the state of affairs of the Affirmative Action Group with the empowerment lobby's former president Mr Supa Mandiwanzira and his deputy Mr Temba Mliswa engaging in a furious verbal exchange.
The meeting was organised to discuss the body's state of affairs after some provincial leaders passed a no confidence vote in the national executive. Mr Mandiwanzira later excused himself and left the meeting. AAG founding president and interim leader Mr Philip Chiyangwa chaired yesterday's meeting.
The meeting started with Mr Chiyangwa narrating to delegates drawn from the country's provinces the history of the AAG and the vision they had when they formed the organisation.
The meeting then went into a closed session, before the media were allowed to return when AAG chief executive officer Dr Davison Gomo read out the letter in which the provinces passed a vote of no confidence in the Mandiwanzira-led national executive.
Interim secretary-general, Mr Tendai Savanhu, then said a fact finding committee made up of lawyers, accountants and AAG founder members would be set up to establish the authenticity of the allegations made against the ousted executive.
When the meeting was opened to the floor Mr Mliswa made a number of allegations against his colleagues in the former executive.
The Mandiwanzira-led executive was also accused of embarking on foreign trips that were not beneficial to the AAG and of using the group to defend personal interests that were not in line with the body's objectives.
"The probe is important so that those who are leaders should be held accountable to people because when you don't account there will be a crisis.
However, Mr Mandiwanzira denied that he had abused AAG's resources, saying he had sacrificed a lot for the organisation's cause.
"The issue here is not about finger pointing, this is not an investigation but a fact finding mission and the facts will speak for themselves.
"There is a perception that that we are supposed to have stolen money from AAG yet there is no single day I have asked for a cent from AAG. If there is anyone with information that I received money please bring it to Mr Savanhu," he said.
Mr Mandiwanzira said the AAG operated from his business premises but he did not ask for any rentals or contributions to pay bills. It was at this point that the Midlands province secretary-general raised a point of order that the meeting was not a platform for people to defend themselves.
Labels: AAG, SUPA MANDIWANZIRA, TEMBA MLISWA
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Tsvangirai’s statements in the U.S. reckless
Posted by By Dr. Davison Gomo at 27 September, at 11 : 53 AM
MORGAN Richard Tsvangirai has been leader of MDC-T as it is now known for 13 years and before then, he was Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trades Union (ZCTU) an organization that was set up the new African-led government after years of domination by a small white minority government of Ian Douglas Smith.
Smith and his supporters, whether in Rhodesia or elsewhere, never believed that black people had the capacity to run a government. It is understandable why Smith and those who believed in his ideology of separate development and conscious segregation of races, found it hard to accept Africans as equals because Africans had always been viewed as strange, savage and useful only as slaves of the master white race.
Unable to take the humiliation that we were subjected to for a century, that is, being brutally denied our inherent and natural rights, dispossessed of our land, our political right to rule our selves forcibly taken away from us and a surrogate leadership imposed on us.
This evil system practically decided on the kind and quality of education we would have as Africans, determined by law where we should live, by a combination of a series of laws, influenced the kind of economy that Africans would have in their own country. It is against this back ground that the liberation war became inevitable and the removal of the minority white regime a must and a necessity.
At independence in 1980, we all had aspirations to experience a new life, one in which we the sons and daughters of the soil would come up with policies that would advance our interest as a people as we had regained the power and right to pursue our interest in ways that would champion the needs of all. We still had a problem in our hands because the fact that we negotiated our way to independence meant that we had to accommodate those whose interests were at variance with our own. Land reform was delayed as was an attempt to reform and democratize the economy.
For a while, emphasis was put on rebuilding public infrastructure and extending it to all areas that had been previously neglected by our oppressors. This was a necessary condition for taking the country forward and still remains one area of huge responsibility for government for years to come.
Developing the country in the interest of all its inhabitants is not exclusively a task dedicated to ensuring that international capital takes precedence over the people and that all policies reflect a preponderant bias towards the few powerful nations of the world. Necessarily, these nations were not extremely helpful when we needed all the support to defeat a system that was based on racial discrimination and the total neglect of ninety-eight percent of the population.
Western nations have sought perpetual control of what one might call former colonies by using a variety of strategies and one of the most effective is to divide the nation into groups of good and bad guys. My personal opinion is that what is good for the former colonial power can never be good for the indigenous people and therefore, whatever they consider bad, might actually be good for the indigenous people.
I am raising all these issues because of the statements that have been attributed to the Prime Minister by the Newsday of 19 September 2011. Generally speaking, the Prime Minister has found it difficult to cultivate positive relationships with people who played a very important role in our liberation struggle, choosing rather to stay with all countries that directly or indirectly connived with our oppressors in the then Rhodesia.
What is even more frightening is that judging by the language the Prime Minister chooses to deploy each time he is with his friends or the so called friendly countries, he certainly appears to be spoiling for a fight when in fact he should be doing everything in his power to ask his friends to remove sanctions placed on Zimbabwe illegally.
While sanctions may create an opportunity for the Prime Minister to find space to blame Zanu-PF for all the economic woes, he needs to understand that we, the ordinary people, feel that there is no need for western countries to produce an election outcome they want by manipulating which way our economy should go. The use of sanctions as a political tool to subdue the people of Zimbabwe so that they can develop a mindset that works in the interest of the western nations is political and economic blackmail of the worst order.
The Prime Minister keeps on reminding us of the events in Ivory Coast and North Africa and keeps threatening that Africa is now impatient with lack of progress on the democratic developments and that unless people like Brig. General Nyikayaramba change their positions, then the unpleasant events like we saw in Ivory Coast and North Africa are on their way to Zimbabwe and the rest of the African nations.
His advisers failed him massively because their analysis of that situation failed to recognize the obvious differences in the conditions and the realities that inform political behavior in the situations given as examples. The assertion is too simplistic and lacks credible evidence to sustain the argument and at best it is as far fetched as it is reckless.
I fear that the Prime Minister is failing to graduate from an activist to a statesman. No statesman will undermine the government to which he is part. So far, there is clear and demonstrable evidence that President Mugabe has been relentless in condemning violence right across the board.
Whereas the Prime Minister has not missed any opportunity in airing inflammatory statements and indeed demonstrating that he is willing to have bombs fall on Harare and destroy our country and kill innocent people in pursuit of his ambition to rule Zimbabwe.
The example of the so-called revolutions in North Africa, do not apply to us in any way and form. In fact, I hear of the Arab revolutions and it is fair that we call them such. I do not think that Arabs really think that they are Africans. They happen to be in Africa, but everything about them is Middle Eastern and the problems that have surfaced in these countries have their origins in the Arab world where there are firmly rooted.
Mubarak is gone but the problem is not over and may never be over unless and until the Palestinian Question has been resolved. Gaddafi may be gone, but the underlying problem is not going anyway any time soon. Those who want to join the Arab revolutions are free to go to the Arab countries and join in and leave us in peace.
We fought a war once and we got our Zimbabwe. Rather than continue to look for opportunities to destabilize the country, we have a rare moment to unite for peace and work for the progress of our country instead of spending our energy in creating paths for more conflict when there are far more important things to worry about.
The Prime Minister needs to spend a lot of his time supervising his municipalities that are failing to clean up the cities, are building on open spaces without proper approvals, failing to provide community amenities to thousands of residents in our various cities and indeed making sure that those councilors who are accused of holding land and speculating with it when people are struggling to get decent housing are investigated and if found guilty, are brought to book. I think it is time that the Prime Minister knows that he is not an envoy of western nations in Zimbabwe, rather he represents a significant grouping here and it is here that he should direct all his energy in the interests of Zimbabwe.
The Prime Minister’s advisers should not seek to divide him with the security sector because that is not in his interest to do so. What this sector says through some of the senior personnel in the system while important but it may not be significant. To me, it would be surely a different thing if the President, who is the likely contestant, were to announce that no matter the outcome of the elections, only he will remain President. That has not been said and there is no sign that the President intends to say it.
Therefore, the idea of wrong and right, freedom and tyranny is language that has lost currency because of the way it was abused by Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush in the various ways they prosecuted against innocent people. The use of such language by the Prime Minister suggests that MDC-T has already arrogated itself the right to rule Zimbabwe which in reverse suggests that they are not prepared for an election outcome that declares any other person as winner. The right to decide who rules Zimbabwe is a sovereign right of the people of Zimbabwe and that must remain so.
*Dr. Davison Todson Gomo is the CEO of the Affirmative Action Group in Zimbabwe. He writes in his own personal capacity.
Labels: AAG, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI
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AAG blasts NGO stance on Marange diamonds
Posted by By Our reporter at 31 August, at 03 : 33 AM
THE Affirmative Action Group has hit out at non-governmental organisations that continue to seek relevance by attacking and undermining Zimbabwe’s right to sell it s Marange diamonds unconditionally.
In a statement emailed to the Zimbabwe Guardian on Tuesday, the President of the AAG, Supa Mandiwanzira, said since the Kimberly Process certified Marange and Mbada diamonds to sell their rough diamonds, a host of clue-less non-governmental organisations have started making unsubstantiated allegations of human rights abuses in Chiadzwa.
“Thankfully, right thinking citizens of the world are no longer taking these western-backed groups seriously as everyone, including the European Union, are now aware that the Marange diamonds are the most clean diamonds in the world when measured by the Kimberly Process’s blood diamonds yardstick,” said Mr Mandiwanzira.
