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Abigail Mawonde Herald Reporter
Government must disband or privatise all loss making parastatals as the enterprises cannot continue to be a liability to the state.
This was said by Higher and Tertiary Education deputy Minister Dr Godfrey Gandawa addressing a workshop on corporate governance in parastatals in Harare on Thursday.
He said there was need to open a new chapter of results-based performance and parastatals needed to justify their existence through delivery on their mandate.
“Hard decisions must be made to either disband or privatize loss-making parastatals and state enterprises. They cannot be allowed to continue bleeding the economy when they have abandoned their mandates,” he said.
“In cases where strategic and socially desirable but uneconomic services should be delivered by State Owned Enterprises, the cost of such services need to be agreed, and their respective boards and management should also agree with Treasury on the limits and the attendant consequences of failure to deliver.”
Dr Gandawa said illegal sanctions should cease to be cited as the reasons for non-performance.
He said the country requires boards and management wired to think solutions in an environment constrained by sanctions.
He singled out poor corporate governance, toxic leadership, corruption as the “evil triplets” negatively affecting the SOEs limiting their role as key enablers for economic development in the context of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Social and Economic Transformation.
“Today, the shame of corruption has engulfed most of our Government departments, local authorities, state enterprises and parastatals. This rot continues to erode public confidence in our institutions to the detriment of national development,” he said.
“The successful implementation of the Zim-Asset hinges on demonstration of high integrity by leaders of public institutions, which constitute the pillar upon which the success of Zim-Asset is established.”
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter