Saviour Kasukuwere’s indigenisation law is racist
Jewish businesses marked with a Star of David in Nazi Germany
“What do we do when the farms run out?”: this is a big question for Zanu PF and one can understand what a dilemma it is for a party that has few reasonable policies and is forced to buy loyalty and support by apportioning state assets. Legitimising theft has become Zanu PF’s key survival strategy. The orgy of greed has reached utterly disgraceful proportions.
Yesterday, Zanu-PF’s mouthpiece (yes, still speaking for Zanu PF even though there is a power-sharing government) The Herald announced that
Government has gazetted the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment (General) Regulations 2010, which spell out the country’s indigenisation policy and take effect on March 1 this year.
The regulations’ main objective is to achieve 51 percent indigenous shareholding in existing businesses with the owners given a five-year period to comply. [...]
The regulations require that all existing businesses with a threshold of US$500 000 should within 45 days from March 1 2010, declare their shareholding status to the responsible minister through a prescribed form. New businesses will also be required to comply within 60 days. [...]
The article goes on to elaborate on exclusions. According to Saviour Kasukuwere this is not going to scare away investors in Zimbabwe:
Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere has repeatedly told stakeholders that the law was not against foreign investment and neither was it designed to scare away investors.
It had widely been misinterpreted as a way of chasing away foreign investors from Zimbabwe with others saying that it was nationalisation or expropriation of foreign-owned businesses.
Perhaps not appropriation of foreign owned business, but it does look like “appropriation” of white-Zimbabwean owned businesses.
I should say that the word ‘white’ was not been explicitly stated in The Horrid’s article. The only specific reference has been to ‘indigenous groups’ – black Zimbabweans – suggesting that all minority groups in the country are going to be compelled to give up the controlling share of their businesses. Most will assume this policy is mostly geared towards white business though, because we know what Zanu PF’s attitude is towards white minority rights: it doesn’t support them at all.
Our country is turning into a nation where we have ‘Zimbabweans’ and we have ‘White Zimbabweans’. This second category of Zimbabwean citizenship does not have wholesale access to human rights – look at Zanu PF’s recent look at their constitution strategy: caveats and limitations abound. A white Zimbabwean in a Zanu-world will never be allowed to farm in Zimbabwe and now it seems that a white Zimbabwean will never be allowed to have 100% ownership of their own business.
I assume that a black Zimbabwean will not be expected to hand over a controlling share of his or her business to other people? That, you see, would not be politically popular! Besides, is Saviour Kasukuwere likely to support any policy that would strip him of the controlling interest in his personal business empire; note, one specialising in the kind of areas that you do very well in if you have two feet firmly planted on the Zanu gravy train: transport, fuel supplies and banking.
I didn’t sleep last night I was so angry about the blatant racism in this. In the course of an outraged conversation I had today, I asked my non-Zimbabwean friend: “What happens when the businesses run out?”
He very quietly said: “When that happens, they’re going to want to take white-owened houses”. The quietness of his tone made me want to weep.
No matter what Saviour’s public rhetoric is to justify this policy, Zimbabweans know how it works in practice at a grassroots level.
The farm invasions were elaborately draped with language about historical injustices etc and this seduced many good people around the world into believing the Zanu government had a moral agenda. But the reality is that land reform is actually extremely immoral – it turned into a glut-fest among Zanu-elite loyalists: ‘Roll up, roll up: Multiple farms for the big wigs. Come grab yours now!’
Zimbabwe’s experience has been that the people who line up for the Zanu PF brand of so-called empowerment do not expect to pay or contribute or even work for their enrichment.
I imagine the same model will be applied to business-grabbing, and that fills me with horror. In practice, what I imagine and what I fear will happen is the following: a big wig/policeman/judge loyal to Zanu PF will be walking down the pavement and think, ‘Nice business – I want some of that’.
What will follow will be unspeakable harassment: possible violence with Zanu PF youth militia being bussed in to bray and chant on the pavement; violence and destruction of property chucked in for good measure; threats of jail sentences; fear that you and your family will be targeted with reprisals if you resist; court cases that go nowhere; and a loss of everything (after all, why settle for 49% when the Zanu-controlled judiciary and police turn a blind eye to the niceties of the detail of the legislation)?
