Zanu PF-linked businessman Temba Mliswa yesterday blasted the indigenisation programme saying lack of accountability and insincerity on the part of government made it impossible to empower the majority.
Mliswa said government had failed to comply with the indigenisation laws by contracting foreign-owned firms.
“We have a problem with the way government is going with the indigenisation programme,” Mliswa said.
“Government is not complying with the law it has set.”
The Zanu PF district coordinating chairperson for Hurungwe was speaking at the launch of the Zimbabwe Economic Empowerment Council (ZEEC).
Mliswa was recently booted out of the Phillip Chiyangwa-controlled Affirmative Action Group (AAG).
He said his new outfit had been established to challenge government to be accountable to the majority.
Mliswa said ZEEC had also drawn membership from war veterans and ex-detainees whom he described as “paupers.”
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Youth, Indigenisation and Empowerment minister Saviour Kasukuwere, an AAG founder member and Zanu PF MP, is spearheading the indigenisation programme.
Critics including Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai have dismissed it as another Zanu PF project to line the pockets of people connected to the party.
Mliswa said the government had failed to walk the talk when it awarded contracts to Chinese companies mining diamonds in Marange.
“We are concerned that government is not entering into partnerships with local companies like in the building of tollgates, construction industry, construction of roads, the energy industry and in the mining sector where the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation entered into partnership with Chinese companies,” he said.
“If we want to work with whites, let us come out open and not dine with them in the dark and scold them during daytime.”
President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF have repeatedly referred to white businesspeople as enemies. Under the empowerment rules, all foreign-owned firms are required to cede 51% of their shareholding to indigenous Zimbabweans. Mliswa said there was no accountability in the sharing of the cake with some Zanu PF bigwigs grabbing everything.
“We are left with one big question- are diamonds a blessing or a curse? Where is the money going?
“We are empowering other African countries by importing food from them — from the white farmers we chased here — because we are not funding our own agricultural programmes,” he said. “The question now is — were we empowered by the land reform or disempowered?”
Zimbabwe, once known as the breadbasket of the region, is now importing food from neighbouring countries such as Zambia and Malawi.
