via Zanu PF MP blasts indigenisation policy – DailyNews Live 27 July 2014 by Chengetai Zvauya
HARARE – William Mutomba, Zanu PF legislator for Buhera North, has castigated government’s indigenisation policy saying it needs to be revised because it is retarding efforts to revive the economy.
Mutomba told the National Assembly on Thursday while debating the motion to revive the economy, that the policy was spooking investors.
Mutomba called for the wholesale revision of empowerment thresholds in the indigenisation policy.
“There is nothing wrong with the indigenisation law but it is the way we are promoting it which needs to be changed,” he said.
“We need to go back to the drawing board to see how best we can do it without disruption to our economy.
“Our policies are anti-investment. As far as foreign direct investment is concerned, we should look at our policies. We are running around looking for investors.
“We have our indigenisation policy of 51 percent and 49 percent. We are the ones who came up with that policy, never mind Zanu PF or MDC, but it is Zimbabweans that came up with the policy.
“The investor is bringing his or her own cash or funding, it is his or her capital that we are interested in. We want $5 million and we now say we want to control 51 percent of the $5 million?
“They are bringing in technology which we do not have and they are also bringing their expertise which we do not have, what else do we require?” he asked to wild applause from other lawmakers.
Mutomba said Indians and Chinese firms were pushing locals out of business.
“We have Indians and Chinese in the formal sectors, they are coming here to milk us,” Mutomba said.
“A lot of people including myself have been pushed out of business. I went to the ‘Chinese city’ near the National Sports Stadium and I entered two shops which are selling Chinese products and a few Zimbabweans products.
“I also wonder whether these Chinese have bank accounts here, maybe they are shipping the money they are making in this country to their country. This is criminal sabotage to the nation,” he said.
China has become one of the major investors in the country after Zimbabwe fell out with most Western countries.
He urged politicians to stop laying blame for the economic hardships on sanctions.
“We are experiencing sanctions in the country, the same way Ian Smith faced them too but he managed to bust them,” Mutomba said.
“We speak so much about sanctions without doing anything about it. Let us work together to end the sanctions.
“We need to first agree without being partisan whether MDC or Zanu PF without name calling. We should be thinking, we should have been able to bust the sanctions as was the case with Smith. We cannot just think of sanctions without thinking ideas to bust them.”
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