I spent most of last night thinking about the impact of Zanu policies on minority groups and their human rights, and how our nation is really starting to stink of nasty racism. I also started wondering how the business-grabbers were going to distinguish between the ‘good whites’ – the foreign investors who may also have white skins; and the ‘bad whites’ – the ones who are Zimbabwean.
Maybe, I thought, they’ll need to stick signs on the windows so the business-grabbers know who they can target and who they can’t; after all, its not good for foreign investment if the ‘good whites’ get harrassed by a baying mob, is it? With that thought, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I remembered Nazi Germany – the Nazi’s also had a little problem with publically distinguishing between the ‘good Germans’ and the ‘bad Germans’ – the bad Germans, by Nazi logic, being the Jews.
But Saviour Kasukuwere has already thought of this:
The Ministry of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment will keep a database of persons wishing to identify any indigenous Zimbabwean to acquire a controlling interest or lesser interest in his or her business and indigenous Zimbabweans wishing to partner a non-indigenous investor.
Let’s be clear: this is not a database to show who is willing to yield 51% of their business. It’s not optional: failure to comply means jail. This is a database to publically show the grabbers who to target.
“Yes”, I thought to myself, “if the Nazi’s had had computers, they’d probably have done this too!”
Saviour Kasukuwere is not a man many would respect – fear maybe – but not respect. As far back as 2000 he was involved in orchestrating violence in Mt Darwin. This extract from a human rights report in 2000:
On 25 March, Edward from Pfura Location in Mount Darwin was assaulted. He said he was one of the first victims in his area to be attacked and that over 200 Zanu (PF) youths and war veterans, led by Jacob Juma, were responsible. According to Edward, the attackers had been “grouped at Madondo” by Saviour Kasukuwere, the Zanu (PF) candidate for Mount Darwin. He said: “they had the house numbers of the MDC people” and two others were attacked that day. Edward sustained bruises on the face, whip lashes on the back among other injuries according to his medical report.
He was a member of the feared CIO, and apparently made no effort to conceal that fact. At one point he was vice-president of the Affirmative Action Group (AAG):
In its early years the AAG was widely accused of arm-twisting bank managers to fund the businesses of some of its leadership and a few others, whose repayment records were matters of grievous concern to the cowed banking sector.
In July last year, Saviour Kasukuwere was a ringleader involved in leading a revolt against a constitutional conference:
Our witness reported that when Lovemore Moyo started his speech it was none other than Saviour Kasukuwere (see a profile on Kasukuwere here) along with another MP, who started the riotous singing that drowned out the Speaker’s address. ZimOnline have a report corroborating involvement of youths loyal to Kasukuwere and also to Patrick Zhuwawo, Robert Mugabe’s nephew.
In Shona they started singing Zanu PF songs and slogans which include inflammatory words like,
“We are doing what we did in June, winning”
“We are doing away with the Prime Minister”
“Zimbabwe is liberated with blood”Minister Moyo’s attempts to calm the crowd resulted in him being showered with water, beer and alcohol.
And in December last year, what we all knew already was formally noted when the fact that Saviour Kasukuwere was involved in illegal payments to youth militia in the run up to the 2008 elections was revealed to parliament’s public accounts committee (the militia essentially function as Zanu PF’s version of the ‘Hitler youth’). What were the youth doing then? Torturing, beating and murdering Zimbabwean civilians.
February 10th, 2010 20:23
Sadly and unfortunately it does seem like that the plan for audit is listing businesses is for the purpose of takeover of particular ones for certain party members.
The horror will not end either unless there is a complete change of Government with people who really want to run the country fairly and properly for all citizens.
The MDC have been indescribably brave in the relentless onslaught they have endured.
May God wrought a miracle in Zimbabwe and restore it to peace for all.
February 10th, 2010 21:28
Oh – so civilised! And mature. And progressive. And respectable. And honourable.
What?
[edit]
February 10th, 2010 23:50
Zimbabwe ndeye vatema, where were all these people crying foul over the Indigenisation act when the white people where iltreating the zimbabweans, taking everything to themselves and making Zimbabweans slaves in their own country. Come on, what happened to your history, we need our economy back, that is, Land, Industry and what ever, ofcourse if foreigners what to invest in our country fine, joint ventures with zimbabweans , period.
