Indigenization, Lets Vote For Or…

Zimbabwe is a very wealthy nation but its people are some of the poorest in the world. Its people are the highest seekers of asylum in the world and are subject to many trials and tribulations. One does not need to be a rocket scientist to see that this is a gross injustice.

Over the last decade, Zimbabweans have been dragged from one social and economic hellhole to another by Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF.  In 2000 there were the famous land invasions where ZANU PF grabbed farms from white farmers in a chaotic uncoordinated way. Most of the people who grabbed farms, including senior ZANU PF officials who took most of the farms, knew nothing about farming and as a result, they destroyed farms and left many unemployed.

Zimbabwe's economy is agricultural based (over the last few year mining has been becoming more and more dominant) and so the collapse of farming meant the collapse of Zimbabwe's economy. Poor farming output meant fewer exports, fewer jobs, fewer revenues for the government and society as a whole. The land invasions also destroyed other industries like the manufacturing sector where many companies sold their products to the farmers or where they bought products from the farmers.

In 2005 there was the operation Murambatsvina where the ZANU PF ruled government destroyed people's houses and businesses. They destroyed many illegal housing and small business structures and gave their owners no meaningful alternatives or aid to obtain proper structures. The business structures had provided employment and had encouraged trade that added positive contribution to the whole economy. They created small economies within the economy, they kept the wounded manufacturing sector running and so their fall was the fall of the manufacturing sector.

Most of the people who had illegal housing structures are peasants who had been chased away from the farms during the land invasions. Most of them, together with the urban society, had voted for the then opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change, in 2002. ZANU PF used Operation Murambatsvina to punish the former farm workers and urban residents for voting for the MDC. ZANU PF cared about itself and did not care about the welfare of the nation as a whole. Hundreds of thousands were left homeless and helpless.

Then there was the man made ZANU PF inflation where ZANUPF printed money to finance its activities and the largely corrupt government in an irresponsible manner. The central, under the orders of Mugabe and ZANU PF, was printing and spending money Zimbabwe did not have or could back. Most of the money was used to buy foreign currency in the local market, a move that saw the emergence of flamboyant foreign currency dealers in the country's main city centers.

The central bank then used that money to buy fuel and sell it to ZANU PF officials practically for free, pay school fees for ZANU PF member's children who were studying in expensive foreign universities, buy cars ZANU PF officials amongst many other irresponsible unfair inconsiderate things that sent  Zimbabwe into future economic and social turmoil. Because of the inflation, like always, the people that suffered were the ordinary citizens of Zimbabwe. Many saw their savings and pensions amount to nothing because of the inflation. Every month, by the time people received their wages the wages amounted to nothing and could only buy a bar of soap and a bottle of cooking oil.

Using its destructive populist policies, ZANU PF tried to contain the inflation by slashing the prices of goods instead of containing its spending switching to the multi currency system that is currently in place. Most goods had been bought outside Zimbabwe using foreign currency not Zimbabwean dollars and hence many businesses were forced to sell their products at a value as low as 5% to their real value. This destroyed the retail industry, drove away investment and destroyed many people's lives, people who had worked hard for what they had.

Now there is Indigenization, a policy that will drive away many foreign investors. Under this policy, law, foreign owned companies are required to give up 51% of their stake to Zimbabweans and we all know that these stakes are going to be grabbed by ZANU PF. Under ZANU PF ownership, just like the farms, the companies will fall and other locally owned companies that depend on business from the foreign controlled companies will fall, there will be very high unemployment and Zimbabwe will be ruined. Fathers, mothers, sons and daughters will lose their ability to provide for their families. Zimbabwe will move closer to being another Somalia, even without war.

Everything ZANU PF does fits an equation; policy = more wealth for ZANU PF officials and the partisan army + poverty and pain for ordinary citizens. Before there can be any black empowerment, two questions have to be answered. Where is the land audit? And what are the diamonds doing for ordinary Zimbabweans?

Once the people see the success of the land invasions and the benefits of the diamonds, then maybe there could be a conversation about indigenization. Indigenization is just as important as choosing a president because it is going to shape the future of Zimbabwe drastically and as such, the people of Zimbabwe need to vote for it. First, like the constitution, they need to be educated on it by the government and independent organizations.

Continuing with the current plan for indigenization, a plan that is not the will of the people is a just cause for a demand of change of government; through the poverty it will create, like the effects of bullets,  many people will die, through hunger and through reduced social welfare. Indigenization let's draft it and let's vote for it or let's reject it.