Debate on Empowerment agenda

reforms).
And secondly, the media largely tend to follow the “easy” story.

This has created the impression that empowerment is all about taking over the mines and the banks. The government, for some reason, has allowed debate to be steered in that way, getting itself bogged down in explanations that the drivers of the indigenisation programme are not trying to enrich themselves quickly by seizing profitable mines and banks.

What this has also done is deflect attention from the need for Zimbabweans to invest greater in other sectors for creation of an all-round functional economy.

In a nutshell, energy is not being deployed holistically in the empowerment agenda.
Key to the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act is to ensure at least 51 percent of every business in the country with a net value of US$500 000 or more is owned by indigenous Zimbabweans.

So this is not just about the mines and the banks (important as they are), but also about tourism, manufacturing, transport and logistics, communications, energy, water, construction, engineering, education, sports and the arts, and the broad range of service provision among others.

While some of these sectors have been mentioned in public debate, the transport sector is hardly talked about, which is quite weird considering that across the world, performance of the wider economy is closely tied to performance of transport and logistics.

Kelvin Motsi, a member of the management board of the Shipping and Forwarding Agents’ Association of Zimbabwe, also finds it strange that few people seem to appreciate the importance of the transport sector.

“The Government’s General Notice 280/2012 set out the importance of bringing empowerment to sectors such as transport and the motor industry among others. But it seems transport and logistics remains the forgotten child of the Empowerment agenda,” he says.

Motsi is also the spokesperson of empowerment facilitation vehicle, Young Zimbabweans Business Platform (YZBP), and he and the group are determined to ensure indigenisation is approached as broadly and holistically as possible.

“As YZBP, we have welcomed the recently crafted draft Zimbabwe Broad Based Economic Empowerment Policy (ZBBEEP), which looks at empowerment from a long-term perspective. And there is no way we can talk of a long-term empowerment trajectory when all our attention is going to finance and mining.”

Motsi notes that the draft ZBBEEP seeks to transform the national economy from primary commodity production by 2017 to value addition between 2018 and 2027, thereafter transforming it into an innovation and knowledge economy by 2042.

“In regards to the 2018 to 2017 goals as set in the draft, not much will be achieved if transport and logistics remains a forgotten child,” is his assessment.

The YZBP spokesperson adds: “This is not just a problem in Zimbabwe. Across Africa transport, logistics and shipping are ignored as if they are not key economic drivers.

“Fortunately, at present the African Union is crafting a policy to liberate this area from foreign domination.

“It’s a broad cabotage regime that will empower our people more fully. Cabotage are a set of strict rules that anyone in the sector must adhere to as well as the necessary permission to be secured before anyone can operate transportation service in a foreign territory.

“In China, for instance, any firm with foreign shareholding cannot engage in coastal and inland waterway transport without clearance.

“In the US, all goods transported by water between American ports should be carried in US-flag ships, built in the US, owned by Americans and with at least 75 percent of crew members being Americans.
“Similar rules apply in India and other countries. Now of course, we don’t have much by way of inland water transport and logistics. But the little we have must be addressed. And more importantly, the road and rail transport and logistics should be similarly addressed.” Motsi has a point.

According to one study, 90 percent of Africa’s US$1 trillion economy is dependent on transport and logistics, since most countries on the continent are primarily exporters of commodities.

In Zimbabwe’s case, this calls for a comprehensive study on what percentage of the country’s economy is dependent on transport and logistics.

YZBP’s Motsi asks: “Who controls the transport and logistics of all those miners and other exporters who are moving unprocessed minerals out of the country?

“Do we know what percentage of the export and import economy is dependent on transporters that are not indigenised? “There seems to be this impression that the only participation locals can have in transport is through commuter omnibuses and conventional buses. Yes, these are vital components in the economy but we have to think bigger than that; and the Empowerment agenda is certainly bigger than that.”

Motsi looks to himself as an example of what indigenous Zimbabweans can achieve in the transport sector, with vast local and international experience in the field.

He says YZBP has programmes in place for young Zimbabweans who are keen to learn more and benefit from the country’s potentially lucrative transport and logistics sector.

“We are looking at wealth creation, of long-term sustainability, at real empowerment. That is what sets us apart from many other youth groups that are more talk and less action. Empowerment is a proactive phenomenon and we are being proactive in a number of sectors. Yes, mining and banking are very important, very crucial; but so are many other sectors of the economy.”