February 11th, 2010 00:09
Who should have promulgated this law assuming it was proper law that stands the tenents of good governance? The Minister of industry and Commerce. This unfortunate incident has occurred because the “Cabinet” is moribund and lacks a rallying point (i.e. a vision or future) for all Zimbabweans. ZanuPF thugs must be eyeing this “database” with glee. Now the farmers can rest assured they will not see these thugs as they have bigger fish to fry. The tragedy is that there are few enterprises tht are truly operational in ZIM right now. The industrialists’ fears have come true and all the supposed safeguards are breeding grounds for corruption. The Minister has been given too much powers to play regulator of industry and commerce. Govt should be an enabler and not a regulator or player. This truly stinks. Good bye investment and rejuvination of the economy.Mugabe and Tsvangirai should stop bickering on non issues and start running the country or else the youth and other seriously minded Zimbabweans will have to look for alternatives to save their country. This should not have happened under their watc if they knew what they were doing. One feels our country is on auto pilot. This has to stop at some point.
February 11th, 2010 12:15
I quote:-
“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.” ~~~~ Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931.
February 11th, 2010 12:25
Another apt quote:-
“The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money” –Margaret Thatcher.
February 11th, 2010 17:39
I am Zimbabwean living in England and I used to live in Harare, I must say that my country has been ruined by world’s biggest terrorist which is Mugabe, look at the exchange rate, poverty, economic conditions of Zimbabwe. When I think about it my heart really goes, I wonder why Mugabe does not let citizens of Zimbabwe decide the future of the country and also Mugabe must realize that he is in power since last 30 years his mind is getting old and he cannot think the same as young generation can think, so he must resign for the better of Zimbabweans. Thank you
February 12th, 2010 07:12
The problem is no longer Mugabe; it is the Zimbabweans themselves. Mugabe is now the scape goat for a nation that is failing to redefine itself. If the people decide to uplift themselves they will find a way, Mugabe or no Mugabe. We are lacking a common vision and an urgent sense of purpose. The MDC is weak and that is the reality, it has run its course of resistance. Now we need a new set of legs that will look at economic rebuilding and deliver the prosperity that we all so desire. There is need to change the characters in the political arena from the bottom up. It starts at the local government level and the civic society institutions transforming themselves into change agents and not complaint units. The future is our hands, let us demand service delivery and accountability at all levels of our society. We must no longer be the down troden but the proud Zimbabweans we once were. It can and will be done.
February 13th, 2010 00:11
You need reminding that it WAS foreigners who originally invested in the country, leading to the development of a modern economic system. What economy, otherwise, do you want back – Goat trading?
February 16th, 2010 07:20
Well first I had to sell out of SA due to BEE which did nothing to lift up ordinary blacks in SA. However all the the ANC connected oficails who got sweetheart deals got extremely rich. Now I will have to sell my shareholdings in New Dawn Mining because Zanu wants to try and enrich itself through expropriation and theft. Will Africa ever learn? Maybe when the Chinese get done taking it over they will be able to do somethiong with the place.
February 16th, 2010 09:23
I agree with you Tonderai.
The fact is this: we have 390 000sq kms for less than our 13m people. Its full of valuable minerals, the best soils on the continent, lots of water, lush green fields, fantastic climate ect..Great Britain (so called) has less than 290 000sq kms for more than 60m people. Other than coal,North Sea oil and an industry that is sustained by foreign natural resources, what else do they have…oh an ugly queen.
Israel has only 23 000sq kms for over 8mi people and we all know how explosive that situation is.
Germany has 350 000sq kms for over 80mi people.
Do you guys get the picture here? We have a gem of a country and is it any wonder that the British would want it for themselves. If we are not careful we will end up as the Palestinians of Africa.I too am angry at Mugabe’s delay at setting a clear succession path, but Tsvangirai… NO WAY. That myopic fool would turn us into a British banana republic within a month. Thats the only reason the British fund and support him.
February 19th, 2010 03:08
Unfortunately we will always have to endure the racist ravings of spiteful people like Tonderai. The truth is, they offer nothing for Zimbabwe’s future except hate speech, division, legalised theft, and ultimate destitution.
Toderai, you took the farms and destroyed them, you took functioning transport, legal, education and health systems and destroyed them, you took a jewel of independent Africa and turned it into a basket case. You took the bright hopes of a nation and rubbed it out by your racism and greed, forcing 5 million people to become refugees. Never in our country’s history has so much misery been created by so few.
