…as investments elude Zimbabwe
zwnews.com Chief Reporter- Simba Moyo
President Robert Mugabe has been called to ignore his hero worshippers and bootlickers, and rather reshuffle, arrest his underperforming and corrupt ministers, if the country is to attract and benefit from foreign investors.
Contributing in parliament recently, after the tabling of a report that exposed the under hand dealings involving diamonds from the Marange fields, Norton Member of Parliament Temba Mliswa said Zimbabwe is failing to attract investments because of poor policies and corruption.
He accused Mugabe for failing to fire or arrest corrupt public officials because he enjoys being hero worshiped.
“The Executive includes His Excellency and the two Vice Presidents who should oversee the performance of those Ministers who have not had a reshuffle – I do not know for how long. The reason why people are not reshuffled is that they are constantly patronising His Excellency because they know that they have got crimes,” said Mliswa.
Mliswa said the country has not benefitted from investment opportunities because the government through its ministers is failing to play oversight roles by protecting national resources, respect property rights, but instead they are inclined to corruption.
Meanwhile, the country has over the years been filled with paper deals, with nothing on the ground.
When Mugabe visited China, he brought files and files of papers ‘Mega Deals’ from the world’s fastest growing economy, but all that eluded the Southern African country. The media went haywire with headlines ‘Zim, China sign mega deals running into billions of dollars, years down the line, nothing to show for the ‘Mega Deals.’
“Even the Chinese who we say are our all-weather friends are equally disappointed; the so-called all-weather-friends.
“If you see the Chinese people not wanting to do business with you, you are the worst economic nation ever because the Chinese can go anywhere but they are refusing to do business with Zimbabwe because of the diamonds corruption,” he said.
Be that as it may, when Africa’s richest person Aliko Dangote visited the country sometime last year, hopes were high that Zimbabwe will benefit, but the nation is failing to attract investments owing to weak policies and corruption.
As if that was not enough, the Zimbabwe Investment Authority is on record bragging that it has registered thousands worth of investment deals, but all that remained on paper with nothing on the ground. Rumours has it that both China and Dangote are investing somewhere else in Africa, land full of business opportunities.
In 2015 ZIA reported that Zimbabwe failed to materialise investments of US$400 million for two years in foreign direct investments (FDIs).
ZIA chief executive Richard Mbaiwa told a parliamentary committee in Harare sometime then, that the country continued to lag behind its regional peers such as Mozambique and Zambia whose FDI inflows had risen to $5 billion and $2 billion, respectively.
The country has been known for promulgating conflicting policy positions, with the indigenisation laws said to be not so friendly to investors. The government have however, maintained that its policies are not so harsh to foreign investors. Meanwhile, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa and captains of industry have declared that corruption has dented Zimbabwe’s possibilities to attract FDIs.
