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He said Zanu-PF will not lose sleep over Mr Tsvangirai’s threat to derail the programme.
“Whatever they do, be it going around and telling companies not to comply, the law will take its course. In any case, the world has changed and people now understand what we are doing as they are doing it in their own countries.
“As Zanu-PF, we are going ahead empowering our people without fear,” Cde Gumbo said.
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Political analyst Mr Godwills Masimirembwa described Mr Tsvangirai’s statements as a betrayal of the people’s aspirations.
“It demonstrates the bankruptcy of the MDC-T in terms of nation-building. We build nations through ownership of our resources. That is the bedrock of the Zanu-PF philosophy and ideology and indeed internationally every country prospers on the basis of the ownership of its resources.”
Mr Masimirembwa described the PM’s utterances as unfortunate.
“For a leader to say we do not want to be owners of our resources, we want to be mere workers, is great betrayal of the aspirations and wishes of the people of Zimbabwe to own their resources and determine their destiny,” he said.
The Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation chairman said Mr Tsvangirai’s remarks bore clear testimony of his leadership deficiencies.
“The good thing is that Zimbabweans are now able to distinguish between Tsvangirai and our President.
“Our President’s clarion call is for Zimbabweans to be masters of their own resources and destiny. Tsvangirai’s clarion call is for Zimbabweans to be slaves in their own country,” Mr Masimirembwa added.
He said it was legally impossible for MDC-T to stop the implementation of the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act.
“The law will naturally take its course even if the MDC-T was to move around dissuading companies not to cede shares to the indigenous people. What kind of a leader will stop his people from being empowered. It is unfortunate,” Mr Masimirembwa said.
Foreign-owned companies such as Zimplats and Murowa Diamonds have started complying with the empowerment laws.
Affirmative Action Group founding president Mr Philip Chiyangwa had no kind words for Mr Tsvangirai.
“The problem we have with the Prime Minister is that of ignorance. He is ignorant about the whole question of economic empowerment yet it is the reason why our armed struggle was fought,” he said.
Mr Chiyangwa said the liberation war was fought to bring political, economic and cultural independence among other things.
“Tsvangirai should understand that when you become independent like we did in 1980, you change the laws to accommodate the masses. Our indigenisation started with a black president, the land reform and now we are vying for economic empowerment. It is a process that he does not understand.
“This programme is unstoppable. It does not stop because someone is ignorant. We will go out there as AAG and tell the people the truth,” he said.
Political analyst Cde Alexander Kanengoni yesterday said the public condemnation of the Government’s empowerment drive by the MDC-T leader could “have even stunned the party’s sponsors.”
“I think it even stunned his handlers and sponsors. He (Tsvangirai) should have found a smart way of putting his message to the people. I do not think they expected him to put it as openly as he did. The people of Zimbabwe cannot denounce their own empowerment,” Cde Kanengoni said.
He said the “jobs creation policy” advocated by Mr Tsvangirai has no place in a modern world.
“A policy of creating a nation of workers does not work anywhere in the world. No one can stand up and speak against their own empowerment.
“His stance is against everything we went out to fight for. We fought the war to empower our people,” Cde Kanengoni said.
Online Reporter