Chinamasa needs support

Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa is pressed between a rock and a hard place as he tries to revive the economy at a time his Zanu PF party is engaged in deadly and bloodletting factional fights to succeed President Robert Mugabe.

Over the past few months, the lawyer-cum-politician has been the most active of our ministers mending relations with multilateral lenders such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

In addition to renegotiating the country’s external debt — an albatross around Zimbabwe’s economy neck — Chinamasa is one of the few people in Zanu PF who are truly worried about the deteriorating economic conditions and has worked himself to implement robust economic reforms.

Since his appointment in 2013, Chinamasa has worked hard to meet with industry, investors and international economic advisors, and he has seen it fit to propose amendments to the controversial indigenisation policy — not for his own selfish end but to grow the national cake through increased foreign direct investment.

The indigenisation law, which was enacted in 2008 and forces foreign firms to cede at least 51 percent shareholding to locals, has been blamed for lack of investor appetite in Zimbabwe despite the country holding vast natural and human resources.

Cognisant of the need to boost government’s fast-depleting coffers, the Finance minister on Christmas Eve announced that all foreign companies that were yet to submit their indigenisation compliance proposals must do so by March 2016.

He further added that all foreign companies are required to comply with the law within five years — except in the capital-intensive energy sector, where companies can only comply after 20 years.

These amendment guidelines do not only make business sense but are crucial for the revival of the country’s moribund economy that is on a precipice of a devastating depression, last seen in the hyperinflationary period.

Hardly a day had passed when on Christmas Day, Indigenisation minister Patrick Zhuwao came out guns blazing against his Zanu PF and government colleague. In his wisdom, or clearly lack of it, the youthful minister said no reforms should be implemented on the controversial policy.

To add insult to injury, Zhuwao said foreign companies that are yet to comply with the empowerment regulations risk being kicked out of the country.

Such reckless statements from Cabinet ministers are not only dangerous to the economy but are one of the many reasons why we are in this mess that we find ourselves in — 35 years after independence.

The country’s quest for economic and political freedom has been hijacked by zealots who only think of lining up their pockets at the expense of the general populace.

Zimbabwe needs more people of Chinamasa’s calibre and less of Zhuwao if the country is to succeed in turning around its economic fortunes. Daily News editorial