You still don’t get it, do you? – hate and anger doesn’t work, just as stealing functioning farms and well run businesses for yourself doesn’t work. Try BUILDING something of your OWN for a change, instead of trying to steal and break down what previous generations have built up through hard sweat and effort.
The following a article by CHAKWANDA MANGEPA,Published in http://www.zimdaily.com on 18 February 2010, shows the reality…
“HARARE – Beneficiaries of the chaotic land reform programme have confessed
that their participation in the land grab exercise was a result of greed to
merely snatch the farm houses from the white community and not to till the
land, the assertion that has thrown damper to the perceived enrichment
exercise of the murderous ZANU PF party.
According to a ZBC Newsnet reporter who had been pursuing reportage of the
chaotic exercise since its inception, most resettled farmers who are now
standing helpless staring at bushes of grasses have revealed their souls
saying that they were driven by spite to prejudice the able white community
from their farms, the development that drew Zimbabwe into poverty.
“Most farmers are confessing that what they needed were farm houses and not
vast swathes of land, which implied slavery for them.
That is the very reason why there is no productivity on the farms,” said the
reporter.
When the land reform programme was introduced in the 1980s, the intention
was address the perceived anomalies in the distribution of land wherein most
blacks were allegedly occupying unproductive land while the whites had rich
soils. “
February 19th, 2010 14:13
Mwana Wevhu,
Yup, we get the picture – Zimbabwe has 390,757 km2 and a population of 12 million – which it now cannot support without external aid. Using rose-tinted spectacles as a cure for your myiopia is not a recommended cure.
February 19th, 2010 15:14
The difference dear Mwana & Tonderai, almost without exception, is that whatever you say about the colonist (Brits as you like to call them) is that they leave a place better than they found it. And by the same yardstick almost exactly the opposite can be said for African ‘reformers’.
Moreover the Brits manage to be moderately wealthy – all 60m them – on 290000sq kms. But you guys can’t even eke a living above poverty level for 13m people spread over 390000sq kms of “valuable minerals, the best soils on the continent, lots of water, lush green fields, fantastic climate”.
Shame on you.
February 23rd, 2010 09:06
@Malcolm –
Malcolm
“..which it now cannot support without external aid”…well as Mugabe said “Keep your money”. Why are you people so concerned and angry that there is now Chinese money running all the way from Cape Town to Cairo. Even better the Chinese are being very carefull not to make the same mistakes the European racists did in Africa.
Why should it even bother you whether or not we can support ourselves. All you have to do is KEEP YOUR MONEY. You had your chance in Africa, you ruined it by your arrogance and racist tendencies, now GO TO HELL.
The fact is that the days of some English Lord or God or whatever, bragging about how many gold mines he owns in Zimbabwe or about the 20 000hectares of land carrying a 5 000 herd or hereford beef in Zimbabwe or the 200 people working for him in Zimbabwe ARE GONE..AND GONE FOREVER…LEARN TO LIVE WITH IT.
February 23rd, 2010 09:39
@Ants –
Dear Ants, I belive the English arrived on those islands in 1066A.D.The Scotts and the Welsh have been there for even longer, So they have had at about 10 centuries to get moderately wealthy.
Now the Shonas in Zimbabwe have had 30 years of freedom (yes from the same Brits)and they have wisely spent much of that time laying a foundation for the economic development of their country. We know that they now have one of the highest literacy rates in the developing world, world class schools and universities, they are well on their way to a world class health system (despite the British induced economic setbacks of the last few yrs)and this I am particularly proud of…an agricultural system that is now based on indegenous farmers rather foreign Brits posing as Zimbabweans.
The Shonas have done all this and a lot more in only 30yrs, without colonising and oppressing anyone or stealing and looting anybody’s land. They are thus a pretty impressive people if you ask me…
As for your assertion that the Brits “leave a place better than they found it…” gimme a break. If they are such good people then why do they always have to be kicked out in such embarrasing ways, sometimes with guns…from America, from Hong Kong, from India, from numerous African countries…nobody wants ‘em and yet they continue to walk with their noses in the air…pretty amusing.
February 23rd, 2010 21:26
Well done, Sokwanele!! Mwana’s rants provide for comic relief. I’m sure you have a bag full of such gems. Shame about Spike Milligan – he would have loved this.
