JOHANNESBURG Zimbabwe and neighbouring South Africa are expected by end of this month to sign a vital agreement guaranteeing protection of private investment after the parties agreed on the wording of the pact, a top Harare official has said. (Pictured: Zimbabwe Finance Minister Tendai Biti)Speaking during a session of the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town, Zimbabwe Finance Minister Tendai Biti said the agreement, initially scheduled to be signed in April in Polokwane, had to be delayed because of land ownership concerns arising out of Zimbabwe’s land-reform process.
Biti said after his meeting with South African Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies on Thursday there was now “an understanding” on the wording of the clause. “The principle, basically, that was at play, was what is the application of the (agreement) in respect of land that was acquired in terms of the (Zimbabwe) land-reform programme.
“I think the South Africans were generous to accept that the land reform has happened. But actualising that into a legal phrase was the problem. I’m quite sure that that agreement should be signed before the end of June 2009,” Biti said.
South Africa, the regions biggest economic power and which facilitated power-sharing negotiations between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, has offered to make credit lines worth R2.75 billion available to Zimbabwe in a bid to help its troubled neighbour recover from a decade of acute economic recession and humanitarian crisis, but this would not happen without the agreement.
Similarly, companies, including First National Bank and Netcare, would only move in once the agreement was signed, Biti said. South African mining magnate Patrice Motsepe in April led a delegation from Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) to Zimbabwe and called for firm guarantees and policy consistency from the Harare authorities to ensure foreigners investing in Zimbabwe do not end up losing their properties.
Several foreign-owned companies have pulled out of Zimbabwe over the past decade, galled by Mugabes controversial policies, including the seizure of white-owned farms to resettle blacks, which have called into question Harares commitment to uphold property rights.
Mugabe who often accuses foreign-owned businesses of plotting with his Western enemies to bring down his government and externalising foreign currency earnings has also rattled foreign investors by threatening to force them to sell controlling stake to indigenous blacks.
But the new power-sharing government is on drive to woo back foreign investors and repair strained relations with the West as it battles to end an unprecedented economic and humanitarian crisis seen in growing unemployment, acute shortages of food and hard cash, amid an outbreak of killer diseases such as cholera and anthrax.
Earlier, Zimbabwe Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara told the same session that Zimbabwe’s power-sharing government was reforming its role to be an enabler and facilitator, leaving the private sector to be the “doers”. “We must partner with the private sector,” said Mutambara, acknowledging that government could not provide infrastructure, such as roads, telecommunications and electricity, on its own.
Mutambara, who leads a faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party that broke away from Tsvangirais main group, said government owned parastatals were in a dire state, or under-performing badly. “We are saying, as a government, we are no longer keen on owning 100 percent of a rat. It’s better to own 10 percent of an elephant.
“We are prepared to partner with the private sector in Zimbabwe, partner with the private sector in South Africa, the region, and globally,” he said.
Post published in: Economy