Zanu PF is anti-indigenisation

By Ngoni Chimbalu

The dream of a flourishing economy driven by the blood and sweat of the indigenous will remain an appetising pie far away in the sky where no Zimbabwean can reach except in the realms of rhetoric propaganda as long as Zanu PF controls the arms of the state, the Judiciary, Legislature and the Executive.

The genesis of this quandary is the bastardised definition of the word indigenous which our next door comrades in the revolutionary party have skewed to mean anyone, a Zimbabwean or non-Zimbabwean who either carry the green and yellow party card or subscribe to the doctrine of the revolutionary party.

This has allowed some nationalities, Asians particularly to become indigenous Zimbabweans (miracle Zimbabweans maybe) and benefit from the high sounding indigenous policies enshrined in the manifesto crafted at shake shake house and ostracised some Zimbabweans who do not subscribe to the doctrine of sloganeering with a clenched fist, worse to those who do it with a an open palm dressed in red.

This discriminatory approach to indigenisation almost cost Zimbabwe a wonderful telecommunications service provider in the form of Econet had it not been for the timely intervention of Umdhala wethu, it almost cost us a million jobs which Econet created over the years.

It almost cost us a wonderful personality in the form of Strive Masiyiwa only because his fingers were too stiff to clench a fist and shout “pamberi”. Not so many were lucky to have their businesses saved by a royal intervention, many became casualties, notable among them being Mutumwa Mawere and James Makamba.

To the detriment of the nation, this policy protects and supports monumental failures like Philip Chiyangwa, Ignatius Chombo, Obert Mpofu, Gideon Gono and several other low lying pseudo farmers, pseudo industrialists, pseudo miners who are mercilessly siphoning national resources with a scotched earth policy mentality for at the back of their mind they fear soon accountability might see the day in Zimbabwe.

The Judiciary is manipulated to protect the “rightly aligned” no matter their capabilities or lack of, and punish those who chose to walk in the other avenue, no matter their capabilities. This has denied our nation from benefiting from the purported high literacy rate because opportunities are not being granted on the grounds of merit.

To think that in Zimbabwe, a fort of intelligent, disciplined, innovative and hardworking people, we have failed to resuscitate Zisco Steel, we have failed to run an organised efficient urban transport system, we have failed to run a single, just one railway network, we have failed to run our national airline, it is depressing.

The answer is no, we haven’t failed, but they have failed.

Ngoni Chimbalu is a political analyst who writes in his own capacity