Search this site powered by FreeFind

Quick Link

for your convenience!

Human Rights, Youth Voices etc.

click here


 

For Information Concerning the Crisis in Darfur

click here


 

Northern Uganda Crisis

click here


 

 Whistleblowers Need Protection

 


Park the bus

Zimbabwe News letter
February 13, 2010

We all wondered what would happen when there were no more farms left to grab and this week we got the answer. It's not diamonds as we thought, those are undoubtedly destined only for the very deep, velvet lined pockets of the really big wigs. It's the companies and businesses that are next.

After a year of appeals, conferences and seminars to try and attract investors back to Zimbabwe, everything was wasted in a single stroke this week. A new regulation has just been gazetted requiring that all local and foreign owned companies must hand over at least 51 per cent ownership to "indigenous" Zimbabweans. Multiple thousands of companies are going to be affected and economists predict that many local industries will be forced into bankruptcy.

An article in the UK Daily Telegraph quotes an expert who explains the implications in simple language that anyone can understand: "Daniel Ndlela, Zimbabwe's most eminent regional economist said: "There will be no foreign investment into Zimbabwe. Why would anyone come into Zimbabwe with $100 and be left with $49? ... those who might have invested in Zimbabwe will now never come."

This new regulation does not just affect foreign companies but also those belonging to Zimbabweans whose skin happens to not be black. It affects men and women who were born here, went to school and university here, built homes and businesses here and have lived in Zimbabwe all their lives - people who know no other country but Zimbabwe.

Standing chatting to a young "indigenous" Zimbabwean one evening this week he said to me:
"It shames me to say that nowadays if you are white you are always in the wrong. Even if you are in the right, if you are white, you are wrong."
"Like it was for blacks before 1980?" I suggested.
He laughed and said :"I don't know, I wasn't even born then!"
We slapped hands in that Zimbabwean way of sharing a good laugh and changed the topic.

We've just heard that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is talking about elections in April next year. "Park and proceed" is what the PM is saying. Everyone knows that the endless stalling and so called negotiations between Zanu PF and the MDC are never going to be resolved. As MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said this week: " We don't want to keep Zimbabweans in suspense and anxiety. We are holding everyone to ransom."

They are indeed because all we want to do is get on with our lives, change, improve, prosper and stop going backwards. So lets park that rusty old bus and proceed. What a good idea.

Home Books Photo Gallery About David Survey Results Useful Links Submit Feedback