I crafted 2,2m jobs policy: Zhuwao

via I crafted 2,2m jobs policy: Zhuwao – DailyNews Live 10 November 2015 by Farayi Machamire

HARARE – Youth and Indigenisation minister Patrick Zhuwao has claimed credit for crafting a hollow Zanu PF election promise of delivering 2,2 million jobs which has come to naught.

A document titled the Zimbabwe Agenda for a Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZimAsset), details plans to create 2,2 million jobs within five years, the sale of bonds, securitisation of remittances, re-engagement with international finance institutions and the creation of special economic zones.

President Robert Mugabe, who won a July 2013 election to extend his three-and-half decades in power, is struggling to create the jobs amid rapid de-industrialisation. The ruling administration has also failed to revive an economy that shrank by 40 percent between 2000 and 2008 after the seizure of white-owned commercial farms slashed exports, inflation surged to a world record and relations with the International Monetary Fund were severed.

In the face of high unemployment and rising poverty, the jobs promise was the backbone of assurances given by Mugabe in the run up to the hugely-disputed 2013 elections .

But Mugabe’s nephew, remains adamant the jobs promise will be fulfilled.

“I come from a political party which is led by a president who went to an election on the back of a promise of creating two million 265 thousand jobs, others may say two million jobs but I know the figure exactly because somewhere along the way I may have been part of writing that particular promise,” Zhuwao said during the launch of Start-up of the year by Total last week.

“That promise will be kept,” Zhuwao said.

Observers say the ruling party’s promise to create 2,2 millions jobs is increasingly looking like a pipe dream if the latest retrenchment statistics are anything to go by. Official figures from government show that close to 4 610 companies have shut down in the past four years, resulting in over 55 000 job losses, forcing the majority of employees into a life of vending.

In the foreword to the 129-page ZimAsset document, which details a five-year plan stretching to 2018 for the economy, Mugabe said: “My government has formulated a new plan. The plan is designed to enable Zimbabwe to achieve economic growth and reposition the country as one of the strongest economies in the region and Africa.”

Meanwhile, Zhuwao threatened to takeover Total — a French multinational integrated oil and gas company and one of the six “supermajor” oil companies.