Gono urges caution on empowerment
http://www.thedailynewszw.com/?p=28613
April 6, 2010
By Our Correspondent
HARARE – Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono on Monday maintained that the recently enacted empowerment regulations were susceptible to abuse by well-heeled officials.
His comments appear to have created tension with the architect of the regulations, Indigenisation minister Saviour Kasukuwere.
Gono, who was speaking during a tour of his Donnington Farm by visiting ANC Youth League president Julius Malema, railed against the empowerment regulations.
He and Kasukuwere have openly clashed over the controversial empowerment law.
After a tour of Gono’s massive farm supposedly to trumpet the land grab as a success story to the visiting ANC delegation, Gono delivered another unrestrained attack on the empowerment regulations.
The regulations seek to give foreign owned companies, including banks and mines, 45 days to submit proposals on how they plan to sell 51 percent of their shares to black Zimbabweans within the next five years.
“Honourable people,” said Gono; “be on the lookout for those who would want to be greedy; those who would use connections to get into factories. Let’s guard against vices that might draw us back. The process cannot benefit the same people who have benefited over the years.”
Kasukuwere fidgeted uncomfortably in his seat as Gono said this.
Gono first attacked the empowerment regulations in an interview with a local financial weekly, where he said he was against the “content, style and approach” of the policy.
Gono warned against farm-type “jambanja” (gang violence) this time around.
He was referring to President Mugabe’s land grab programme that saw prime farmland seized from white commercial farmers and redistributed to landless blacks, but with serious consequences on agricultural production and exports in the agro-based economy.
“We are all witnesses to what can inadvertently happen when that is allowed to take place and we cannot be a people who do not learn from yesterday’s implementation shortcomings,” Gono said in the interview.
Kasukuwere fought back, accusing Gono of proffering “megaphone advice” and “seeking relevance.”
Kasukuwere also accused Gono of shutting down indigenous-owned banks, saying the governor had no moral ground to lambast the empowerment regulations.
At Donnington Farm, Kasukuwere, who was chaperoning the visiting ANC delegation, cut a lonely figure. In his speech, the minister steered clear of commenting on the regulations.
Informed government officials say Kasukuwere enacted the regulations with the full support, if not encouragement of President Mugabe.
Prime Minister Tsvangirai has declared the regulations “null and void” because they were enacted without consultation with him as the global political agreement and Constitution Amendment No 19 prescribes.
The regulations also bypassed a Cabinet committee that looks at the legality of regulations before they are gazette.
But Kasukuwere said last week: “I am empowered to publish. When I became Minister of Indigenisation the Act was already there. What was I supposed to do, sit around and not gazette the regulations? I only consult when there is need.”
Mugabe himself has wondered why Zimbabweans would be opposed to a scheme that seeks to empower them.
But critics say the timing of the enactment of the regulations was out as they came as the country was desperately trying to attract foreign investors.
Observers say the regulations have dissuaded many investors, who have put plans to invest in Zimbabwe on ice.
Just last week, the German African Business Association in Hamburg and the German Southern African Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Johannesburg put on hold plans to bring German investors into Zimbabwe, describing the country as a “no go area” for foreign investors.