The AAG president’s comments come ahead of an NGO seminar exclusively to discuss Marange Diamonds at University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa today.
The seminar has brought together anti-Zimbabwe NGOs among them Crisis Coalition, Centre for Research and Development, Partnership Africa Canada, Southern Resources Watch, Solidarity Peace Trust and several other Anti-Zimbabwe and anti-Marange diamonds organisations.
Harsh critics like Centre for Research and Development’s Farai Maguwu and political commentator Brian Raftopolous are some of the headlined speakers.
All are known for their rabid views on government’s stance in Marange and are trying to push for the banning of selling of Zimbabwe’s gems worldwide.
It is alleged that some of these individuals are on the payroll of huge diamond mining companies that lost out of Marange diamond fields.
The seminar has been organised by the Centre for Research and Development and the South African Institute of International Affairs and bankrolled by a German NGO – Heinrich Boll Stiftung.
The AAG President is leading a delegation to the seminar together with Secretary General Tafadzwa Musarara and members of their Johannesburg Chapter after a spirited fight to be involved.
After initially accepting an AAG request to take part in the seminar, officials wrote back a day later saying the seminar was full and there would be no room for AAG to participate.
“We had to fight to get our voice heard at this seminar, especially given the fact that we are part of the civil society in Zimbabwe,” wrote Mandiwanzira.
“But the seminar was clearly organised to up the tempo in the anti-Marange diamonds agenda. When we began to make our complaints louder, they quickly rushed to invite only one person from AAG.”
He added: “We were are so surprised that a prestigious university like Vits would play host to such a partisan forum. Had it not been for our insistence to participate it would have been a Zimbabwe-bashing party. But we are going there armed with facts, a lot of facts,” the AAG president said.
The seminar in Johannesburg, follows a blatantly false documentary by the BBC Panorama programme that alleged there were torture camps in Marange.
The documentary was discredited by EU officials who said there was no evidence of such camps and that the EU was no longer opposing the sale of Marange diamonds unconditionally.
Another Israel diamond expert and publisher – Chaim Even Zohar also lambasted the BBC documentary for being false.
Labels: AAG, MARANGE DIAMOND FIELDS
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US-based Zimbabweans queue to condemn sanctions
Posted by By Our reporter at 31 May, at 07 : 53 AM
By a Special Correspondent
CINCINATTI, OHIO: Scores of Zimbabweans attending the biggest annual gathering of Zimbabweans living in the United States, yesterday queued up to sign the anti-sanctions petition in Cincinnati, Ohio as the Affirmative Action Group (AAG) took the call against the dreadful economic measures right onto President Barack Obama’s door-step.
Over 500 Zimbabweans in the United States at the weekend attended Zimexpo – a three-day extravaganza for Zimbabweans taking place in Cincinnati.
The Affirmative Action Group, which is attending the expo – told the Zimbabweans that their country’s economy was being hamstrung by the economic measures introduced by the western countries including the United States.
“I have signed this petition against the economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe as the sanctions are not benefiting anyone and they are a hindrance to our economic recovery.
“I want them removed today because as far as I know, no one in the inclusive government is supporting them,” said Mabel Kashora, a marketing expert attending Zimexpo, soon after signing the petition.
Her sentiments were echoed by contestants to the Miss Zimbabwe USA who all signed the petition.
In an unprecedented display of beauty with patriotism, all the beauties to the pageant appended their signatures to the anti-sanctions petition joining President Robert Mugabe and more than two million other Zimbabweans who have already done so across the country.
“These sanctions should go because we want our country’s economy to recover. They are making ordinary people suffer and its not right,” said University student and Miss Zimbabwe USA contestant – Elizabeth.
“Although they say the sanctions are targeted, it’s very clear to us that they are affecting all our relatives back in Zimbabwe and we know for sure that those relatives are not in government or anywhere near President Mugabe’s family,” added another Miss Zimbabwe USA hopeful, Simmo.
AAG president Supa Mandiwanzira had told the gathering of Zimbabweans attending a business networking conference during Zimexpo that sanctions were choking economic recovery and were giving an unfair advantage to foreign direct investors who faced no real competition from locals in the purchase of Zimbabwean assets.
“I have had the privilege of attending many international business conferences and one thing that is very clear is that the world is focusing its investment attention on Zimbabwe. The main reason they highlight is that assets are cheap in Zimbabwe.
“Therefore if assets are very cheap in Zimbabwe, it follows that Zimbabweans can’t buy their cheap assets because they have no access to foreign lines of credit which have mostly been frozen because of the western sanctions against our country.
“Even under the current process of indigenization and economic empowerment where the locals should be buying 51 percent shareholding in foreign owned firms – their capacity is hindered by these sanctions because they cannot borrow offshore.
“If they borrow in Zimbabwe the interest rates are punitive – over 25 percent in some cases – whereas the foreign investor borrows from their home country some even at less than one percent to come and literary loot our business assets because they don’t have the burden of sanctions,” Mandiwanzira told the business meeting.
Another AAG executive, treasurer general Mr Elifasi Mashaba, also told the same meeting that sanctions were not hurting the so called targeted individuals but rather the majority of ordinary Zimbabweans.
“The whole rhetoric that these are targeted sanctions only meant to affect President Mugabe and his ministers is a tired propaganda line that every Zimbabwean back home has now been able to see through.
“I don’t know anyone on that list of the so-called targeted individuals who is unable to board a plane and seek medical attention outside Zimbabwe. But your ordinary friends and relatives are the ones who are seeing fire because of these measures.
“They have no drugs in rural clinics simply because the support due to Zimbabwe’s health sector is being stifled as a result of the sanctions. These sanctions are evil comrades,” he said.
The United States has imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZDERA) penalizes American companies that invest in Zimbabwe.
It also instructs US representatives to key financial institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the African Development Bank to vote against any loans or grants to Zimbabwe.
Speaking after signing the anti-sanctions petition, a Zimbabwean based in Louisvile Kentucky Mr John Chakauya said the issue of sanctions against Zimbabwe was an emotional matter for him.
“I am not just ending with the signing of this petition, I am going to meet the Governor of Kentucky and my Congressman to tell them about these sanctions and ask them to have them removed,” he said.
Mrs Florence Tela, another Zimbabwean said it was clear to her that the sanctions were in response to Zimbabwe’s desire to re-distribute its wealth to its own people.
“Every country in the world has a right to determine how it wants to handle its own resources and Zimbabwe is no different.
“The United States must allow Zimbabwe to make its own progress without external interference. If it’s democracy we are lacking – surely the American dream has taken more than 200 years to establish. We are only 31 years old as a country and I think we are being judged harshly,” she said.
Labels: AAG, SANCTIONS, SUPA MANDIWANZIRA, ZDERA
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ENG Capital boss de-specified
by Business Reporter
09/05/2011 00:00:00
THE government has announced the de-specification exiled ENG Capital director, Gilbert Muponda who is now based in Canada. Co-Home Affairs Ministers Kembo Mohadi and Theresa Makone made the announcement in a recent government gazette.
"It is hereby notified that the joint Ministers of Home Affairs, in terms of section 6 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (Chapter 9:16) have revoked the specification of Gilbert Muponda," read the de-specification notice. Black business lobby group, the AAG welcomed the development.
“We are grateful to the authorities for this dispensation, which gives back Muponda the full legal capacity to act and allow him to carry on with his economic activities in Zimbabwe as an indigenous Zimbabwean.
"Let this be a message to Zimbabweans in the Diaspora that our Government means no harm to them and so they must come home to participate in the indigenisation agenda of Zimbabwe," AAG secretary general, Tafadzwa Musarara said.
Muponda and co-director Nyasha Watyoka were arrested in 2003 after ENG Capital failed to pay creditors.
The firm was placed under voluntary liquidation in 2003 while Muponda – who left the country for Canada – was specified in 2004.
Watyoka has since been set free by the magistrates’ court for lack of evidence.
Meanwhile, ENG’s liquidators have confirmed that the company has since cleared all debts and paid its creditors.
Directors are understood to be now seeking the re-instatement of the company’s banking licence ahead of a planned listing on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.
Labels: AAG
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Rushwaya, Chiyangwa split AAG
by Staff Reporter
06/04/2011 00:00:00
THE Affirmative Action Group (AAG) has been rocked by a major split after founding leader Phillip Chiyangwa tried to impose disgraced former ZIFA CEO Henrietta Rushwaya as a vice president. The entire AAG board led by Supa Mandiwanzira has resigned in protest.
Rushwaya, axed as ZIFA CEO after he was fingered as the nexus of a match fixing scandal involving the national team, announced her new position in a newspaper, forcing the AAG board to issue a statement disowning her.
But Chiyangwa stepped into the row, revealing that he had appointed Rushwaya, claiming: “I am the founding president and I am the sole appointing authority.”
The AAG’s executive director Davison Gomo said: “The founders of the AAG believe that they have perpetual power to control the organisation. They believe that they have executive authority in spite of an executive authority running the organisation.
“If an organisation is privately and individually owned, the owner has a right to decide as he pleases. Mr Chiyangwa has made it very clear that he owns this organisation and he must do as he pleases. I think it in his interest to run AAG as he wants.”
The oft-radical lobby group which has been at the forefront of championing black economic empowerment had, among other members on its board, Mandiwanzira, Temba Mliswa, Advocate Farai Mutamangira and Sam Ncube.
