via Zim Willing to Engage Foreign Firms on Empowerment Law by Blessing Zulu VOA Zimbabwe
Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa says the government is willing to negotiate its empowerment laws with foreign companies, back-tracking on threats by President Robert Mugabe that there is no turning back on his policy to force foreign firms to surrender 51 percent stakes to blacks in the country.
Chinamasa made the remarks Thursday in a re-engagement meeting with European Union ambassadors in Zimbabwe. The finance minister also wanted to sell the new government’s economic blue print – the Zimbabwe Agenda for Socio-Economic Transformation (ZIMPEST) to the diplomats.
Government sources said the government has been alarmed by the worsening economic crisis as companies continue to close shop following the July 31 elections. The country is also struggling to attract foreign investment.
Indigenization Minister Francis Nhema told VOA Studio 7 that he has started engaging individual companies in a process that might take months to yield results.
European Union ambassador to Zimbabwe Aldo Dell Arricia said the meeting was a walk in the right direction.
Former Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries president Callisto Jokonya said engagement is crucial for both parties.
COMMENTS
All zanu pf knows is lying shame.
LEGALISED THEFT!
Is there an indigenization law on the books? If so, isn’t Chinamasa exercising unconstitutional executive powers by ammending the law on a client-by-client basis?
Oops, wait a minute–ZANU, the spit-on-the-constitution party.
Zanu pilfering party. A law unto themselves. When are we going to wake up to these mugs.
Not too long after his “landslide” electoral victory Mugabe told us th 51% indigenous ownership was too low and needed to be revised upwards. What had changed sekuru?
Beware, the last Indig Minister also made pronouncements and signed agreements. They are not being honoured! What MasterChina says means that he is moving his lips, nothing more.
Where in the world have you ever heard of such a stupid idea. This is economical suicide committed by these ZANU pf sycopath leaders who think diesel can come out of a rock. Who in his right frame of mind can invest in a country with such policies.
who in there right mind whould want to invest in a country owned by ZANU-PF they have run the country into the ground and still continue to do so
ONLY THOSE WHO TAKE DIAMONDS FOR FREE AS AN EXCHANGE AND PAY NO TAXES TO THE COUNTRY.THESE POLITICIANS SHOULD BE SODOMIZED IN PUBLIC.
hahahahah, BMA, wanna be the doer mate?
NO MAN, PLEASE,I HATE THEM ALL.
As a rule you don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Racism, common sense, selfishness, greed, corruption and so on is a completely different story. We have to be smart at minimum. There is no screw without flirt. Correct ?
Zimbabwe is guilty of perpetuating this dictatorship. The middle class, who join the Central Intelligence Organisation, for example, in droves to buttress the oppression of Zimbabweans, are guilty. The greedy businesspersons, small traders and economic chancers we hear about every day who continue to seek political favour to gain an unfair advantage are also guilty of perpetuating a system that oppresses them. We have also seen how those that are in opposition politics and claim to represent the interests of those who want an outside have become persuaded and are now complicit in strengthening this tyranny. Most of us have, therefore, played a decisive role and in part created the very conditions that we continue to complain against and blame. Can a dictatorship such as this be dislodged through free and fair elections? Can our society destroy this pervasive and evil foundation from within? No, unless the international community aggressively intervenes because change can only be fuelled from outside our society.
In Zimbabwe, it has been created a persuasive and repetitive myth that only one man can be President for life; that only Zanu PF members can have access to new opportunities and lead a better life than most; that only those who are politically connected through birth, association or sheer audacity must have an advantage and be entitled unbridled access to the wealth of Zimbabwe. That only our “freedom” fighters can be heroes.
It will not be easy to change our circumstances or move our country into a modern democracy because we have been psychologically complicit in creating a social system that does not respect our own needs and aspirations. Our tyranny is manufactured by the people of Zimbabwe, for the people of Zimbabwe — that is the hardest fact to accept. You see, dictatorships can only arise and flourish where very specific conditions are met. Critical to an effective dictatorship are people with a low self-esteem and who have a victim mentality. People who believe it is outside them that change can emanate. In such instances, the political leadership must also meet these same conditions; they must have a destructive and incessant low self-esteem and must, therefore, put to good use all tools and forms of oppression to shield their egos and vulnerability.They must continually claim all that is good in society, and blame all that is bad on others. This works in arresting potential, stifling growth, spreading poverty and hopelessness so that citizens may remain complainants to a system that they abhor. Dictators mirror their low self-esteem on the society which they seek to oppress and in that society, must be those individuals who are willing to support that low self-esteem with theirs. A dictator must surround himself with praise singers and charlatans whose only interest is to see how they can benefit from the dictator. The dictator will then reward those who praise and fear him and incarcerate or injure those who refuse to do so.
The Zimbabwe voting system, whether you like it or not, has been on tribal basis. Shona vs Ndebele. So Shonas make the majority and hence Shonas have been in power ever since. MDC came and got a little bite of the Shona Vote and almost all of the Ndebele Vote. So this noise about Mugabe rigging is nonsense. We just need political maturity and for people to vote political parties on merit.
I am sick and tired of seeing skewed comments, by people who well know the mathematics of Zim politics.
Yes I do know there a few other minor tribes like the Tonga but we all know this lot is principled, no matter how much you try to bribe them.
A thief who steals and want to legitimise the loot is evil. They stole power, let them rule alone. European union or any one else should not help. They promised that no European should observe the elections, or observe their theft. So no one should observe how they govern too. Concession with ZANU PF should start with negotiations on free and fair elections next year. If they are to be helped, that will creat false impression of security. The next elestions they will still do the same and come back with more begging bowels.
hear hear I could not have said it better
Its surprising e gvt is shocked w e level of economic collapse that even a grade 2 drop out could foresee nema policies avo akadhakwa. Who would want to invest in a country he is assured time and agn kuti u wld not have control of that investment. Anyway what happened to e promised or is threatened increase to 100% indeginization that mugabe spewed time and agn be4, during and e “elections”
What Minister Chinamasa is doing to re-engage Western diplomats is commendable . Its unfortunate that we have people who have limited reasoning capabilities. If you have a misunderstanding with someone then you engage that someone so that you come to terms. Whats wrong with that? It is surprising to note that people who purport to be patriotic Zimbabweans, having been born and bred in this country continue to fuel a diplomatic offensive so that people continue to be on a warpath, creating an unstable environment in the country and wanting disorderliness in the body politic. We have to support this new political dispensation and work towards economic posperity, setting our selfish agendas aside for the good of our mother land. Accept defeaat you guys who lost in the July 31 elections so that you dedicate your time, energy, brains and resources on finding out why you lost the election and how you are going to win the next election slated for 2018. ZANU PF vigorously campaigned for the election and won resoundingly but legions of doom always want to discredit every election citing rigging as their most sticking and imagined excuse.
Engagement is very vital to both of us because we are not at war but gearing ourselves towards amicable diplomatic relations that has benefits to host countries and people in those countries including myself. When are going to realise that the western supremacy rhetoric should go to usher in a new dispensation of being equal in terms of each country’s soveregn status as an independent nation. Some Zimbos still hold the colonial legacy of considering western nations and their nationals as superior than others (sic. Why? We are all equal even before God and belong to different countries that enjoy territorial integrity on their own rights.