Zimbabwe is a broken society, says Moyo

Former Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) president Busisa Moyo has said Zimbabwe is now a broken society due to lack of unity and dialogue.

He accused authorities of introducing policies without consulting stakeholders and the people.

"Zimbabwe is not broke but broken, we owe $11,2 billion, we  owe everyone," the United Refineries chief executive told delegates at a business breakfast meeting at City Pentecostal Assembly church in Bulawayo this week.

He said "we are broken in our resolve to solve our problems, our dialogue is broken, and we bring out Statutory Instruments without consulting people".

"Our unity is broken and it is difficult to move without unity," Moyo added.

Busisa, who ironically did not disagree with authorities during his two-year tenure at the helm of CZI — Zimbabwe's largest industry body, did not take prisoners in his address, as he also took a swipe at the Zimbabwe Republic Police.

"We have police with many spikes on our roads and for that reason we won't get tourists, in tourism you don't have to do many things, you just have to open up," he said.

This comes as various stakeholders in the country — including MPs, business people, tourists and government officials — have complained about the countless roadblocks being mounted by the police along all highways and roads.

A recent visitor exits survey of nearly 40 000 foreign tourists revealed that nearly 60 percent of the visitors were harassed by the police at roadblocks in 2016.

"We need to have conversation between businesses, government, civil society and labour because each of them has a solution for each other. Our implementation will not work without dialogue," Moyo said.

The affable business executive said it was disheartening to note that Zimbabwe was failing to take advantage of its huge balance sheet for economic revival.

"Zimbabwe is in the top 10 of the world's largest platinum producers. We are one of the few countries that produce steel in the world. We have 16 million hectares of agricultural land and 4 million hectares of arable land. We are a blessed country and we simply need to work together," he said

"Industry in Zimbabwe must not die. We have a legacy of manufacturing and we shall not shut down," he added.

City Pentecostal Assembly church head of business ministry, Josephine Tityiwe, concurred with Moyo and pointed out a number of issues that need to be resolved before Zimbabwe's economy can be revived.

"Our country's industry is virtually dead, especially in manufacturing and engineering fields, besides agriculture itself.

"This means we are not exporting much to other countries to generate income, we are virtually importing almost everything such that it is now expensive for us to continue purchasing the United States dollar," she said.

Tityiwe also noted that there were some unscrupulous business people who are exacerbating the current cash crisis by holding on to cash.

"Now we are virtually cashless and we may end up needing POS machines everywhere.

"People's confidence in the banking system is waning away because when you choose to bank your money the truth is that it only depreciates by day which is very."