adminThere is certainly more to the media’s take and reportage on Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister Saviour Kasukuwere’s appearance on July 9, 2015 before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment chaired by Cde Justice Wadyajena.
Rangu Nyamurundira
There is context to it, more relevant to the public interest than the “harsh words” exchanged.
We must assess the meaning of Minister Kasukuwere’s presentation on an indigenisation programme, which Zanu-PF has said is in danger of losing momentum.
His appearance before the committee comes at a critical juncture for a nation that must achieve Zim-Asset objectives on a foundation of indigenisation and an “empowered society”.
The fact is post-July 2013, the indigenisation and empowerment ideology, which won the elections for Zanu-PF, has backtracked.
You only need to sit outside Parliament and listen to the hushed whispers among passers-by and indigenous Zimbabweans at large who speak to the nostalgic yearning for indigenisation before July 2013.
Whatever challenges that may certainly have been there at the time, the people saw their programme on the move and finding its way despite hostility and sabotage.
Like the man or hate him, Cde Kasukuwere fearlessly and energetically drove his party’s ideology, policy and programme in Government.
As mandated by President Mugabe, he mobilised a nation to the idea of economic emancipation and gave Zimbabweans substance upon which to gain confidence and visualise their “empowered society” primarily through the establishment of community trusts.
Non-indigenous companies were on the run, dreading their being summoned to account.
Such companies had hoped for an MDC election victory to save them from complying with indigenisation regulations, but, at the same time, prepared themselves for immediate engagement and compliance, fearing a fallout with “Tyson”.
But then, as Minister Kasukuwere advised the portfolio committee, he was reassigned.
He went on to ask the committee if it had all been bad during his tenure, if there were no positive gains for the committee to acknowledge, build on and consolidate in the name of the people’s cause.
That very critical question had no answer.
Instead, the focus remained on Cde Kasukuwere, challenging Marange-Zimunya Trust, which lies at the centre of 10 other community share-ownership schemes that the minister successfully established, and remain funded and are growing strong.
Surely, there is an anomaly here.
We have looked to Parliament to ensure delivery, to consolidate indigenisation and yet we are bogged down in bare allegations and insinuations that tarnish and undermine the programme.
We must begin to bring our parliamentarians to account on economic empowerment post-July 2013.
What is it that Cde Kasukuwere did so terribly wrong?
How did he undermine indigenisation, if at all, that a whole parliamentary portfolio committee must make his long expired tenure the priority, ahead of a nation’s anticipated economic interest?
If, indeed, he should be deemed a failure, as appears to be the objective, must we not, instead, have corrective recommendations from Parliament?
With respect, what corrective remedies have been proposed by the Wadyajena-led committee to further Zimbabwe’s national interest for an “empowered society” in the form of CSOTs?
These are pertinent questions and truths, which the media must be putting forward.
We are at that critical point where we must ask if we are being led anywhere, really, as far as our broad-based empowerment is concerned.
The responsible parliamentary portfolio committee must examine Government administration and policy as it may relate to Marange-Zimunya CSOT.
But surely, we must also ask whether or not we are not being made to dwell too much on one man’s perceived faults when the committee could be building on the CSOTs he guaranteed funds for and that still operate today.
Our Zanu-PF-controlled Parliament must conduct itself in utmost good faith and honourably in implementing its party’s policies mandated to Government by the people.
This Parliament is making us weary as it appears to be losing its legislative will and eroding its intent on achieving indigenisation and economic empowerment.
Three things have happened in Parliament that allude to this being an unfortunate possibility.
First, Parliament endorsed Finance Act No 3 of 2014 whose impact has been to fragment an economic revolution whose implementation framework needs centralised enforcement.
It will only embolden already hostile non-indigenous businesses to drag their feet and resist compliance.
At his appearance before the indigenisation portfolio committee, Minister Kasukuwere reiterated that it was improper for him to sign agreements on the establishment of CSOTs by companies in which Government was a primary shareholder.
Must Cabinet ministers representing relevant line ministries sign agreements among themselves to implement a Government policy on CSOTs when such agreements are already set and bind all and each line ministry to simply implement?
Must there be further agreements forged outside of what has already been approved by Cabinet, made Government policy and legislated?
In the case of Marange-Zimunya CSOT, should the parliamentary portfolio committee’s enquiry be whether Minister Kasukuwere signed contracts with private partners in diamond mining ventures, or must it be an enquiry into what Government did and will do through its responsible line ministries to ensure compliance with its own policies and laws?
It is revealing, though, that there is a danger in line ministries exercising their discretion on indigenisation, which discretion may be conflicting.
Secondly, the National Assembly moved and adopted a motion for Special Economic Zones, which a Zanu-PF House representative promoted, arguing that 100 percent foreign ownership and benefit from local natural resources would be guaranteed within such SEZs.
It amounts to a 180 degree turn, doesn’t it?
Thirdly, and with the utmost respect, the two-year dramatisation in Parliament of the Marange-Zimunya CSOT issue has blinded the way forward on CSOTs as the most effective broad-based empowerment vehicles.
Parliament should have been asking the question: “How do we move forward and consolidate?”
One hopes Minister Kasukuwere’s appearing before the committee has exorcised what ghosts were perceived to have been haunting the diamond-rich communities of Marange-Zimunya.
Almost three years after the ball was set rolling, that community is still to receive an equitable share of the wealth of its much-sought-after mineral resource.
Its gross prejudice and deprivation continues under the watch of a distracted Parliament mandated to give remedy.
We look forward to Parliament strengthening our indigenisation and empowerment legislative and enforcement framework.
The people of Zimbabwe will certainly have justice, if only to remedy historical economic dispossession and deprivation.
Rangu Nyamurundira is the acting corporate secretary at the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board and a member of the Zimbabwe Youth Council board. His views are personal and do not represent those of institutions he is associated with.
Online Reporter