Kasukuwere’s Indigenisation Kills – Bennett
By Business Reporter
Published: December 6, 2012
The MDC-T party’s economic policy, known as Jobs, Upliftment, Investment,
Capital and Environment (Juice), officially launched in Harare by party
leader and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai last week, has taken a new twist
with the party labelling ZANU PF’s indigenisation drive an angel of death.
The MDC-T party’s JUICE is expected to serve as a working alternative to
Zanu PF’s indigenisation policy spearheaded by Indigenisation Minister
Savior Kasukuwere at a time when the latter described Juice as a “stale
plan”. MDC-T’s spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora has in turn labelled
Kasukuwere a “perennial failure.”
This week, the MDC-T party’s ambassador to the United Kingdom took stage to
further ambush Kasukuwere’s policy saying that ‘it kills.’
Below is his critique:
Friends, Zanu-PF is making a lot of noise at the moment about
indigenisation. But understand this: indigenisation kills.
‘That is an extreme statement’, I hear some of you thinking. Yet I am not
exaggerating. Indigenisation kills because it places national wealth in the
hands of a few and takes it out of the hands of the many.
Indigenisation Kills – Roy Bennett
This money should be going to places like our hospitals. If you have a loved
one who has died because of inadequate medical facilities, it is because the
money that should be going to Treasury is being stolen before it gets there.
Zimbabwe is a rich country, but the wealth is not being used for
development. Where there is rule of law, companies are taxed and the
proceeds are used to maintain public services.
Sadly, the nation’s wealth is currently being carved up and fed to the
Zanu-PF patronage machine. I am not against some monies going to local
community trusts. But even here the lion’s share must go to the Treasury so
that it benefits Zimbabwe as a nation.
And there must be full transparency at every step of the way. The
beneficiaries at local level must be known to all and the way the money is
spent locally must be accounted for. Likewise, company revenues must be
known and they must be seen to be paying all taxes that are owed.
We cannot have a situation where Zanu functionaries get in a smokey room
with target companies and cut deals whose details are hidden. This is theft.
As we speak, billions of dollars are being taken out the back door. Billions
that could be used to heal our people, to heal our economy, to breath life
and hope into our nation. – Roy Bennett