By Senator Obert Gutu
It is pointless to be politically independent but economically poor and downtrodden. It is also pointless to be in power but without real power; both politically and economically. A people who do not own and control their natural resources and thus control their means of production is an oppressed people. Equally important is the adage that people should not get into politics to get rich, but rather they should get rich in order to get into politics.
The concept of the broad-based empowerment of previously and historically disadvantaged people can only be opposed by people who harbour the notion that economic power and thus political influence should be a preserve of a privileged class consisting of only a few people. Thirty years after independence, the average Zimbabwean is still classified as poor judging by world standards. Recent statistics sadly confirmed the fact that at least 70% of Zimbabweans live on less than US$2 a day, thus they are classified as living in abject poverty.
This is a very sad indictment on the founding mothers and fathers of this otherwise great nation. If I may ask this pertinent question: why are we poor in the land of plenty? Are we poor because the white man continues to exploit our resources? Are we poor because the so-called imperialists and colonialists have imposed so-called ”illegal sanctions” against Zimbabwe? The main thrust of this opinion piece is to interrogate the concept of broad-based black economic empowerment vis-à-vis the furore being caused by the recently promulgated indigenisation and empowerment regulations.
As a starting point: the government of Zimbabwe should be thoroughly ashamed of the fact that three decades after independence the country still has not crafted a holistic, progressive and definitive policy to empower previously disadvantaged people, the majority of whom happen to be blacks and other non-Caucasian people such as Indians, Greeks and people of mixed blood. One wonders what the government was doing all these years by failing to formulate a policy that should have been amongst the top agenda items upon achieving our independence in 1980.
Thirty years down the line; the government has suddenly woken up from its deep slumber and it is now, belatedly but spiritedly, attempting to haphazardly craft an indigenisation and empowerment policy. What a shame! Instead of using the concept of indigenisation and empowerment as an electioneering gimmick, the government should appreciate that this a very important and crucial exercise that will determine the political and socio-economic trajectory of Zimbabwe for several generations to come.
Put alternatively, the broad-based economic empowerment of historically disadvantaged people, if done properly and holistically, will catapult Zimbabwe into the realms of the developed world. This program, if properly crafted and implemented, will inevitably eradicate mass poverty and launch the country on the path of industrialisation. However, if we choose to adopt the ”jambanja” approach that was adopted in the so-called land reform program, the result will be massive de-industrialisation and unprecedented dis-investment that will ultimately lead to the collapse of the state and the emergence of war-lordism, anarchy and our own Zimbabwean version of the Mafia.
We cannot empower the poor by grabbing wealth from the rich and dishing it out like confetti at a wedding to the politically well-connected. You do not empower the poor and marginalised by changing the colour of the new bourgeois from white to black. What Zimbabwe needs, and needs urgently; is a complete dismantling of this bourgeois mentality whereby people across the racial and political divide want to accumulate wealth as an end in itself. The unscrupulous pursuit of personal wealth, across the political divide, has become the new Albatross around the nation’s neck.
This greedy and rapacious inclination towards personal aggrandisement, if left unchecked, will very quickly drive Zimbabwe to the realms of failed states. Once again I ask: why are we poor in the land of plenty? Chiadzwa diamond fields, if properly exploited, can easily rake in US$2 billion into the national fiscus every month. Where is the wealth from the Chiadzwa diamonds going? We shouldn’t shout about indigenisation and empowerment when we cannot even account for the God-given wealth at Chiadzwa. Civil servants earn a pittance every month but the diamond fields of Chiadzwa are oozing with God-given wealth. Can someone please tell me what exactly is going on in this great country called Zimbabwe?
Lest readers miscontrue my point, I am not by any stretch of the imagination suggesting that people should not aspire to be wealthy. No. Not at all. As a small boy growing up at Mushayavanhu Business Centre in Gutu, I always admired businesspeople whose shops and businesses were thriving. I make no apology for stating that I would like to be rich, yes, very rich, but then I despise people who plunder and steal the nation’s resources. I hate looters and thieves with a passion. Similarly, I am fascinated and extremely motivated by the stories of women and men who have worked their socks off in order to be wealthy.
If we adopt an indigenisation and empowerment policy that merely seeks to grab wealth from the whites and dish it out freely to blacks and other people of colour then we are heading towards the end of days, a real Armageddon. We did the same with land, and what has become of our land ”revolution”? We have created a nation of thousands of struggling peasant farmers who can hardly fend for themselves. Instead of empowering our people by identifying those who had a passion for farming and then adequately training and capacitating them, we chose to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach.
Every black Zimbabwean was classified as a potential commercial farmer and the ”results” are there for everyone to see. From being a net exporter of food and Southern Africa’s breadbasket, in a very short ten years we degenerated to become a basket case, a net importer of food and a country that survives on handouts from donors. Some amongst us will argue that Zimbabwe is in this perilous state because of ”sanctions” imposed by Britain and her Western allies. What a blue lie. Sanctions … what sanctions?
The time to re-focus and re-design our indigenisation and empowerment trajectory is now. We have to introspect and stop treating the empowerment issue as a simplistic electioneering gimmick. This is a matter of life and death. We blundered big time with the emotionally-charged, violent and chaotic so-called land reform programme. A repeat exercise is not an option. Once bitten twice shy.
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