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which belonged to the now defunct Zisco and the reported disagreements over the deal did not mean there was policy divergence in Government, Industry and Commerce Professor Welshman Ncube said yesterday.
Opening the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce annual congress in Victoria Falls, Prof Ncube said Cabinet agreed on most policies despite the Government being made up of three political parties but the problem was on policy implementation.
Mines and Mining Development Minister Dr Obert Mpofu has said the Essar deal must be revisited because the Indian company will only pay $700 million for resources worth $30 billion.
Dr Mpofu is on record saying that he will transfer mineral rights of ore to Essar only for actual value.
Prof Ncube said contrary to media reports, there was consensus in Cabinet when it came to policy formulation. He said on the Essar deal, relevant Ministers were assigned to look into the deal and Memoranda of Understanding were signed with the Ministries of Energy, Finance and Mines and Mining Development.
“The problem is not to do with policy discord in the inclusive Government as some have labelled it given that we have three political parties. We have a great deal of policy convergence but what we do not have is policy implementation which is consistent, then call it policy implementation discord. There are many things we do not do at policy implementation level which we collectively agree on as Cabinet.
“Contrary to what was reported, Cabinet looked at the deal and ministers were assigned to look at it. The Minister of Energy was tasked to look at how to supply power consistently and an MoU was signed so did the Ministry of Water and Finance as well as the Ministry of Mines. Cabinet resolved to give the company all the mining claims that were held by Bimco which are not in dispute. This was all minuted in black and white but getting it done is a problem,” said Prof Ncube.
He said another example of failure to implement policy was the disbursement of Distressed and Marginalised Areas Fund to companies in Bulawayo.
He said there was near unanimity in Cabinet that Bulawayo would be allocated $40 million and this year an additional $10 million would be allocated to bring the figure to $50 million while a further $30 million would be allocated to industries in other parts of the country.
“But as I speak, Government has only put in $10 million when according to Cabinet decision it should be $50 million,” said Prof Ncube.
He said the only way to deal with the problem was to have elections, which would bring one party into power.
“Let us get on it and get over it. If we can fix things through an election that will result in a single leadership or even a coalition which has a single party leading, maybe we will have coherence in implementation. The dice has been cast and the latest that we should have elections is sometime next year. There is no need to postpone it further after 2013. Elections should not be any further than September next year,” said Prof Ncube.
He said the elections should be as friendly as possible to the economy and business.
Prof Ncube said the deadlock in the constitutional-making process had been resolved as of last Wednesday.
“What remains is the editorial work. I am sure we have a challenge of ensuring we conduct an election which will not reverse the gains we have so far,” he said.
Online Reporter