Indigenisation spearheaded by the wrong people

Columnists
I CAN describe it as a good law lacking timing, as a good law with wrong implementation, as a good law ready to be abused and as a good law spearheaded by the wrong people.

I CAN describe it as a good law lacking timing, as a good law with wrong implementation, as a good law ready to be abused and as a good law spearheaded by the wrong people.

So we all know vehicles are good inventions but if driven by wrong people they kill. We all know bars are good entertainment areas but if patronised by wrong people they become havens of all social ills and even murders.Marijuana is a good drug for some ailments but in the wrong hands it becomes a dangerous drug. To indigenise the economy is what we need to do. I wonder if indigenising Barclays Bank for instance will increase employment. I don’t think so! I don’t think everybody is cut out to be a business man. Why should companies be forced to sell their shares to certain people even if it is not in their business interests? We thought companies would be asked to cede the 51% to their workers since we all know that these workers are mostly indigenous black people. Even this law should also say all companies should not be wholly owned by an individual whether black or white but that 51% should be distributed.I heard Paddington Japajapa on Talking Business With Supa on ZTV saying the government should provide the funds to get the 51% stakes in the companies. So he needs the government to use taxpayers’ money to enrich him and his coterie of friends. Why does he not advocate for a fund (this should be a loan and repayable, not free like the tractors) from the government to be availed to every Zimbabwean wishing to go into business so that he/she starts his/her own business and grow it to be like Colgate, Lever Brothers, Olivine, Barclays Bank and the like. Let us face reality here; we had Trust Bank, a bank which even the worker was proud of. We have other banks which are operating well. These created wealth and employment so why should we try to grab Standard Chartered Bank? Next time when Supa Mandiwanzira wants to talk about some issues on business he should avoid these fly-by-night business people whose knowledge of business is about how many crates of beer are in his bottle store. Seriously speaking, these are not business people because anybody can just run a bottle store. When we talk about the country’s economy we need to talk about really business ventures. Bottle stores will sort themselves out because who does not know that most bottle stores are like tuck shops.We also see that most of these people who are trying to enforce empowerment laws have benefited unfairly and are the ones who have formed many indigenous pressure groups which they are using as vehicles of looting. Look how silent they were when Mutumwa Mawere’s empire was being annihilated; they were quiet when Nicholas Vingirai was being hounded out of the country. Did they say anything when Mtuli Ncube was abused?  I don’t think so because they had nothing to gain from them. Are these not indigenous people? I am worried that the ministers who are supposed to be making decisions on some of these issues will enforce laws that will put them in a good position to loot from foreign firms. The ordinary man/woman in the street will never benefit anything from these forced takeovers. We will keep being told of sanctions whilst the fat cats are enjoying.Did Strive Masiyiwa not start from scratch to rise to be one of the biggest business people in the country? He battled to be where he is now with no indigenous group helping him. We need such people with business acumen, not those who have hawkish eyes ready to pounce on other people’s chickens.We all know those in indigenous pressure groups have had a brush with the law or escaped the law due to friends in the higher echelons of power, because they are amassing and not creating wealth. They are there because they use hook and crook means and that is why most of their businesses are not growing.  Some of them bought companies to strip the assets and then repackaged them into tiny entities to sell to other people ending with engineering firms being turned into tuck shops. This indigenisation law should be revisited so that every Zimbabwean benefits.

Taruvinga Mashayamombe,Harare.