CZI slams sanctions

opposition to the economic sanctions imposed on the country by the West.
Addressing participants at a Zimbabwe Economics Society debate last week, Mr Kanyekanye said sanctions were harmful to business.
“As business, we have unequivocally declared that sanctions are harmful to business and they have significantly wrought incalculable harm to our nation’s economy causing much suffering to the ordinary woman and man in the street,” said Mr Kanyekanye.
He added that sanctions have created massive unemployment, wreaked havoc on infrastructure and ravaged the nation’s social services such as education, health, water and sanitation.
Mr Kanyekanye said when CZI visited some of the major manufacturing companies in Bulawayo which include Cairns Limited, G & D Shoes, Waverly Blankets Limited, Dermatec Engineering and United Refineries Limited, they found the firms facing serious challenges.
“All these companies are operating way below capacity at around 20-30 percent and have highlighted issues such as lack of capital and operating space,” he said.
He indicated that the United States sanctions law, the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, has disabled Zimbabwe from dealing with its national debt and the associated negative publicity that deter serious investors.
He gave the example of a huge outcry that accompanied a recent tiny investment by a leading UK fund manager in Masawara Investment Fund.
This showed how difficult it would be for a large Western multinational to justify a major investment in Zimbabwe.
Mr Kanyekanye said the International Monetary Fund is meant to supply emergency funding to countries in need of such assistance and that the 2004 World Bank report shows that poverty reduction doubled with debt relief.
Zidera prevents this debt relief and even stifles IMF interventions in Zimbabwe’s private sector.
He added that any country, except Zimbabwe, can refinance its debt through the IMF or World Bank. Zidera is thus a frontal sanction to all Zimbabweans living.
The CZI boss pointed out that with the exception of the assistance from the PTA Bank, Afreximbank and lately the Development Bank of South Africa and China Development Bank, Zimbabwe has failed to access the international debt market largely because of sanctions.
Mr Kanyekanye said industry needs at least US$3 billion to recover.
“I have met most representatives of virtually every multilateral agency to a point that I know their standard line for declining financial assistance.
“They always say sort out the political issues first and money will flow.
“It cannot be anything else or we run the risk of saying that these afore-mentioned institutions do not do proper due diligence,” he said.