Investment policy must be reviewed

PRESIDENT Mnangagwa seems to be very accommodative as far as economic issues are concerned. It looks like he has a receptive mind unlike his predecessor Robert Mugabe. From what I'm seeing it may take us only 12 months to have a complete economic turnaround in this country. I was going through today's herald print out which clearly indicated that ED travelled with experts to Davos World Economic Forum (WEF) summit. This is a good start. I earlier on indicated this print out which is today's paper in my economic outline which I submitted for review. Let's not oppose the President for the sake of opposing, we need to appreciate such moves, so that we can build our nation with collective ideas. There are some issues that I will highlight in my next paper which can hinter progress in our economic turnaround in Zimbabwe. We have too many people flocking Harare for investments deals, are these people genuine? What do they offer? Do they have capital or they just want to exploit our natural resources? What are they bringing on board?

Are These Genuine Investors?

There are so many people who came and disguised as investors and if you remember very well Grace Mugabe was involved in a serious fight with some lebanism guys who disguised as investors and they defrauded both Grace and the state. We don't want history to repeat itself, we want genuine people with genuine history. President Mnangagwa must safeguard his integrity jealously by making sure our country is not duped in these factious deals. Yes we have a crisis in our country but let us be cautious with some of the people who come to Zimbabwe and pretend to be investors when in their own country they are serious criminals. Honestly how can an individual buy a ring worthy 1.5 million in exchange of properties and minerals from our country? Thanks to Zimbabwe DEFENCE Force for taking this operation restore legacy, by now our country was going to be totally dry because of these criminals who were involved in dubious deals. We must be careful about these investors. My suggestion is the ministry of Foreign Affairs must do a stern job and screen these individuals before they dupe our country. I remember vey Godfrey Masimirembwa he was also involved in other shady deals with some investors and this tarnished the image of our country. We want clean paper work, with proper legal frame work before any investment is processed.

Processing Company Registration

It is very expensive to process a company in Zimbabwe, and it is Zimbabwe that is losing a lot from so many leakages. Most investors will prefer to engage themselves in dubious and mischievous acts because of tightened laws that are not even necessary. I urge Zimbabwe Government to take this seriously by scrapping all unnecessary laws that hinder progress in economic development. Why would processing a company registration take 1 month? Remember we are not the only country with opportunities. I have checked with company registration Act and they are charging $250.00 for registration, and is it worth? In Zambia registering a company is $20.00 or 200 kwacha and my question is why we are so selfish like that? We don't know how to fetch business and we are losing a lot of business because of this. At the same time I also recommend that for every foreigner to open a business in Zimbabwe he/she must partner with a Zimbabwean and by doing that you will promoting local skills and safeguarding our interests.

Partnering With Global Community

It is important that we are at a critical time of economic growth projections and it is important to court the outside world with caution. It won't take Zimbabwe, 24 months to grow our economy if we are serious. We have platinum, gold reserves, coal, chrome and steel, and what is our problem? If I may ask what is really troubling us? I thought if we do the right thing and we have clear investment policy there is no reason for us to be having headache over this economy. We have so many big guys such as Anglo-American, Dangotte business, we have so many big guys such as Motsepe in SA, and so why can't have these guys on board and here what they offer. From my understanding, Cyril Ramaphosa is an established business man and possibly the incoming South Africa President, Zimbabwe should take that opportunity by establishing genuine relations so that we can gave economic gains. The problem is our ministers can never be trusted, even some Zanu PF officials were busy asking for protection fees from different investors and duping many companies and this does not paint a good picture. I was listening to one local business man at Sheraton Hotel on Friday where he was addressing business community, I was very disappointed when he alluded to my point that one minister asked for a 25% bribe before he could sign anything and this is dubious. We still have some of the ministers in the Government who were doing that.

Labour Policy Review

Most Chinese nationals were abusing most locals in return of cheap labour. The ministry of Labour should quickly look into that. Most local personnel were being abused and the Government led by Robert Mugabe did nothing about it because they were receiving kickbacks and bribes from those foreign nationals and this is not good. There must be a review on code of conduct, labour rules and laws and at the same time the parameters of how to treat locals. They must make sure that 60% of all jobs must benefit the local content, and also 10% of their revenue must go to local communities. 5% must go to youth and women empowerment. We can't mortgage our country to foreigners. Point blank, the reason why we can't implement this , it is because of these chefs, ministers, MPs are involved in shady deals with these criminals and siphoning millions of dollars to offshore accounts at the expense of more than 80% of graduates sleeping in pavements and selling airtime. All deals should be reviewed, for interest sake.

Legal Implications of All Deals

Are we involving lawyers in these deals or we just signing them for the sake of singing? Every week during Mugabe's reign you would see headlines, ZIMBABWE SIGNS MEGA DEALS", my question is where the results to show the genuiness of these deals are? Where these deals mend for Zimbabwe or it was for few elements within the G40 cabals who were looting through these purported investors? I suggest, the ministry of Justice should do a stern job before any deals are implemented these deals should be made public to everyone and allow a period of at least 14 days to allow public debate and parliament to scrutinize these deals before approval. In fact these deals should be approved by parliament. Then paper work should be done by a respected judge and two more independent lawyers so that we can have genuine deals and safeguarding our natural resources. We lost billions of dollars in Chiadzwa because of these dubious characters. Most people entered into criminal activities taking advantage of Mugabe's advanced age to dupe our country.

Tinashe Eric Muzamhindo writes in his personal capacity as the Head of Southern Institute of Policy Analysis and Research – SIPAR TRUST, which is responsible for policy analysis and research. He is also an academic and researcher. He holds a BA, MA from Solusi University, and he also holds a Masters of Development Studies from University of Lusaka, Zambia. He is currently enrolled at University of KwaZulu Natal University in South Africa (PHD in Development Studies). He is also an adviser to many financial and political institutions within and outside Zimbabwe. He can be contacted at southerninstitutepar@gmail.com