No to economic sabotage

After behaving all these months as if the 51-percent local ownership rule was non-negotiable, empowerment minister Saviour Kasukuwere and his mines counterpart Obert Mpofu have backtracked, telling a mining investment conference in Harare last week that no one would lose their licence to operate in Zimbabwe because of the indigenisation law.

The government, or to be more precise, the Zanu (PF) wing of the government that is behind the so-called indigenization campaign is, after all, willing to negotiate with foreign-owned companies. It says not everyone will be forced to surrender control of their businesses.

"We have no intention of canceling any licences. There are some negotiations taking place with some parties. No licence has been cancelled. We have no such intention," Mpofu told investors.

So why was it not made clear in the first place that the government was open to negotiations? Why create the impression that any foreigner who fails to cede a controlling stake in their business faced hefty fines, seizure of their company or even imprisonment?

Why did Mpofu and Kasukuwere repeatedly reject pleas by the Chamber of Mines to reduce empowerment thresholds for mining firms to 26 percent, with the rest made up of credits arising from corporate social investments?

And then, when we are done with this flip-flopping, we turn around and ask why no one wants to invest in Zimbabwe? Or blame so-called Western sanctions for dissuading investors from coming to our country?

Seriously, which foreigner, except those already with investments in Zimbabwe and therefore in a sense trapped here, would give a hoot about a country where the government behaves like this?

We have said it before, and we repeat: we will be the first to call upon the nation to rally behind any economic empowerment plan meant to place control of the economy in the hands of Zimbabweans. This is as it should be.

But this ill-timed and ill-conceived empowerment plan championed by President Robert Mugabe and Zanu (PF) has achieved nothing but to scare away investors. It is nothing short of economic sabotage.