Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment minister Saviour Kasukuwere has challenged Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to read the countrys indigenisation law to gain full appreciation of its operations before attacking it at public forums.
He just needs to read the law, said Kasukuwere in an interview on the sidelines of the handover of $100 000 cash and fishing permits by his ministry to four fishing co-operatives run by youths in Binga at the weekend.
However, Kasukuwere downplayed the spat between him and the Premier, but reiterated the indigenisation drive, which his Zanu PF party has adopted as its trump card ahead of general elections sometime soon, was irreversible.
There is no clash, Kasukuwere said amid laughter.
Tsvangirai and Kasukuwere have repeatedly clashed over implementation of the law which the MDC-T leader has described as akin to property grab.
The law requires foreign-owned firms to sell 51% stake to indigenous businesspeople. Recently, Tsvangirai urged the business community to ignore the order saying the government was reviewing the policy to make it more investor-friendly.
But Kasukuwere fired another salvo over the weekend, saying: I wonder why people want to challenge the law now. It passed through Parliament.
They should have raised their issues with Parliamentary committees. In as much as we will continue taking opinions, the law is not reversible and we are not going back on indigenisation.
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This money is part of the fruits of the indigenisation programme where locals should benefit from their own resources. We want to see you catching and packaging fish here in Binga and selling them as a finished product, he said.
We want to see you building lodges on the shores of the Zambezi River that would attract tourists in the area. We want the people of Binga to live like any other Zimbabwean in the rest of the country. In the future, if you want boats, we will assist you to get those boats.
Kasukuwere warned co-operatives against being used as fronts saying: We want you to utilise permits to your benefit. We do not want a situation where we will hear someone is now using those permits and you only get a percentage of the profits.