February 23rd, 2010 22:11
Mwana WeVhu
The fact that you can be proud of current zimbabwean agriculture says a lot…So you are proud of the fact that Zimbabwe has gone from being the bread basket of Africa with hundreds of very productive and efficient farms which fed the nation and brought in large amounts of foreign currency, to a system where most farms are derelict, causing widespread food shortages and a crippled economy?!!
This sort of shocking rhetoric which you are spouting and comes from the racist ideologies of Mugabe, is exactly the reason why Zimbabwe is in the mess it is in now. No one is calling for re-colonisation but why the need to destroy the country’s formerly succesfful agriculture and industrial sectors? It’s absolute madness and helps no one apart from the political elite, whilst bringing untold misery on all citizens whether black or white.
The idea that black zimbabweans want their farming sector and industry ‘back’ is ridiculous – they never had it in the first place. No one is saying black ownership is wrong, in fact it’s very good, but these policies forcing these things to happen achieve nothing apart from more problems, further undermining a formerly vibrant economy and giving power and money to the political elite.
February 24th, 2010 09:28
@Mwana WeVhu – Interesting, buy myopic sentiments.
Come on Mwana – the Shona’s were handed a perectly functioning economic system on a plate during the last 30 yrs and have reduced it to abject ruin.
“There are none so blind as those who will not see.”
Anyhow, it is not my intention to fuel further argument and luckily I have no need to. Time will tell – as it always does. I would be surprised (pleasantly so) if I were shown up to be wrong, and you right, in the next 30yrs or so.
February 24th, 2010 13:27
@Mwana WeVhu – “Shonas”.. “Shonas”…. “Shonas” … eish. ZPF must go, I am sick of them.
March 1st, 2010 05:56
Well if I sound racist then you must blame those who taught me to be a racist. I spend most of my young life under Ian Smith’s Rhodesia..and I attended Marlborough Primary School and the then Churchill Boys High in Harare at a time when most of the students and all the teachers were first class racists of Brit and Boer descent. They taught me well.
I guess the point is Rhodesians will always belong to their Rhodesia wherever it is now and Zimbabweans will belong to Zimbabwe…like oil and water we should never try to come mix again…that would be disastrous.
March 1st, 2010 07:02
@chris – “…why the need to destroy the country’s formerly successful agricultural and industrial sectors?” because they were in the hands of FOREIGNERS plain and simple. How many whites even knew the words of the national anthem? Its not a secret that whites in Zim owed their allegiance to Queen of England and never to the President of Zimbabwe(like him or not).
WE were also aware that one of the major functions of the whites only CFU was to ensure that its mebers only sold land to other whites and NEVER to blacks.I was a witness to that myself.So black graduates from Zim’s agricultural colleges could never own land…but they could only work for some white master…thank God for the land redistribution process.The notion that all the farms went to Mugabe’s cronies is just the BBC’s propaganda and crap. I come from an area were ordinary villagers were moved onto a formerly “white farm”. Its a region that is famous for NOT supporting Mugabe…but we were still included in the land reform process.
In time Zim will return to being the bread basket of the region, but this time with its own indeginous farmers. The “white leash” by which Britain controlled food production in Zim and thus controlled the entire region has been cut.Did you really think we were dumb enough not to see their intention?
Free at last,free at last, thank God almighty for we are free at last…
March 6th, 2010 22:45
Why are people making all these noises after all the effort to empower ourselves. We have diamonds, gold, new farms and land and the president is giving us milk we are powerful and have the US dollar and the Rand at our disposal.We will never be a colony again! We are feeding ourselves and have a lot of words, as a result,to spew at the west and Botswana who seemingly are fools. I am positive we are self sufficient and we are fed up of this external pooh being vented on us. I really wonder why people are still being racist or reverse racists, whatever that means.
Peace.
March 10th, 2010 00:32
Mwana wevhu is not only a fanatical racist he is also a compulsive tribalist. Keep chanting Mwana, in the comfort of a British home. You definitely are not in Zim. You are also wrong about the Chinese. You don’t know them as much as you don’t know the behaviour of your Shona cousins who are pilaging their homeland with impunity and complete disregsrd of those others who are not part of their destructive political camp.
Petty thinking like yours leads to consequences akin to the Rwandan genocide.
Very selfish and childish indeed.