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Biti speaks on what JUICE is all about
21 Jan 2013 at 17:34hrs | Views
The following is an extract of an interview where the Movement of Democratic Change Secretary General Tendai Biti spoke on what JUICE is all about and what the people of Zimbabwe should expect once it is translated into reality. In this particular extract Biti focuses on the need to expand the national cake so that all Zimbabweans can benefit from it and not just a few in Zanu-PF.
Tendai Biti: The starting point is to recognize fundamentally that Zimbabwe is a very small economy, less than 3% of the entire SADC economy with a mere budget of US$3.8 billion and Southern Africa's 3rd smallest economy after Lesotho and Swaziland, nominal GDP about US$11 billion so the cake is very small.
The challenge is how do we expand the cake. The point of departure between MDC and Zanu PF is that Zanu-PF starts from the starting point that let's distribute this tiny economy which is a rat, lets distribute this tiny rat to over 14 million people.
The MDC's position is that fundamentally, let's expand this economy, let's have supply side reform that expands the cake so that it becomes an elephant. And in that way, we can have more economic players than when you have a tiny population participating.
The problem we have with current Indigenisation Programme to the extent that it's not nationalisation as nobody is getting shares for free. You have to buy them. And in a situation where the per capita income of the average Zimbabwean is US$370.00, and in a situation where 85% of the people are living below the poverty datum line it means only a very few people, a tiny elite can afford to buy shares in Barclays bank, Zimplats, so the Zanu-PF model becomes predatory accumulation from the rich to the rich its not empowerment its an elite predatory transfer.
The challenge is how do we expand the cake. The point of departure between MDC and Zanu PF is that Zanu-PF starts from the starting point that let's distribute this tiny economy which is a rat, lets distribute this tiny rat to over 14 million people.
The MDC's position is that fundamentally, let's expand this economy, let's have supply side reform that expands the cake so that it becomes an elephant. And in that way, we can have more economic players than when you have a tiny population participating.
The problem we have with current Indigenisation Programme to the extent that it's not nationalisation as nobody is getting shares for free. You have to buy them. And in a situation where the per capita income of the average Zimbabwean is US$370.00, and in a situation where 85% of the people are living below the poverty datum line it means only a very few people, a tiny elite can afford to buy shares in Barclays bank, Zimplats, so the Zanu-PF model becomes predatory accumulation from the rich to the rich its not empowerment its an elite predatory transfer.
Source - Byo24News
