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Zimbabwe post Freedom House report - Open letter to Prime Minister Tsvangirai
Zimbabwe Unemployed People's Association (ZUPA)
August 26, 2012

To: The Prime Minister of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Hon Morgan Tsvangirai

Cc: Ministries of Finance and Empowerment, MDC-T

RE: The Freedom House Report Needs Sober Reflection

ZUPA which represents the interests of millions of economically disadvantaged people has seen and analysed the Freedom House report on opinion polls in Zimbabwe that show a fall in the number of Zimbabweans who still believe the Prime Minister's side of Government retains the ability to take the country forward.

We seek not to contest the contents of the report or to concern ourselves with the position your party or those opposed to your party may take. In this communication, we have revisited previous communication to GNU on economic policy and give recommendations on the way forward, all in good faith.

Honourable Prime Minister, we would like to remind you of our previous communication when we warned that your party's April 2012 resolution and position on the indigenous and empowerment policy when you called it "repugnant" was at variance with both the needs and expectations of the ordinary Zimbabweans.

At the time, we cautioned against taking a popular policy and attributing it to one side of Government when the people of the ground considered it to be a GNU policy with cross party support.

As ZUPA we have closely followed events leading to economic crises in Europe and elsewhere. We believe that Zimbabwe can only have sustainable recovery if the ordinary people are economically empowered and the country does not depend on donors or foreign investors.

We further believe that the nation needs a wealth fund as protection against future shocks and fluctuations in commodity prices and trade challenges.

In April 2012, we advised that the overwhelming feedback we have from the grassroots is that any party that opposes indigenisation and economic empowerment risks losing votes in future elections.

We have taken the position that there comes a time when the national interest needs to be above party politics. Zimbabwean leaders can only be relevant if they can rise above party differences in pursuit of what is right for the citizens.

We have also appealed to all political parties in Government and beyond that rather than shredding the empowerment programme or attributing it to one political party, all parties should work together to ensure that those areas that need improvement are improved in the national interest.

Our participation as ZUPA in the empowerment programme was based on the fact that the Indigenous and Empowerment law was passed as a bill by all the parties in the GNU acting together in 2007. We took it as national duty therefore to formulate the proposal where local communities throughout the country would get 10% shares in resource based operations in their areas. ZUPA was at the centre of negotiations with miners on behalf of villagers and local communities. It was surprising and disappointing when your party turned around and called the programme that was empowering the poor ordinary people and was understood by the investors to give them security of investment as "asset stripping, looting, patronage, clientelism, corruption and self-aggrandisement." You added that the empowerment programme was "not driven by demand."

On reflection, your Government and your party should have realised that giving shares to local communities and ordinary Zimbabweans who have been economically disadvantaged since the colonial land Act was demand driven. You will also agree that 10% shares to all citizens who fall under a chief is not clientism or patronage or self-aggrandisement. No Zimbabwean is excluded from the 10% shares that are donated to the communities. It goes without saying that because the miners were agreeing to donate the shares to local communities as long as politicians were not involved but chiefs can not be described as looting or asset stripping.

The miners and investors understand that if what has happened in Marikana in South Africa with Lonmin (formerly London Rhodesia or Lonrho) is to be avoided, then local communities should have a vested share in the operations and benefit directly from the resources in their countries as in Canada, Australia and in Europe.

The Freedom House findings should therefore not have surprised your party but inspired a reflection on whether you still are in touch with the aspirations of the grassroots that for so long, you have been perceived as the mouthpiece. History is littered with examples of great leaders who closed their eyes and ears to the loud voices of the grassroots, only to pay for it in elections.

We now appeal to your side of the GNU to reconsider the April 2012 resolution on the indigenisation policy. This is a policy that may secure Zimbabwe's future as a great country. Failure to implement this policy consistently and efficiently can only lead to continued poverty for the ordinary people.

It is not the empowerment and indigenisation programme that is chasing investors. Instead, it is the lack of unity and clarity and lack of political confidence in implementing the policy that is discouraging investors.

We further warn that your party's reputation, consistency and judgement in particular, are being called into question following concessions in the draft constitution on issues of the Diaspora vote and appropriation of land without compensation and devolution. There is a growing observation that your party says one thing in public and international corridors only to sign and do the opposite when at the same table as those who have failed the country. Efforts to justify a constitution draft that falls short of what Zimbabweans said they wanted is not helpful as is the dismissal of the Freedom House report.

With regards jobs and your soon to be launched JUICE programme, you will recall that as ZUPA, we have communicated with the GNU about our National Employability Scheme (NES) to revamp the human capital and sustain the recovery of industry. Under this scheme, all companies should take unemployed youths for year long internships. This way a massive national database of skilled youths would be created. The companies that are currently distressed and struggling save on wages for the time of the internship, aiding their recovery. Your office has our NES proposal.

