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The fund which basically all the companies whose premises were looted and burnt down by opposition activists in the mid-January protests were eagerly waiting for is now available.
One hundred and eighty one businesses in Bulawayo were broken into, pillaged and later burnt in the January 14-16 mayhem that was organised by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, MDC Alliance and their civil society allies. Collectively, the companies lost property worth $19,5 million.
Many more companies suffered the same fate in other parts of the country including Chitungwiza and Kadoma.
Hundreds of vendors and informal traders, among them widows and orphans looking after themselves, suffered the same fate after their stalls were destroyed and stock seized by the opposition thugs.
Most of the companies and individuals had no chance of rebuilding their premises, restocking and re-opening, thus they appealed to the Government to come up with a financing window to get them back on their feet.
In response, the Government set up the Emergency Relief Inter-Ministerial Committee chaired by Industry and Commerce Minister, Mangaliso Ndlovu to visit the firms for an on-the-ground assessment of the damage caused and thereafter come up with strategies to help the companies re-open.
The committee did visit the businesses and was alarmed by the accounts they heard of how the companies were attacked.
It recommended making available a recovery fund for the destroyed businesses.
The Minister of State for Bulawayo Metropolitan Province, Judith Ncube, announced on Sunday that relevant companies can now collect application forms from the Government and lodge their applications for assistance under the fund.
Speaking at a Zanu-PF inter-district meeting in Njube suburb, Minister Ncube said:
“The Government will this week start disbursing money under the emergency relief loan fund to assist businesses and shop-owners whose outlets were destroyed and looted during the violent protests that occurred in January. We urge the affected proprietors to take advantage of this loan facility and revive their businesses and as I speak, the application forms are now available.”
Speaking on Friday at an event where Pepsi donated cooler boxes, refrigerators and trolleys to 300 female entrepreneurs and businesses that were affected by the protests, Industry and Commerce Permanent Secretary Dr Mavis Sibanda said the loans come in three types – that which will help businesses to restock, to purchase equipment and or buy of building material to repair the destroyed buildings.
“Once we’re through, companies can submit their applications through our regional office, which will work with the Bulawayo provincial Minister Judith Ncube to approve the applications and send them to the head office in Harare. Industry and Commerce Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu chairs the Cabinet committee and I chair the technical committee, which reports to the ministers. Businesses should also attach police reports and operational papers with their applications. For those who need help, Minister Ncube’s office is free to assist,” she said.
We honestly did not expect the loan fund to be available so soon, only 43 days after the violent protests were contained and a few weeks after the Government committed itself to making it available.
But we have a new, action-oriented government which walks its talk.
The affected businesses will certainly find this intervention important and timely. We and the firms have always indicated that the losses that the businesses incurred were very heavy and that they have little to no chance of coming out of them alone.
We have also indicated that, having been plundered so extensively, some of the businesses were not of good standing to be able to qualify for loans from the local financial services sector which demands collateral security and up-to- date tax payment records. The difficult economic environment makes it difficult for a number of local businesses to qualify on the foregoing points.
In that connection it must be remembered too that one of the reasons why a fund of similar nature – the Distressed Industries and Marginalised Areas Fund of 2011 – failed to make the desired impact was that many companies that needed funding did not qualify because their tax payment records were not current.
We hope the Government found a way around this impediment this time for the despoiled businesses to access the loans and resume operations.
Thanks to the new fund, jobs that had been lost will be recovered. We found it deeply regrettable that while the economy is already facing difficulties; difficulties that have resulted in job losses, in those three forgettable days in January, people lost jobs because of reckless politics by a trade union and a party whose history is rooted in that labour federation. Our people did not have to lose jobs in those circumstances.
Happily for them, the Government has intervened and in the next few weeks, they will be back at work.
But for that to happen, their employers should quickly approach the Government and pick up the loan application forms, fill them in and get the process of accessing the loans in motion.
The reason why the Government has come up with the fund is clear testimony that it wants to assist the businesses that were destroyed in January.
There is therefore no doubt that the Government will assist them, speedily.
We are sure that the consideration for any company accessing the loans is just the fact that they were broken into, looted and burnt by opposition militants from January 14 to 16 and nothing more.
All the companies that were looted must be happy that they will benefit from the fund but we encourage them to repay the loans because business must not expect freebies from anyone, including from their Government.
In any case, they are not in the business of distributing freebies themselves.
The Government, which is prioritising responsible spending, should have put in place measures to ensure that the loans are paid back, on time and in full.
Online Reporter