Labels: AAG, PHILLIP CHIYANGWA
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Entire Affirmative Action Group board resigns
By: Philip Murombedzi
Posted: Monday, April 4, 2011 10:59 pm
THE entire Affirmative Action Group of Zimbabwe board has resigned and is set to form another affirmative action group that is professional and free of control and personalisation by individuals.
The move follows a controversial appointment made by businessman Philip Chiyangwa to unilaterally appoint embattled former Zimbabwe Football Association chair, Henrietta Rushwaya, as vice president of the black empowerment organisation. Chiyangwa is a founder member of the AAG.
“The entire board has resigned following the controversial appointment,” said a source in the executive to the Zimbabwe Guardian on Monday
“We cannot have individuals (Chiyangwa) privatising and personalising an organisation that has a national outlook and whose objects are so important to drive the national economic empowerment and indigenisation process”.
The source continued: “We recognise that Chiyangwa was a founder member of the organisation, but we cannot have individuals arrogating themselves responsibilities that are held by a group of people, the AAG Board. We had to exorcise this demon that was making it difficult for the organisation to move forward.”
Chiyangwa appointed Rushwaya as vice president responsible for international empowerment and corporate affairs and a businesswoman, Jennifer Mhlanga as vice president for gender empowerment without consulting the AAG.
The AAG national executive issued a statement disowning Rushwaya, saying she was not part of AAG and that there were no presidential vacancies in the organisation.
Chiyangwa later gave an interview saying the AAG constitution granted him ‘exclusive powers’ to appoint the presidium by virtue of being the founder president and chairman.
He said he was the sole appointing authority and that no one could challenge the appointments within the AAG ranks.
Our source argued that Chiyangwa’s statement was tantamount to personalisation of the institution and there was no need for them to remain in that group. “For the AAG to be truly broadbased and people-driven, the process has to start from the bottom up, not the other way round.”
“Chiyangwa is free to go ahead with reconstituting the AAG. We will convene on Friday and form a new organisation that will take over the work we have been doing within the AAG,” the source added.
“The entire executive resigned effective today (Friday 4 April)”.
The former AAG executive had Supa Mandiwanzira as its president, three vice presidents, namely Sam Ncube, Themba Mliswa and Advocate Farai Mtamangira. Other members included secretary general Tafadzwa Musarara, Elifas Mashaba treasurer general, national committee member Chamu Chiwanza and the executive director Dr. Davison Gomo.
AAG executive director Dr Davison Gomo has also resigned.
Efforts to reach Chiyangwa proved fruitless at the time of going to press.
Labels: AAG, PHILLIP CHIYANGWA
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Diaspora organisations should do more
By: Tellmore Mutsengi
Posted: Monday, January 17, 2011 5:15 am
DEAR EDITOR - I have been following up a lot of initiatives that have been going on in the Diaspora, but have to express my disappointment. There was a Diaspora conference held in Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe last year by an organisation called the Development Foundation for Zimbabwe.
There have been other initiatives in the United Kingdom, including events by an organisation formerly called Zimbabwe Gentleman's Club (or ZG Club), which has now been renamed Zimbabwe Growth Club.
We always hear that there are events taking place and most of them have never consulted the public.
ZG Club was charging £25 for an audience with Affirmative Action Group President Supa Mandiwanzira. Such prices are beyond the reach of many, so it would benefit us if they could publish reports of their conferences.
We wonder who exactly some of these organisations represent and what their role in the larger Zimbabwean Diaspora society is.
There was a report in the Financial Gazette which was very critical of the December DFZ conference in Victoria Falls.
The Fingaz reporter said the organisation was full of academics who seemed to lack the business acumen that is needed at such fora, and who enjoyed hypothesizing about a new Zimbabwe, without giving concrete solutions.
There are a lot of Zimbabweans in the Diaspora with the business wherewithall to get involved and make vital contribution.
Why are these organisations fronted by the same old faces that have not delivered for so long?
Are they simply "Boys' Clubs" where certain characters seek to massage each others' egos?
We would be grateful if these organisations could start making headway into reaching out to the general public, rather than remain closed door and unreachable.
Also they should publish the outcomes of their conferences for the benefit of the public.
*Tellmore Mutsengi writes from the United Kingdom.
Labels: AAG, DIASPORA
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Liberating our economy, a generational challenge
by Davison Gomo
29/12/2010 00:00:00
AT ITS recent 11th National Conference in Mutare, Zanu PF lived up to its historical and central role in providing a genuine people-centred leadership to its membership and the whole nation at large.
Our beloved country has been and still is under siege for the wrong reasons both in political and economic terms. Should we move forward without our past, abandon everything we fought so hard for at a huge expense in terms of human life and livelihoods? The question of whether the people of Zimbabwe should have, not just access to but total control of their resources, remains a fundamental question that needs to be resolved once and for all for the benefit of this and future generations.
As a nation, we must be seen to be exercising our inalienable right to self determination as enunciated in the UN Charter: the right of our people to freely choose their own leaders without being manipulated by powerful nations through the use of internal conduits and the so-called non-governmental organisations that wear a philanthropic cloak while bent on preying on the vulnerabilities of our people in advancement of their self interests.
We continue to experience the endless meddling into Zimbabwe’s internal affairs, the use of sanctions to effect regime change -- a practice that is illegal under international law. We have seen the havoc caused by the systematic and brutal plan to isolate Zimbabwe by spreading pathological lies through the global mass media controlled by western governments.
Part of this evil scheme has been the establishment of radio stations hostile to Zimbabwe and its people and various diabolical machinations designed to prevent the development of Zimbabwe like the continued denial of our country to sell its diamonds despite there being no justifiable case for doing so, and a whole range of issues that have been raised against the country and the person of President Robert Mugabe albeit without good cause.
The Affirmative Action Group, being a wholly Zimbabwean organisation and driven by the need to have our people benefit from their political independence and the resources that Zimbabwe is endowed with, hereby declare our total support for all resolutions that came out of the Mutare Conference in support of restoring the dignity of our people by giving them unfettered access to and control of the resources through the indigenisation and empowerment programme.
While we recognise that the country is coming from a low economic base and that the government is currently facing challenges related to recurrent expenditure, we urge our leaders to continue to put faith in their own people. Although collaboration with people in other parts of the world is most welcome, true and lasting development is that thus done by the Zimbabweans themselves.
We applaud the decision by the National Conference to put people first as is reflected in the nature of the resolutions that were adopted. The Affirmative Action Group stands for the broad economic empowerment of the people and the rights attendant thereto. We are, therefore, very pleased that the National Conference was themed around affirmative action and that President Mugabe did not mince his words regarding the place and future of both indigenisation and empowerment in current and future public and development policy.
The AAG takes pride in this stance and pledges its unwavering support until Zimbabweans are fully integrated into the mainstream economy. Our pride as a people can only mean something to us when we are in full and total control of both our political and economic space.
Davison Todson Gomo is the executive director of the Affirmative Action Group
Labels: AAG, INDIGENIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT ACT (ZIMBABWE), NEOCOLONIALISM, ZANU-PF
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AAG meets Israel’s chief rabbi
Welcome ... Tafadzwa Musarara with the Chief Rabbi
by Staff Reporter
06/11/2010 00:00:00
THE Affirmative Action Group (AAG) has met the Israel chief rabbi Shlomo Moshe Amar in Jerusalem as it steps up its diplomatic offensive to get Zimbabwe’s right to deal freely with its diamond resources re-asserted.
AAG President Supa Mandiwanzira and secretary general Tafadzwa Musarara met the Israel chief rabbi at his private residence in the holy city of Jerusalem. The chief rabbi is to the Jewish people what the pope is to the Roman Catholics. He is the supreme halakhic and spiritual authority for the Jewish people in Israel.
The AAG leaders refused to disclose how they arranged such a high level meeting.
“I can confirm that we met the chief rabbi late Thursday night in Jerusalem and the meeting was special. He is a man revered by the Jewish people across the world but has exceptional humility,” said AAG president Supa Mandiwanzira in a telephone interview from Tel Aviv, Israel.
He said the AAG asked the Chief Rabbi to use his influence and religious authority by talking to countries like the United States to stop standing in the way of Zimbabwe trying to exploit its natural resources for the benefit of its people.
At the just ended Kimberley Process plenary meetings in Jerusalem, the US with the support of Canada and Australia desperately tried to frustrate Zimbabwe’s right to unconditionally sell its diamonds from Marange to the chagrin of African, South American and Asian countries that make up Kimberley Process.
“I told the Chief Rabbi that Zimbabwe was a peaceful country that seeks only friendship and economic cooperation with all countries of the world including the United States, Canada, Australia and members of the European Union.
“I asked him to please assist in talking to some of these countries to stop being fixated with our country and work harmoniously with our government,” Mandiwanzira said.
Secretary General Tafadzwa Musarara told the Chief Rabbi that the AAG would be most grateful if he visited the country to see for himself.
He told the Chief Rabbi that a small but very active Jewish community in Zimbabwe was doing a lot of charitable work and this work could be lessened if Zimbabwe dealt with its resources freely for the benefit of its people.
The chief rabbi promised the AAG leadership that he would discuss Zimbabwe’s issue with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu so that the country can be supported in selling its diamonds without hindrances.
“He told us that as the Chief Rabbi – he fell directly into the office of the Israeli Prime Minister and he would engage the Israeli government to support Zimbabwe as a starting point,” Said Mandiwanzira.
Labels: AAG, BLOOD DIAMONDS, CHIEF RABBI SHLOMO MOSHE AMAR, DIAMONDS, KIMBERLEY PROCESS, SUPA MANDIWANZIRA, TAFADZWA MUSARARA
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Foreigners should not threaten indigenisation: AAG
By: Our reporter
Posted: Friday, September 3, 2010 6:33 pm
THE Affirmative Action Group says the presence of foreign businesses in Zimbabwe should not threaten indigenous businesses and the indigenisation and economic empowerment programme.
In a statement emailed to the Zimbabwe Guardian on Friday the black empowerment group's president, Mr Supa Mandiwanzira, said AAG was concerned about the number of foreigners who have applied for trading licenses, or are trying to renew them, to run retail businesses in the country.
The statement read: "The Herald of 12 August 2010 carried notices of either applications or renewal of trading licenses by various individuals to run business across a number of retail activities.
"As a black empowerment lobby group, we are very concerned that there is a large presence of foreign nationals who have submitted their applications for either renewal or new licenses in business areas that, in terms of the current indigenization and economic empowerment law, are reserved for nationals."
Mr Mandiwanzira said the regulations published by Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere, were very clear on this issue and Harare City Council has an obligation to uphold this law.
He said the council should refuse to issue or renew all applications that fall outside the provisions of the Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act.
"As it stands, we believe that City of Harare is intending to make decisions on these applications on or before 2 September 2010," said Mr Mandiwanzira.
"However, given that the applications are invalid because of what they seek to do, City Council has no obligation to process them.
"We strongly believe that any further isolation and marginalization of the indigenous people by willfully granting licenses against the letter and spirit of the law, may lead to unnecessary hostility between locals and foreign nationals."
Mr Mandiwanzira said foreigners were welcome to invest in Zimbabwe, but they should stay in those areas of business not reserved for indigenous people.
He said it did not make sense that foreigners were coming all the way to sell cooking oil, cell phone batteries, sugar, salt etc,.
This is "an affront to the whole programme of indigenization and economic empowerment" and "City of Harare needs to give serious thought to making sure that the licensing regime is not used to defeat national goals and objectives.
"We reject unreservedly any attempt to rationalize over this position because our role as an affirmative action group is to promote and champion compliance with the indigenization and economic empowerment laws of the country."
Mr Mandiwanzira express concern that many business opportunities in the country are now being offered in the market place to the highest bidder. "No institution or individual should be allowed to exclude the indigenous people from business by any means other than a fair and equitable system."
Labels: AAG, INDIGENIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT ACT (ZIMBABWE), SUPA MANDIWANZIRA
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AAG hails Zimbabwe diamond certification
By: Nancy Pasipanodya
Posted: Thursday, July 15, 2010 11:24 pm
THE Affirmative Action Group -- the vanguard of the Zimbabwe indigenisation and empowerment policy in Zimbabwe -- has welcomed the recent approval of Zimbabwe by the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.
The KPCS approved on Thursday gave the greenlight to Zimbabwe to start exporting its diamonds; despite efforts by the US, Australia, Canada and the EU, who opposed Zimbabwe's approval.
In an interview with the Zimbabwe Guardian, the AAG President, Mr Supa Mandiwanzira, said KPCS's certification of Marange diamonds was an affirmation of the country's indigenisation effort.
"This is a victory for the people of Zimbabwe and an affirmation of the country's indigenisation effort," said Mr Mandiwanzira from Harare.
"Sense has prevailed in that body," added Mr Mandiwanzira adding that the approval will "catapult Zimbabwe out of its current (economic) challenges".
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The mining of diamonds in Chiadzwa and their subsequent sale on the international market will represent a direct benefit for the people of Zimbabwe, he added.
"Previousl, Zimbabwe benefited from the mining of diamonds and other precious gems via taxes and royalties.
"This time around, Zimbabweans will benefit directly as they will own 51 percent of the proceeds from the sale of the diamonds."
Mr Mandiwanzira said Zimbabwe was a "trailblazer" and its indigenisation and empowertment model -- carried out through the ZMDC (Zimbabwe Mining and Development Cooperation) -- will be copied elsewhere on the African continent.
"For over thirty years, Zimbabweans have failed to benefit from the mining of precious gems in the country. Why is there opposition for empowerment in diamond mining at Chiadzwa? Companies like Rio Tinto have mined diamonds without any opposition," asked the AAG chief.
When asked to comment about the arrest of businessman and farmer, Mr Temba Mliswa, Mr Mandiwanzira said the AAG will not comment on "issues that are before the courts".
Mr Mliswa is the AAG's Vice-President. He is currently in custody on various allegations of fraud.
Labels: AAG, DIAMONDS, KIMBERLEY PROCESS
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AAG heads for showdown with property owners
By Lloyd Gumbo
THE Affirmative Action Group is heading for a showdown with property owners at the AAG Commercial Rentals Indaba pencilled for June 3 in Harare. AAG has indicated that the continued "bulldozing of our citizens by foreigners, out of the shops" had necessitated the Indaba.
In an interview last week, AAG secretary general Mr Tafadzwa Musarara said they had sought audience with the property owners to find a lasting solution to the "crisis".
Mr Musarara said Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Saviuor Kasukuwere would officially open the Indaba. They were also expecting speakers from Old Mutual, the Commercial Rent Board, various estate agencies, power utility Zesa and the City of Harare.
"We are very worried as AAG that our citizens are plying their trade in the flea markets because they have been pushed out of shops. So far we have about 3 000 indigenous companies that have been booted out of shops and as a result scores of people also lost their jobs.
"We cannot continue accommodating such disempowering acts which has never happened since independence. As the vanguard of indigenous empowerment, we will fight tooth and nail to make sure that our people are accorded the opportunity to do business under shelter," Mr Musarara said.
He said the Indaba was meant to avoid a "catastrophic" situation emanating from the "diplomatic warfare". Mr Musarara said they wanted to discuss with property owners.
"We have decided to give dialogue a chance and we expect to find solutions at this Indaba so that there will be no need to employ other militant radical means. If they are not co-operative, we won’t guarantee their safety because we have been too patient with them. Indigenisation will remain a pipe dream if indigenous companies have no space to operate from. If these property owners are not cooperative, we will also ask Government to compulsorily acquire the buildings so that they can rent them out," he said.
Mr Musarara also said they were concerned with Old Mutual, which was "charging high rentals to push indigenous people out of their properties". He said they were also concerned with how the company had paid off pensioners to get them out of the shareholding. "Old Mutual is arguably the second largest property owner in the country after Government and the way they have been treating our people is a way of challenging the Government.
"They have raised their rentals so that they cannot be affordable and they have premises that have been empty for over a year now. The reason for investing is to make sure that one gets money but they have been comfortable having no tenants at all.
"We now suspect that they have a hidden political agenda meant to outdo the empowerment drive and we are saying Government should defend the empowerment programme through whatever means," he said.
Labels: AAG, ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT, INDIGENIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT ACT (ZIMBABWE)
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Maridadi denigrates the PM's office: AAG
By: Our reporter
Posted: Sunday, April 18, 2010 1:09 am
THE following is a statement issued by the Affirmative Action Group of Zimbabwe, a black economic empowerment pressure group, in response to a statement issued by prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai's personal assistant, James Maridadi. Maridadi incorrectly informed international media that indigenization and economic empowerment regulations published by Youth, Indigenization and Economic Empowerment minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, had been declared "null and void" by Parliament.
Full transcript
The Affirmative Action Group, the vanguard of broad based black economic empowerment is perturbed by press statement released by the Prime Minister’s spokesperson, Mr James Maridadi on Tuesday, 13 April 2010 and was beamed across the globe.
Maridadi lied that the Cabinet of the Government of Republic of Zimbabwe had suspended Statutory 21 of 2010 which regulates and guides the implementation of the Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act.
His Excellency the President Robert Mugabe has since said that the regulations are still operational and in effect. The Maridadi press statement confused foreign investors.
The Affirmative Action Group strongly opposes any attempts to suspend the regulations with the view to discuss any amendments. Any possible changes, should they be any, must be discussed and crafted whilst the law is operational.
Government must be wary of enemies of indigenization and empowerment who seek suspension of the Indigenization laws. The intention of these retrogressive forces is to completely eliminate the indigenization agenda.
We have noticed that more than 200 seminars and public meetings across the country have been held that criticized the indigenization law, but there has been no counter-proposal submitted that can deliver empowerment to the indigenous Zimbabweans.
The Indigenization Bill was passed in 2007 and assented to by the President in 2008. Three years later, after its parliamentary approval, we now see its implementation.
Given the long wait already endured, the citizenry cannot wait any longer whilst we start to argue over a law that correct a historical imbalance.
AAG is dismayed, though not surprised, that a junior press officer comments on the proceedings of Cabinet to which he is not part of.
Protocol dictates that any Cabinet policy announcements are made by the Chief Secretary to the Cabinet and President or the line ministers.
We are keen to know why Maridadi was assigned to issue that statement, instead of the ministers concerned.
The appointment of a radio disc jockey with little relevant experience and no professional qualifications to be the prime minister’s spokesperson, denigrates that office.
We urge the Public Service Commission to review his appointment.
Tafadzwa Musarara
Secretary General
Labels: AAG, JAMES MARIDADI, SAVIOUR KASUKUWERE
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No, I can’t take such racism: Kasukuwere
Sunday Mail Reporter
Monday 29 March, 2010
Walked out of the meeting after Hawkins likened the Indigenisation and Empowerment Act to apartheid law
Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Cde Saviour Kasukuwere and black empowerment activists on Friday stormed out of a meeting with white entrepreneurs over what they termed “racist and backward” comments made by economist Professor Tony Hawkins. The meeting had been organised by a group of mainly white entrepreneurs to discuss the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act.