It would appear that the GNU and your party are not learning anything from the economic crisis in Europe where Greece, Portugal, Spain and France are facing huge challenges. Britain too is in recession. The economic recovery programmes that these countries are suggesting and working on show that jobs and employment creation cannot be separated from indigenisation and economic empowerment. It is clear that in times of crisis, nationals rise in defence of their national interest. That is why we see the empowerment programme as the one that can guarantee job creation in this country. The Marikana incident in South Africa demonstrates the challenge that investors have in delivering economic justice to local people. There is no evidence that your suggested model of linking FDI to jobs leads to poverty reduction. The tendency has been for foreign investors to bring their own foreign nationals to work on the projects they fund. The conditions may also require equipment and technology to be secured from the investor nations curtailing any domestic growth in supply chain industry, job creation and consequently taxes.

We therefore urge a rethink of your JUICE policy as it falls short of addressing a sustainable way forward. We believe that any policy that is not based on empowering the Zimbabwean but on foreigners will clash with the national interest. This has been proved time and time again and is the main reason why many countries in post colonial Africa have remained poor despite having enough resources and manpower. The idea that every child must be developed into a worker and your position that Zimbabweans prefer jobs to owning shares is surprising, especially as it is a colonial model that was crafted to guarantee colonial masters cheep and coercive labour in mines, farms and industry.

For the record, a community in Marange owning 10% shares in the Diamond mines in Chiadzwa could earn millions per year while a job for them will only earn them a minimum wage leavening them in poverty. It is reasonable to expect any political leader who denies Zimbabweans access to wealth by condemning them to poverty to be looked at differently the next time they claim to have the interests of the poor at heart.

Way Forward

We encourage your Government to consider our NES proposal and facilitate urgent implementation as this would assist skills development and recovery of industries country wide. A copy as deposited with the Ministry of Employment is attached.

We encourage your party side of Government to reconsider your position on the Indigenisation and empowerment programme as this is a programme that can secure a sustainable future for Zimbabwe.

We encourage the Government to re-evaluate the policies that are based on the mistaken belief that foreigners and foreign direct investment are the solution to Zimbabwe's long term problems. We take the position, with evidence that the only sustainable way forward is to empower the citizens and generate capacity for home grown solutions. That is how the Asian tigers and China have developed their economies. We need to live within our means and develop at our own pace. What is the rush?

De Beers, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and other mining giants started at village level and grew to be global giants they are today. Roman Abramovich (45) who is now thought to be worth some US$12 Billion started off with just US$2,000 when he was 22 years old. His wealth can be attributed in great part to the Perestroika opening opportunities for locals in Soviet Union in 1988. We have cited Abramovich here in the full knowledge that his case is a reflection of what anyone can achieve if they have the support of the right indigenous policy. Abramovich grew up an orphan and did not have the best of education. Despite that, he is today one of the world's richest people and the owner of Chelsea FC, an investment in Britain. It is our view that if the young people of Manicaland are given the opportunity, they too can be the Abramoviches of tomorrow. Indigenisation and empowerment is the only policy to do that.

Zimbabwe's international relations should be based on trade and equality, not on aid and dependency on nations that are themselves in recession and in debt. How do we justify begging for donor funds from countries who themselves have sovereign debts 10 times the size of Zimbabwe's. Some of the countries we bombard with appeals for help do not have the resources and the wealth we have.

What we need is to appeal for market opportunities and take time to generate our own capacity. We have already wasted a decade following the belief that change will come tomorrow morning. 13 years later, we are back to where we were in 2000 discussing a national constitution and facing elections. The political, social and economic challenges remain the same. In our ZUPA eyes, this is a decade wasted. Long term solutions for Zimbabwe should not be postponed anymore or give way to short term political scores against one another.

We appeal to the GNU to facilitate a process that would ensure that every district in the country has a community share ownership trust headed by the chiefs who should hold the shares in trust for the ordinary citizens who fall under their chiefdoms. It is better for the world to respect us for standing firm in defence of our national interest. Countries in Europe and North America offer no compromise in promoting their national interest. For this, we respect them. Our leaders should not blame the West if they look down upon us if we present ourselves as incompetent and unable to look after our own affairs, our people and wealth without them.

We also urge that in line with devolution of power, five regional empowerment funds should be set up for Manicaland, Mashonaland, Matabeleland, Masvingo and Midlands for future generations and consisting of 10% each from the fund held by the Indigenisation and Empowerment Ministry. The fund should be managed by the Ministry of Finance.

Finally, we encourage sober leadership in this critical period where the GNU should focus on the national interest. What legacy would the current leadership want to leave for future generations? It is important to realise that all decisions you take in Government will one day, like the Wiki leaks, be subjected to scrutiny by future generations. An opportunity is presenting itself now for those in power to do what is right. We do not anticipate that the leadership will let this slip by only to regret.

We have written to you in good faith as the organisation that represents the interests of millions of economically disadvantaged citizens. We trust that no political mileage will be claimed from our communication. All we ask from our Government of whatever colour, shape or form, is what is in the best long term interests of Zimbabwe. Those on the side of the ordinary people will one day be vindicated at the ballot box. Those that choose not to listen to the voices of the majority could find themselves missing the train to a democratic and prosperous Zimbabwe.

It would be a sad day if in 6 years time; you have an opportunity to revisit this communication and say: "If only I had known."

Yours faithfully,

Thamsanqa Zhou (Patron)
Innocent Ndibali (President)

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