adminthey realised the real owners of the land were taking over, they sabotaged the industries as they pulled out. They felt the success of the industries will give more mileage to the real owners of the country as the economy would remain stable.
Another type of investors that has taken advantage of our desperation for investors, the ones I call “mercenary investors”. They seemingly do not take Zimbabwe as their second home but a marketing ground. A marketing ground to make money and send home disguising as investors. These ones do not invest in industries or do anything to improve the infrastructure of where they operate from.
Long back we had industrialists who could improve the infrastructure of the surrounding areas such as in Chitungwiza we had “dzimba dzevekuChibuku” meaning Chibuku Shumba built those houses. In Glen Norah John Sisk was associated with the development of the township. The National Railways of Zimbabwe also has its legacy for building houses for its employees countrywide.
The new type of investors serve for a few in the mining sector came here with half a million dollars but managed to externalise millions every month to their motherlands. At the end of the day Zimbabwe is not benefiting much from these “mercenary investors” instead their motherlands are benefiting more from our resources and instead creating more problems for us.
They also contribute to the liquidity problems that we have in the country as most of them do not bank their daily cash takings especially those in the retail sector. There is evidence to this from the big figures we read in newspapers when they are robbed at their houses. We read stories of individuals being robbed at home amounts which can even surpass the daily deposits of some of our bank branches. The “mercenary investors” have contributed significantly to our present status as a consuming economy.
As they ship in tonnes and tonnes of their cheap quality goods they stake all the dollars they receive in daily sells at home to send abroad for restocking. As a result our liquid problems will never end until we start producing and manufacture our own quality goods.
Indigenous businesspeople also need protection from these mercenary investors as they sometimes harvest where they did not saw. We have Indigenous people who worked very had to establish Kopje Kaguvi area as a car spares selling district but they have been pushed out of business most of them have gone burst.
It’s a pity here in Zimbabwe when one of our own is going down we laugh (ainyanya kushaina) instead of looking at the factors causing the downfall.Get me right, I am not against foreign investors but I am against those investors who want to come and make quick money without benefiting us as a country. We want foreign investors who come and invest in different sectors of our industries and also add value by improving infrastructure where they operate from. You have a company making millions from a dilapidated building where even the durawall is falling down on its own. They do not care because by the time the whole wall falls down they would have made enough money and gone.
There is a very busy foreign-owned restaurant where there is one toilet for ladies and one for gents. There is no urinary in the gents toilet because of their mercenary mentality of thinking that renovating toilets is a waste of money. Zimra should have a task force that ensures that all daily takings are banked. I have also noticed that these mercenary investors do not use the fiscalised tills recommended by Zimra making it easier for them to evade taxes and banking.
These business hypocrites are sustaining industries in their motherlands at the expense of our consuming economy. So the ball is in our hands indigenous business people to turn the tables and start manufacturing and producing for our dear Zimbabwe. Let’s get away from this dealer mentality of importing cheap quality finished products and rotate them in our country. Let’s now produce, manufacture and mop up all the money into our system here at home. All these liquidity problems will be a thing of the past.
I always dream of a day when our locally produced and manufactured goods will fill up the shelves in all our major retail outlets. Yes we can do it, but for it to succeed the Government needs to support in terms of policies and other factors.
l Melvin Marembo is the chairman of Emancipated Entrepreneurs of Zimbabwe and also the vice chairman of Harare Chamber of SMEs and is writing in his personal capacity. [email protected]
Online Reporter