In an interview yesterday, Minister Kasukuwere said it was shocking that there were still some elements in society who were blatantly racist and against the empowerment of the black majority in Zimbabwe. He said he had walked out of the meeting after Prof Hawkins likened the Indigenisation and Empowerment Act to apartheid law.
“Mr Hawkins made some ludicrous comments which I considered racist and backward. “He basically implied that the Indigenisation and Empowerment Act was a worthless piece of legislation. It is obvious that his interests are only to protect the white people and he is not interested in the empowerment of the black majority. That is not acceptable,” he said.
Minister Kasukuwere said he was surprised by Mr Hawkins’ remarks, adding that he had hoped that the forum would be interactive and informative.
“I was shocked that they chose to take a racist stance at such a meeting which was meant to be interactive and informative,” he said. Cde Kasukuwere told the chairman of the meeting, Mr David Harrison, that he had been insulted at the forum, adding that despite the unfortunate incident, his ministry would continue to seek dialogue over the new law.
“We always look for amicable discussions and we are willing to engage with all stakeholders over the law because it affects the majority of Zimbabweans,” he said. Cde Kasukuwere said the Government would not go back on the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act as it was part of its broad agenda to uplift the status of the majority.
“We are going ahead and we will not be deterred,” he said.
The meeting, which was held at a Harare hotel, was organised by Human Resources (Pvt) Limited managing director Mr Harrison and attracted mainly white managers, amongst other stakeholders. Minister Kasukuwere told Mr Harrison that he had been insulted and advised him to “invite me when you have mobilised sober people”.
Affirmative Action Group (AAG) secretary-general Mr Tafadzwa Musarara said officials from his organisation also walked out of the meeting in solidarity with the minister after taking note of the allegedly racist intentions of the convention.
“We walked out in solidarity with the minister because we realised that it was a racist convention. It was most unfortunate that Mr Harrison appeared to support Professor Hawkins’ statements. We walked out before we presented our paper,” he said.
He said although they were major proponents of black empowerment and chief lobbyists during the crafting of the legislation, the AAG still welcomed engagement and criticism of the new law. Both Mr Harrison and Prof Hawkins could not be reached for comment yesterday. The Government passed the indigenisation law to empower the black majority. The law stipulates that all local companies worth over US$500 000 should cede 51 percent of their shareholding to indigenous black Zimbabweans and there are timeframes for this.
Labels: AAG, INDIGENIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT ACT (ZIMBABWE), SAVIOUR KASUKUWERE, TAFADZWA MUSARARA, TONY HAWKINS
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Who is an indigenous Zimbabwean?
By: Tafadzwa Musarara
Friday, March 26, 2010 10:25 am
IMAGINE its 1968, Ian Smith is in full command of Rhodesia apparatus and all white Rhodies are drowned in the proverbial milk and honey. How many of those Rhodies would have wanted to be identified as indigenous or natives of 'Zimbabwe' then?
Who is indigenous?
This question has been very topical of late, thanks to the Economic and Indigenization Act. Interestingly, we have seen and heard unexpected characters clamouring to be termed indigenous Zimbabweans.
I would have loved this question to have arisen at the apex of colonialism when many African states were under white minority rule.
In this article, I would like to attempt to provide both the narrow and wide definition of an indigenous person.
Indigenous means originating or occurring naturally in a country or area. This word is derived from the Latin word called indigenus. Admittedly, given the nomadic nature of African tribes, it is difficult to appoint certain tribes as indigenous people of a particular country, but suffice to say that blacks are the indigenous people of Africa.
The Holy Book tells us about children of Israel who stayed in Egypt for time longer than the White Europeans have been to Zimbabwe. At no point did the Children of Israel declare themselves to be indigenous Egyptians. It was because they were clear of their origins and knew that their entry into Egypt was materialistic.
The blacks in America had their ancestors, many years ago, transplanted from this beautiful continent and shipped to this country. The rest of what happened thereafter is history. To date, many centuries after the abolishment of slavery, they are not called Americans but African-Americans and live in the midst of a system that is unjust and reminds them daily that they are not first class citizens.
Here in Zimbabwe we do not call white Zimbabweans, European-Zimbabweans. I think we are very kind people and accommodating people, are we not?
Colonialism brought exotic fauna and flora in Africa. Admittedly, much of it has been very critical in enhancing household food security. In Zimbabwe, we have mango, cats, peaches and others that have remained classified exotic, though they serve us very well. Sadza remains indigenous and hence it has no English name. Neither has switched sides.
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Zimbabwe, in the past five decades, exported millions of its citizens into the Diaspora. Many are now resident in United Kingdom, North America, Australia, South Africa and other countries. Many of them remain mere residents and continue to constantly re-apply for permission for continued stay. Attaining citizenship in these countries remains a pipedream. They remain foreigners and never been regarded indigenous people of those countries.
The colonial rule in Zimbabwe created the structures of the Native Commissioner who, inter alia, was charged with the full implementation of repressive laws. These laws include the Animal Husbandry Act that limited amount of livestock natives could hold and also the Land Apportionment Act that moved indigenous Zimbabweans from fertile land to sandy soils. Remember Chief Rekayi Tangwena. History has no record of a white man whoever opted to stay in these reserves on the basis that they were indigenous. So when did they turn indigenous?
The question is: At what one point does an exotic or foreigner become indigenous person?
The Indigenization Act 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 person, and includes any company, association, syndicate or partnership of which indigenous Zimbabweans form the majority of the members or hold the controlling interest."
These previously marginalized persons and their descendants must be allowed to enter into the mainstream economy because we cannot create a second economy.
This economy, had it not been for colonialism, belongs to the indigenous Zimbabweans.
Imagine if the Cecil John Rhodes’ BSAC had subordinated their operations to the orders of King Lobengula, I have no doubt that joint ventures between blacks and whites rule would have started then, possibly on 51/49 rule.
This Act does not seek to punish those who oppressed others, but seeks to address the imbalances caused by the repressive system.
This is an Affirmative Action policy which is very active in America where it favours non-indigenous, but previously underrepresented groups. By any measure, this definition is generous because it does not favour a particular race, but persons and groups affected by the colonial system.
It must be noted that whilst this economy was being built, many others were deliberately marginalized by brutal and repressive machinery.
The hand of reconciliation extended by the then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe did not turn white people into indigenous but simply acknowledged the wrongs of the past and solicited forgiveness from the aggrieved.
Can someone be an indigenous in two countries? I ask that question because most white Zimbabweans have or had dual citizenship or are eligible on the basis of ancestry. They are able to get either British or any other European citizenship because they originated there.
It is cunning, disrespectful and treacherous for any White Zimbabwean to claim to be indigenous
_________________
Tafadzwa Musarara is the Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Affirmative Action Group
Labels: AAG, INDIGENIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT ACT (ZIMBABWE), TAFADZWA MUSARARA
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Interview: debate on indigenisation
by Violet Gonda
15/02/2010 00:00:00
SW Radio's Violet Gonda hosts a debate on indigenisation between Affirmative Action Group president Supa Mandiwanzira, businessman and New Zimbabwe.com columnist Mutumwa Mawere, economist Daniel Ndlela and journalist Peta Thornycroft:
Broadcast: February 12, 2010
VIOLET GONDA: Last week the government passed a new regulation which requires businesses to hand over at least 51 per cent ownership to indigenous Zimbabweans. It is said the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment regulation is meant to benefit ‘indigenous’ Zimbabweans who were disadvantaged before independence in 1980 but there have been mixed reactions about this. Some have said it may give marginalised groups a chance in the competitive job market but others say the move sends a very wrong message to much needed potential investors and could lead to chaos similar to the seizure of white commercial farms in Zimbabwe.
Furthermore, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai revealed the move had been made without his knowledge, even though he is in charge of all policy formulations by cabinet. To discuss these latest developments my guests on the programme Hot Seat are Supa Mandiwanzira the President of the Affirmative Action Group, businessman Mutumwa Mawere, economist Daniel Ndlela and journalist Peta Thornycroft. Let me start by getting your views on this new law, let’s start with Supa.
SUPA MANDIWANZIRA: Well my views are that this is the most exciting development that has taken place in Zimbabwe. In fact when the regulations were gazetted last Friday you could just equate the excitement to that of 18 April 1980.
GONDA: Mutumwa Mawere?
MUTUMWA MAWERE I think if you are blind, anything is exciting but if you recognise what time it is and what is required to advance the country’s interest and what has made other countries progress and if you are looking at social and economic change then you have to pause and reflect and actually try to locate what is required to move forward.
GONDA: Daniel Ndlela?
DANIEL NDLELA: Well to me this law in fact, is not exciting at all because at this stage Zimbabwe is the one that needs investors. The existing investors and those investors that are still coming and given the fact that the law is actually saying that Zimbabwe is not a favourable destination on Earth, is not an attractive destination on Earth, it is not going to be exciting to the majority of Zimbabweans. It might actually be exciting to a few who can actually get their share of where they have not sown.
GONDA: Right, and Peta?
PETA THORNYCROFT: My first reaction was good, this is a jolly good story, I’m going to make some money today and then I started phoning people and I spoke to Dr Ndlela first and he gave me such a great quote. And then I phoned around and I then was landed up being of the opinion that this is an appalling set of regulations which are way in advance in their effect from regulations that what was in the regulations should have been included in the Act in Parliament.
GONDA: Let me go back to Supa who has said that he was so excited when he heard about this but according to the general feeling on this panel; it’s an appalling set of regulations which could drive away investors. What can you say about this Supa?
MANDIWANZIRA: I think that with all due respect to the other panellists, I think that there’s a complete misunderstanding of the intentions and what the objectives of these regulations are. First and foremost, a law was passed in the Parliament of Zimbabwe, in a parliament that was represented by Zanu PF, the MDC and others, what has now taken place are moves or steps towards implementation of that law - because if you put together a law, the next thing, it must be implemented, so this is the whole process that was started a long time ago that people shouldn’t be surprised about. But if people are also honest, all investors have been sitting on the fence looking at Zimbabwe because the argument has been ‘we’re not sure where Zimbabwe is going, we’re not sure what the Indigenisation laws are, we’re not sure whether if we come in with our money it’s not going to be expropriated and things like that’. What this does is actually manna for the investors because it clarifies the situation, so any investor sitting in South Africa, London, New York or Japan will now know what is on the table and make a decision, corporate decision to say I’m not putting my money there or I’m putting my money there because things have been put on the table and they have been clarified.
GONDA: Mr Mawere, do you agree with this, that investors have been sitting on the fence and this will actually help investors decide on what they need to do on the issue of investing in Zimbabwe?
MAWERE: Not necessarily, I think nation building is an enterprise that has its own foundational principles. If you were to locate a Zimbabwean and say this is a previously disadvantaged, you are after 30 years of Independence, how do you proceed on that enterprise? Who would be included, who would not be included? If I am white, I came in to Zimbabwe when the flag was raised in 1980 and I invested, I made my money, how can you distinguish me with somebody who was born in the country, maybe on the same day that I was born and then you build a foundation on that basis.
Yes in Zimbabwe has an ugly past, but how best can it be resolved? Through shared transfer of schemes and to what benefit? So if a bad law doesn’t become a good law because instruments have been gazetted, a bad law has to stand on its own and a good law can stand on its own. If Zimbabwe were to speak, would it speak in the voice of Supa and who would be Supa representing? That is a question that he can answer but to develop a country, it’s really an idea and Zimbabwe can advance its course if it is welcoming other people. And those who do nothing, the minerals are where God left them. I can’t say because I was born in Zimbabwe the minerals belong to me merely because I was born. Then I’d be playing God myself.
But the minerals are there, somebody has to apply his or her mind, put capital to uplift the minerals where they are and convey them to a marketplace. Minerals in the ground are God’s creation and on what basis would then I come in and say because I’m in this generation, my neighbour has found a way to extract the minerals and makes money in it out of an exchange of a mineral metal into cash, but if the market collapses, that person also can collapse. There’s no guarantee that what you uplift you will be able to convey to market profitably. But if you do so, you have to spend money in Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe benefits in that enterprise so it requires a much more careful consideration than just say oh this is an extension of something that was approved by parliament or the Act exists. It is important that we do reflect on Zimbabwe the person that requires the investment.
GONDA: Let me go back to Supa and find out from him to what extent this law discriminates against whites. Does it discriminate against whites? Is this a racially targeted manoeuvre to completely clear out white people from Zimbabwe? What are your thoughts on this?
MANDIWANZIRA: I think that the interpretation of this Law and the Regulations as an attempt by government to disempower the whites in Zimbabwe is obviously being driven by people who have an agenda against Zimbabwe and its readmission into the community of nations, so we can do business with others. Because there’s nowhere in the law where it says that whites are not allowed to own businesses, that this law is targeting whites. I would challenge everybody on the panel to please highlight the section that talks about white Zimbabweans being excluded.
I hear Mr Mawere’s argument that we must look at the interests of Zimbabwe and we must welcome anyone who wants to bring in their money into Zimbabwe. Indeed this law is welcoming anyone who wants to bring in money into Zimbabwe but it is giving them the expectation of the Zimbabwean people - that within five years of your investment you must achieve a certain ownership that is indigenous, but if you cannot do so in five years, tell us and we will give you more time but ultimately we would like you to achieve this. The law is very clear, it does not discriminate against white people.
The law is simply saying we are aware the indigenous population was discriminated against prior to Independence in 1980 and to give them a leap forward so they can catch up with those that perpetrated this disadvantage, let’s give them also these advantages. So I would like to hear from those on the panel who feel that this is discriminatory to explain where they were before 1980 when the majority was discriminated against.
MAWERE: But Supa, your definition of indigenous means what?
MANDIWANZIRA: My definition of indigenous is the legal definition of indigenous here in Zimbabwe which is anyone who was disadvantaged before Independence in 1980. So whether you are Indian, you are white, you are coloured, you are any other colour, as long as you were disadvantaged before Independence in 1980 you qualify. You just have to prove that you…
MAWERE: So if I set up my business in 1980, I should give up my shares?
MANDIWANZIRA: Well I think…
MAWERE: Is that what you are saying?
MANDIWANZIRA: There is no-one who is saying give up. People are simply saying find an investor who is Zimbabwean who was disadvantaged before Independence who will buy your shares at an agreed price, government is not determining the price.
GONDA: Let me ask Peta Thornycroft for her thoughts on this. To your understanding, does this law discriminate against white people first of all?
THORNYCROFT: Well I think there are so few white people left in Zimbabwe that it really makes little difference, any issue about race. Section Nine of the regulation does exclude 14 sectors of the economy for previously disadvantaged people and certainly black people were previously disadvantaged before 1980 so I think that has an element in it that someone could go to the Constitutional Court in Zimbabwe and challenge that.
It’s not about white people per se, it’s about reaping where you have not sown and therefore as you have seen with the Black Economic Empowerment in South Africa, and I’ve been away from South Africa for ten years so I haven’t followed its ins and outs, but what I know is that those investments that took place, people paid for them. They didn’t get 51%, they negotiated the percentage and that they were done with, some of it with great thought and care. What worries me with these regulations is that they are in the hands of Saviour Kasukuwere, a Zanu PF MP, a Zanu PF person, who might say ‘OK we’re actually going collecting for the February 21st Movement at the moment and if we don’t get a donation from you I’m afraid that’s your 51%’. And it’s no good saying people don’t behave like that, we all know ahead of Zanu PF congresses over many years, businessmen have been forced to invest in the Zanu PF congress for fear of their business, they’ve done it to protect themselves. And I could give you a string of names if I had permission in advance to demonstrate this. These regulations give far too much power to the Minister, his discretion is absolutely enormous.
GONDA: Would you not agree though with those who argue that this law seeks to enable previously disadvantaged people to enter business and not simply as workers but as owners?
THORNYCROFT: What worries me about anyone going into any business is that will they know anything about that business when they go in, so if you’ve suddenly got a guy who’s got 51% shareholding and he can appoint directors, how do we know he’s going to appoint directors that are going to contribute to the company’s wellbeing? So let’s go back to the land, because I know a lot about that. What… (interrupted)
MANDIWANZIRA: Violet, Violet, we need to be fair to this law…
GONDA: Hold on, hold on Supa. Sorry Peta, go on.
THORNYCROFT: OK, let’s take the issue of land and try and take the race out of it. What you had there was about 4,500 mostly not all, but mostly extremely efficient and productive farmers who produced 40% of foreign currency.
[Actually what you had was massive land ownership (2500 hectares per 'farm' compared to 90 hectares for the average farm in the EU) and the availability of nearly free labour. No European (EU) farm has a 'staff' of 700 people. So I guess they did make it look easy. MrK]
Maybe they made it look too easy. When that land has been taken over and handed to people who had no experience in commercial farming and who didn’t have title deeds to raise money to grow their crops - and of course Agritex by this stage has virtually collapsed - but what you have had is a catastrophic collapse of the economy because land was handed to people who didn’t know how to make the best of it and why would this not happen with the companies?
[It is the same old racist argument forwarded by the same old racist people. Blacks can't (fill in the blank) therefore whites must do it. These rhodies are very tiresome. - MrK]
If you are going to have people who know nothing about heavy engineering, there’s one heavy engineering company left in Zimbabwe, in Bulawayo. If you go into that company, it’s an extraordinary place and why would that company want to have somebody on their, with 51% owning who may appoint a board of directors who know nothing about that company? We’re just going to see those companies collapse as we saw the farms collapse, not all of the farms but most of the farms.
GONDA: Before I get a reaction from Supa, let me go to Daniel. First of all, as an economist, what will be the real impact of this and how different are these guidelines from the land reform programme?
NDLELA: Thank you very much. The point here is, let me go back a little bit and say who in fact are these ‘indigenous Zimbabweans’ that will benefit from this law? The letter of the law simply says that the people who registered their names with the Minister and there will be an allocation procedure. Definitely this is patronage, it is a continuation of patronage as we have seen it in Zimbabwe and that those who will benefit are people in the gravy train in the patronage system. This letter of the law is quite clear that if you don’t comply, five years in prison, if you don’t do this, five years in prison. The issue here from an economist’s point of view is if you want investments from your own country, existing investments or/and new investments out there, you are not going to threaten people that come here, invest but if you don’t comply you are going into prison for five years. From an economist’s point of view, you’ll not have any investors coming into this country.
