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BY KUDZAI CHIMHANGWA
ZIMBABWE’S obsession with protecting its “sovereignty” has hampered the uptake of private public partnership (PPPs) projects and slowed down efforts to privatise loss-making parastatals, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara (pictured) has said.
Mutambara, whose brief includes spearheading PPPs, told a productivity conference organised by Proficiency Consulting in Harare last week, that government’s reluctance to privatise loss-ma-king parastatals was illogical.
“We are grappling with the ownership doctrine there- fore uptake (of PPPs) has been very slow,” Mutambara said.
He said government was more concerned about the retention of strategic institutions in the electricity, water and transport sectors among others instead of promoting investment.
The robotics expert said the mindset only served to stifle productivity in the economy as key utility services remain in the hands of government. “Zesa, NRZ, Air Zimbabwe are all underperforming, how can that be sovereignty?”
The country, which needs up to US$10 billion for key infrastructure development, has been struggling to get investment due to a protracted political impasse that forced multilateral and bilateral agencies to withdraw aid.
A number of hospitals, schools, roads, bridges, tunnels, railways, water and sanitation plants dotted throughout the country have not been upgraded and are collapsing gradually.
Paul Mavima, the principal director, said inland PPP projects had been more difficult to undertake compared to those at border posts.
He said the upgrading of the Beitbridge Border post was being successfully undertaken through a concession with a Mauritian company.
A concession bestows the private operator with some responsibility for asset main- tenance and improvement.
“Right now progress is at an advanced stage with regard to Forbes Border post,” Mavima said.
“Feasibility studies have not yet been concluded in some of the projects. No investor, for instance would be willing to part with US$5 billion in a project that they are not sure of.”
PPPs generally involve the transfer of risk from the government to the private sector.
Mavima said that the launch of a PPP unit in government and guidelines have been scheduled for this month adding that the issue of legislation might pose as the biggest hurdle.
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