I was a teenager in Rhodesia and carried ammunition in the liberation war from 1776 to 1980. My father was a prison officer. My brother who passed away in December was in the liberation war carrying his gun from 1974 to end of the war. He died a pauper and all the clothes he wore were donated by family members because the country was down.

The reason this happened is we forgot basic principles of business. Successful businesses even state owned enterprises survive due to the type of leadership driving those businesses. Business leaders are not found everywhere like sand. Imposing controlling interests on a business to black Zimbabweans who are not business leaders themselves will simply lead to what happened at the Cold Storage Commission, ZISCO, ARDA, Mhangura and everything ZMDC touched, Education, Health, Defence, Roads Dept, Air Zimbabwe, NRZ, ZESA, DDF and the list is endless. I saw these companies as well oiled organisations in Rhodesia but saw them collapsing due to incompetent and in some cases corrupt BLACK leadership in Zimbabwe.

Competent blacks have on the other hand produced world class giants like Econet Holdings without the need to have an Act like this one. I could go on but before I finish some points on specific points in the ACT.

1. Too much power has been left to the Minister
2. The person who crafted the law has no clue what 90 days will do in business. You can not give a minister 45 days and another 45 days to be THINKING about possible deals. Markets never allow anyone such centuries to decide making a deal.They need to be schooled in the sense of time in the business world.
3.The Act surely would not survive any scrutiny around discrimination.
4. The law is a fast track to taking Zimbabwe out of the business community on the international scene and should be sent back for rewriting with the same intention but with business leaders involved.