The spirit of the law itself, not the letter of the law, the spirit of the law itself has a morality element that does not really auger well with all investments internationally because you really don’t have a situation where there’s an allocation of your shares via a Minister at this point in time. In other words, from an economic point of view, the existing investors will lose interest in their businesses. They will run down the businesses in the five years so that by the five years actually you are taking on something that is no longer at its best, they are not going to invest in the five years, during this period and the enterprises that will be there will be enterprises that are really down. The new investors will not be persuaded bring in their technologies, bring in their money here. Supa says that the people out there now will know the rules of the game, if they don’t want, they are not going to come, and if they want they are going to come. I want to ask Supa himself that if he has a million dollars will he go to a country where he will actually end up in five years with a share value of $49,000. He would be very benevolent indeed…
MANDIWANZIRA: Let me take the opportunity to respond there…
NDLELA: …because I’ll not do that, I’ll not actually go to a country where they want my 100 dollars and then tell me at the end of the day, you are going to remain with 49, the 51 will go to the locals, so I will stay in my own place.
GONDA: Supa, can you respond?
MANDIWANZIRA: Well unfortunately it appears that both Daniel and Peta are scaremongering. I am not sure to what extent they have gone through both the Law and the Regulation because what they are basically saying does not exist in the Law and does not exist in the Regulation. They are scaring people unnecessarily and they must begin to be honest with themselves and honest with your listeners that what they are saying is actually not true.
You cannot draw parallels of this Indigenisation Economic Empowerment Act and the Regulations to the Land Reform Programme. The Land Reform Programme started with the Svosve people occupying land outside any structured way by government. Here is something that is being done legally, lawfully by starting to promulgate the law in parliament, debating it, and then approving it and now implementation of the Regulations. So there’s a difference with the Land Reform Bill so you cannot draw parallels to that process.
The second important thing, Peta makes this argument that if people are going to be allowed to buy 51% they will run down those companies and they will appoint the wrong people and, listen, let’s be very clear, the Law simply says if you do not qualify to be indigenous, please find yourself some partners, those partners do not come and take your shares for free and there’s no stupid investor who will buy 51% of a business and put the wrong people to run that business, you will be silly to do that. Anyone who buys 51% must create and get value out of that 51% and it is completely disrespectful of the indigenous people if that is the suggestion these guys are putting on the table - that the indigenous people will spend money to buy 51% of businesses that they will run down. It’s nonsensical, there’s no sane business person who will do that.
Do I take a million dollars and put it in a country where I will eventually end up owning 51% - yes if I’m going to get value for my investment and I’m going to put a price to it, I will. There’s this misconception that 51%, owning more than 51% is the most profitable, is the most best thing, we all know that even some of the richest people control 12% of the companies that have made them rich, so we must not be hamstrung on this issue of percentage ownership. We must look at the value of the businesses, the value of the assets that Zimbabweans have, whether they’ve been exploited or not exploited, the value that they have by just being Zimbabwean.
GONDA: Peta, can you respond? Are you scaremongering?
THORNYCROFT: I don’t think I’m scaremongering. I’m personally not a legislator or an expert on legislation or statutory instruments, I phoned others and I’ve got the regulations, I had them, I read them, I phoned and I asked questions of people like Daniel Ndlela who is an economist and who deals in these fields, that’s his life’s work and he said, he told me the 49 and 100 dollars story; I spoke to John Robertson, I spoke to businessmen who had read the Regulations and they said these are extremely anti-friendly towards investment.
Zimbabwe is not a prize place to invest in the first place. The infrastructure is so broken, why would investors really want to come here in the first place, so we’ve got to make it look really attractive to get investment in the first place, then we are going to dictate to these investors, percentages. That’s the first point I have.
The second point I have is I can’t understand why anyone wants to tamper with companies that maybe running successfully already, why not start a new one? Why not expand it rather than messing up what, if any business has survived the last ten years, particularly say the last five years in this country, my goodness they should get a business Oscar for having survived the chaos of hyperinflation and money printing. If they’ve survived, leave them alone, we’ve got so few industries left. Start new ones. Why don’t previously disadvantaged people of whatever colour start a new business? Shouldn’t government be looking to assist new business establishment rather than tampering with what is already there - because it wouldn’t matter how you wrote the story about those Regulations, the percentage is there and in 400 words when you write that story, that is what the world reads and I’m afraid that is the impression that has been created and it’s not going to go away.
Zanu PF has an extremely poor record in the last few years of leaving businesses alone, leaving people to decide their own future, deciding how they are going to survive. They are an extremely interfering political party and this is headed up by one of them who has this enormous discretion and as Daniel Ndlela said, you know you start sticking in jail sentences, then come on, come on – there’s the headline.
GONDA: Mutumwa, what are your thoughts on this and Peta says perhaps it’s time that the government started providing an environment where people actually start their own businesses, but those in favour of this new Law say that it targets industries like the mining industry where these mines already have claims and it’s difficult for locals, or indigenous people to enter into these industries, so how do the locals buy or enter into these competitive markets?
MAWERE: I think it’s always a complex issue what makes enterprises succeed, what makes nations win. Some people believe that Zimbabwe belongs to people who look like myself or Supa or Peta and I can build a Zimbabwe that is like that. But imagine you are driving your car and you are told that you need three passengers in the car and you are moving from Point A to Point B. Whether you’ve three passengers or you don’t, you still get to Point B; it doesn’t really make a difference in terms of driving and enterprise. There are people who follow, who will work for the enterprise. Shareholding itself is like being a parent. You spend school fees on your children but you can’t invoice them. So really for somebody to say I own and know that I’m going to die anyway is to accept that the proceeds of your effort may go to the next generation, who may not necessarily be qualified or whatever, but they have to inherit what you have. But if you build now and say the success of an enterprise is based on parents, merely that the shares, the holder of the share can decide whether the company succeeds or not.
DRC has minerals, 100% are indigenous but there’s no activity taking place in some of those minerals. You can equally convert Zimbabwe into 100% title and nothing takes place. What is good for Zimbabwe? Is it for people to sit to play God and say I own 100% of Zimbabwe but I don’t have the means, or I own 100% of the car but I don’t have fuel? Their car may be worth 100,000 US dollars but if you don’t have one litre of fuel, the car won’t move. So we can end up with cars that provide no motion to it. And equally somebody who has turned 30 years now who was born in 1980 who is white, how are we going to face that person? Born in Zimbabwe 1980, was not part of the previous story, now does it mean that that business ought to carry three passengers or four passengers for it to pass through a toll gate where Supa or the Minister is a Toll Gate Inspector?
NDLELA: Can I come in there?
GONDA: Yes Daniel.
NDLELA: It’s really, if Zimbabwe, if the legislators in Zimbabwe, if the policy makers in Zimbabwe were honest that theirs is promoting indigenous Zimbabweans, they should really be honest about that - and for instance in the mining sector, countries that have gained from the mining sectors, countries that have made government itself go 50/50% with foreigners and so that the rewards of the ventures come back to the poor people of that particular country, not the business of actually lifting patronage business people when in fact the sister is getting nothing.
The Minister of Finance recently in the budget explained that he only got four million US dollars as tax revenues from the mines and yet the mines, we know very well that they are doing very well. These are foreigners, fine. The government itself must go in and then open up those shares in as public listed entities instead of going for all these small businesses and say that if you own a business worth 500,000 and above you must actually share. We have to be honest, intellectual honest and honest in terms of our morality again because who are these indigenous business people? I’m asking myself, I fought this liberation, I was out there and I don’t understand when I came back 1980 that today we are still talking about that past and at the same time we have destroyed our wealth and we are continuing to destroy the wealth for the future poverty stricken people of this country. They need jobs, they need to be empowered, not to be empowering the few people and making laws for the few people and that is what is happening here. The spirit of this Law does not really auger well with investment worldwide. We like it or not, the results will show. Investment is going to be very difficult from outside under this law.
GONDA: Those in favour of this also say that the Regulation is trying to redress a problem where foreign investors just come into a country like Zimbabwe, take what they want and then go, where they pay very little taxes and also repatriate most of the profits. Do you agree with this?
NDLELA: There is an element of that, particularly in the mining industry. Again, why is it so? It’s because of the opaque nature of those deals with government officials. All these exemptions which are given to the mining sector are done by the very indigenous Zimbabweans in government and so the opaque element, the non-transparency element is one that is actually playing up here - not because a non-Zimbabwean can just come in and invest and you take 51%. In the mining sector, of course we don’t know what is happening out there because of the opaque nature of all the deals and the mining agreements that have been done after 1980 not before 1980.
GONDA: Mutumwa, what are your thoughts on this? Is there corporate social responsibility by foreign investors?
MAWERE: It’s not enough, there’s a lot that can be done in terms of balancing the interests of the nation and the corporate citizen or the persons in corporate citizens, and it’s a continuous negotiation. If you increase tax, you discourage people; if you reduce too low then the State itself won’t have the capacity to function. But what you have is that if the unemployment is high in Zimbabwe and the people who are able and willing to offer themselves in the labour market are going elsewhere, are not in Zimbabwe and empowering themselves personally, and they see more value by being able to contract outside the State of Zimbabwe. Then if you go to Pick & Pay, more people pick and pay and Pick & Pay makes for instance makes a profit. What they do with the profit, if it’s derived from a free exchange of goods and services where the people are buying, some are exchanging money for something else, surely the discretion must be left to the person who extracts that profit in a free market but where there is no free market then one can say something else.
