Beeg lobbies for wealth redistribution
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 17 March 2011 14:14
THE Indigenisation and empowerment regulations compelling foreign-owned
companies to dispose 51% interest to black Zimbabweans have generated
immense debate both within and outside government. This controversial
national policy has resulted in the proliferation of lobby groups that
include Upfumi Kuvadiki, an organisation believed to be linked to the Zanu
PF youth league. This week Zimbabwe Independent Senior Business Reporter,
Bernard Mpofu spoke to Norest Marara, the executive chairman of the newly
formed Broad-based Economic Empowerment Group (Beeg), a trust registered
last November with a view to push equitable redistribution of wealth.
Marara is also the national secretary of the Indigenous, Freight and
Shipping Agencies Association of Zimbabwe.
Below are excerpts of the interview.
Mpofu: What inspired you to come up with this concept?
Marara: What we realised is that after the government came up with the Act
and the subsequent indigenisation and empowerment regulations, a lot of
debate was generated. So this being a law, we felt that there was need to
support the law. Secondly, there were quite a lot of things that were
happening, which motivated us into joining the debate. For example, the
issue of shareholding thresholds that were in the regulations generated a
lot of interest. We also looked at the history of this country to see how
the blacks were treated by the white minority government, how they were
participating in the economy and what our government did after independence.
The most important thing was the history of lobby or fundamental pressure
groups that were advocating for economic empowerment. Most, if not all of
them, were looking at the narrow picture. They were making noise without
advocating for the empowerment of everyone who was interested or who should
benefit economically. In our view, broad-based economic empowerment should
benefit people in all sectors of the economy. It seems only leaders of these
organisations have benefited from the advocacy activities.
Mpofu: Debate on indigenisation and empowerment in Zimbabwe seems to be
evolving around political positions. As Beeg, where do you stand in this
whole debate?
Marara: Ours is a purely business perspective. We do not stand anywhere when
it comes to politics. Our organisation should cover all Zimbabweans
regardless of their political affiliations. We also think that the
government of the day should treat indigenisation and empowerment as a
national policy and not as a political exercise.
Mpofu: If you were to meet the Youth Development, Indigenisation and
Economic Empowerment minister, what’s one message relating to this policy
you would relay to him?
Marara: For starters, we would commend him for pushing this policy. We think
he has done a good job in bringing this subject to the fore. We would want
to seek clarification from the minister on the misunderstanding and
confusion surrounding the implementation of the empowerment regulations.
This, in our view, has left some youths and would-be business people feeling
that indigenisation is about taking over what already exists.
Mpofu: In your view, what section of the Indigenisation and Empowerment Act
do you feel should be revisited or amended?
Marara: We feel that there is nothing very bad about the law but the problem
is on implementation. Again it is our view that the 51% threshold across all
sectors is very high. I would want to believe that not all information
gathered from sectoral committees set up by government to advise on these
regulations agreed on the same threshold. We are not sure how far they have
gone but as far as we know most of them have completed that task but we are
yet to get the findings from these committees. We feel that what is
important is to have a good working environment for business to thrive in.
We also believe that a blanket approach to all sectors is not sustainable.
Mpofu: How does one subscribe to your group?
Marara: What we have agreed as a trust is that for one to be our member,
they have to pay a nominal fee and regular subscriptions. The fees are yet
to be agreed upon but whatever fee is going to be charged, it has to be
nominal because we are talking about upcoming businesspersons, people with
the desire to run their own companies. If it’s a business we expect that
business to pay some form of subscription that will not be punitive
considering that our economy has been struggling for a very long time.
Mpofu: Do you see yourself meeting your outreach targets with such nominal
fees that you have alluded to? Who else is funding you?
Marara: We will need to approach the relevant ministries — the Ministry of
Finance and the Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment ministry.
We know there is an empowerment fund that was set up by government and it is
our hope that part of this fund would be set aside to organisations such as
ours.
Mpofu: How many people or organisations have subscribed to your group?
Marara: We registered this trust on November 12 2010, so we are still
setting up our systems. We are in the process of setting up our structures
and approaching various groups that we intend to be working with. It is work
in progress and we will be advising in due course.
Mpofu: One of the biggest criticisms of indigenisation in Zimbabwe is
funding. So would you see government funding an exercise that would lobby
against its policy?
Marara: To correctly answer your question, the Broad-based Economic
Empowerment Group is there to complement and support government in its
endeavor to empower citizens. So we don’t think government will dent our
efforts because we are going to be speaking maybe quite unfavourably
towards their policies. We understand that US$5 million was set aside for
indigenisation in the last budget. We also hope to get support from business
because they may immensely benefit from our activities.
Mpofu: What are your top priorities over the next six months?
Marara: Firstly, we need to have our secretariat up and running because we
have come a long way in trying to register this trust. We also need to
approach government, business and all the other groups that we feel we need
to work with to ensure success of our cause.
Mpofu: Are there any laws or structures in place that you feel inhibit
locally-owned freight and shipping companies from growing?
Marara: Most barriers have been broken as seen by an increase in our
membership. We have, over the years, engaged the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority
because we had problems. They did not know who we were at first. They
understood us and they said we need competition in this industry. We also
want to push for the participation of local shipping companies in doing
bigger government jobs. We also want to push government to put in place laws
which grant a quota of all government tenders to indigenous shipping
companies.
Mpofu: Who is Norest Marara?
Marara: I was born and bred in the rural areas. The late Peter Pamire, who
is one of the pioneers of indigenisation in this country, is my role model
because as I grew up he would visit our rural home because we hail from the
same village. I always had this feeling that one day I would be like him.
After completing my secondary education I was employed in the shipping and
customs clearance industry where I worked for a couple of years. We then
found out that we could start up our own companies after realising
opportunities in this sector.
We registered our company in 2000 when the economy began to show signs of
contraction and things were not rosy.
Things were bad, really bad but I did not lose hope. We started again and
since then business has been on an upward trend. The formation of the
inclusive government has also seen our business maintaining this upward
trend.