Equally Supa’s businesses, if you said Supa I want to join your car as a businessman and I just want 51% just because I am black or I am disabled or I’m blind, I’m sure Supa would actually tell me to go and see a psychiatrist. He’ll not be himself, if he were to show by example how he can give up his own privilege so that other people, because if he acquires that privilege through a market system, the question of corporate social responsibility yes, it’s important. Most of the people who have made money, they end up giving away because there’s no coffin that takes cash, there’s no graveyard that has an ATM machine so you know you’re going to die anyway, and your stomach can’t take anymore in a 24 hour day. So why would a rich person threaten a poor person because really they have no capacity to do so because they can only consume as human beings.
So if you don’t understand that side of nation building or corporate citizens then, if I have extra money, I apply my discretion. But then once you institutionalise this and make it a legal instrument which then forces people to say I’m driving at 70 kilometres per hour then I’m speeding and you know that people drive at 120 kilometres, then you’ve got a problem.
So I’m not too sure for whose benefit, when you know what Zimbabwe really requires today – it requires jobs and the people who have the skills are leaving the country and some of them who are there working very hard but clearly they can’t support a State that itself is not serving the growing population of employed people or people who are providing the income. Because the concept behind a government really is nothing more than somebody who has the right to tax you for your income, but somebody must generate the income.
But imagine for 2010 FIFA, Supa and myself, we sit as a committee to allocate seats for the match. It will take maybe a 100 years before we actually know who sits where but if you have a market system, this has been proved over and over, people know that if they can’t afford the game they find alternatives not because. But right now, how are you going to discriminate among maybe 12, 13 million who should get what and who should not.
And this decision is now invested in the minds of people like Supa who then have the prerogative to decide what is good for the country because right now as he is speaking on behalf of the country you’re talking about three million maybe people in South Africa – is he representing them or is he representing what he thinks Zimbabwe should be, because people daily are voting with their feet and they know what is good for them.
If what is good for them is shares, then let them create their own New Mutual instead of an Old Mutual, they create their own Standard Bank, there’s nothing standard about Standard Bank. We have created banks in Zimbabwe, those banks have people believe in, in the bank, you don’t have to go and take shares in Standard Bank. Why should I worry about what Standard Bank is doing when the people who make the bank are the customers and the customers are Zimbabwean - and you say look we are indigenous on the consumption side then we can’t decide where we want to buy, then we buy insurance from the wrong party, then we want to be insured by another party that we’re not buying insurance from.
So we have decisions to make and if time was spent on actually educating ourselves, understanding what it takes to build a winning country then we would make a better prospect than talk about someone’s corporate social responsibility, not our own responsibility.
GONDA: Next week’s discussion gets very heated when the panellists focus on the dipping of foreign accounts by the Reserve Bank, elitism in economic empowerment and who is responsible for the exploitation of Zimbabwean assets among other issues.
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Labels: AAG, INDIGENIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT ACT (ZIMBABWE), MUTUMWA MAWERE, VOA
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AAG: Share quota 'good for investment'
by Lebo Nkatazo
11/02/2010 00:00:00
THE black empowerment lobby, the Affirmative Action Group, on Thursday backed government moves to implement a 2008 law which calls for companies to reserve 51 percent shareholding for “indigenous Zimbabweans”.
The AAG’s support for the Economic Empowerment (General) Regulations of 2010, which give effect to the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act 2008, came as the former opposition MDC labelled the plans “a new Zanu PF arena for looting and abuse”.
AAG president Supa Mandiwanzira said the law was “good for investment”, countering criticism of the regulations by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai who called them “null and void”.
Mandiwanzira said: “A lot of investors have been sitting on the fence, not sure, thinking that the government will loot everything.
“Now the government, which Tsvangirai is part of, has laid down its cards on the table. The government is simply saying new companies should ensure that shareholding is in line with the law over the next five years, and asking already existing companies to give a plan of how they are going to ensure compliance.
“There are no parallels with the land reform programme because people are not being allocated companies here but being given an option to negotiate a price for shares.
“Some companies may not even be indigenised because people don’t have money to buy shares.”
In a direct attack on Tsvangirai, Mandiwanzira said the Prime Minister should go back to parliament if he wants the law changed.
“It doesn’t help for a whole Prime Minister to come out and describe one of his own country’s laws as null and void. You cannot void a law through media statements. If he wants the law changed, he should go back to parliament where it was passed,” Mandiwanzira said.
Tsvangirai has said he was not aware of the new regulations before they were published on Tuesday. The AAG says it finds his claims “stunning”.
Mandiwanzira said: “Tsvangirai chairs the Council of Ministers, and indeed one of his party’s members Thamsanqa Mahlangu is the Deputy Minister of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment. How could he not know a law existed to that effect, and that sooner or later the Ministry would have to enforce the will of parliament?”
In a statement issued Thursday, Tsvangirai’s MDC said the “provocative and anti-investment regulations” were “a deliberate attempt to undermine the country and its people”.
Bizarrely, the statement referred to the regulations as a “Zanu PF Bill”, although the law passed in March 1998 is already an Act of Parliament.
The MDC said: “Zanu PF simply wants to create a new arena for looting and abuse. The so-called ‘indigenous people’ who are set to benefit from this criminal Bill are not the ordinary man and woman, but the well-connected elite and the Zanu PF chefs.
“At a time when Zimbabwe desperately needs foreign direct investment, it is an affront to recovery efforts for the Ministry of Youth and Indigenisation to nocturnally and unilaterally gazette these anti-people and anti-Zimbabwe regulations.
“The MDC calls upon the inclusive government, in the national interest, to reverse all such destructive policies and withdraw the gazette.”
Major foreign investors in mining and banking are said to be alarmed by the new policy which forces them to cede control of their companies to mainly black Zimbabweans.
Labels: AAG, INDIGENIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT ACT (ZIMBABWE), SUPA MANDIWANZIRA
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AAG slams Chevron Caltex's discriminatory practice
Our reporter
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:20:00 +0000
THE Affirmative Action Group has slammed Chevron Caltex's decision to
ask all fuel dealers who wanted to have a controlling stake in the company to reapply, saying the move was intended to exclude black dealers.
The dealers proposed to buy an ownership stake in Chevron Zimbabwe as a going concern and they sought security of the business under the Indigenisation Act. They also offered to purchase the retail sites as the sitting tenants.
"The National Executive Council of AAG is perturbed by reports of victimization against indigenous dealers of Chevron Caltex who made unsuccessful attempts to procure controlling stake in the company," read a statement sent by the group to the Zimbabwe Guardian.
"We understand that soon after the Ministry of Indigenization turned down their application, Chevron management ordered all dealers to reapply.
"It is, therefore, our suspicion that the re-application exercise is going to be used to eliminate some black dealers who had shown interest in acquiring stake in this company."
AAg claims that "these machinations are being orchestrated by a white director who is a former BSAP and Selous Scout operative who ordered in the meeting that ‘these buggers must be removed’".
The AAG delegation led by its President, Mr. Supa Mandiwanzira was scheduled to meet the Chevron Zimbabwe country representative, Ms Lilean Gora yesterday to discuss "these serious allegation that threatens economic independence of our black people".
Labels: AAG, CHEVRON CALTEX
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AAG blasts tax regime
By Zvamaida Murwira
The Affirmative Action Group yesterday slammed the country’s tax regime, saying the structures were too high and did not recognise that the economy had embraced a multi-currency system.
AAG president Mr Supa Mandiwanzira, yesterday said Finance Minister Tendai Biti needed to adjust his tax regime to conform to the multi-currency system the country was now in.
Mr Mandiwanzira said this while giving oral evidence before a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Industry and Commerce, where the organisation had been invited to give its view about the budget presented by Minister Biti last week.
Buhera North Member of House of Assembly Mr William Mutomba (Zanu-PF), chairs the committee.
"Our duty is still high. If a company imports a Mercedes Benz for its chief executive for say US$100 000, it will have to pay almost the same amount as duty and this means that company will not be able to retain staff as other countries do. Some countries do not charge duty," said Mr Mandiwanzira.
"We need an effort to reduce duty for goods or vehicles that are not available in the country. I am not sure who we are trying to promote."
He slammed the setting up of the Constituency Development Fund by Minister Biti for Members of Parliament, saying it was a vote buying strategy.
Minister Biti allocated US$8 million to be used by the 210 constituencies for developmental projects such as sinking boreholes, repairing clinics and schools.
The local MP would chair the fund and other members of that committee are elected councillors.
"It’s an attempt, in our view, to use public funds to enhance one’s political interest. Those funds must be used to restock rural shops. Why should you use taxpayers’ money to prop another person," he said.
"Our view is that as an MP, you should either have the resources or the connections to bring value to your community and not to rely on taxpayers’ money."
Mr Mandiwanzira said the continued funding of the manufacturing sector would have the effect of continuously propping up big corporates at the expense of genuine areas in need of assistance.
The budget should have focussed on how to assist small to medium enterprises that constitute the general members of the public said Mr Mandiwanzira.
"Unemployment, which is around 90 percent, is not going to be addressed through big corporates because they are now into automation and big machines and that does not require many people," he said.
"There is need for a spirit of entrepreneurship. Employment is for small and medium enterprises. This is where this budget should have focussed."
He bemoaned the exclusion of the AAG in the Business Council of Zimbabwe, which he said was constituted by organisations such as the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Com-merce and the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries that he described as elitist.
Labels: AAG, SUPA MANDIWANZIRA, TAXATION, TENDAI BITI
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