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Bulawayo
Agenda successfully held the Minister Forum
Bulawayo Agenda
August 12, 2011
On Friday 5 August 2011, Bulawayo Agenda successfully held the Minister
Forum. The meeting, which was attended by a record 439 people, was
organized to give the people of Bulawayo an opportunity to access
government policy regarding the de-industrialization of the city.
Although Minister of Industry, Trade and Commerce, Welshman Ncube
did not make it, he sent Minister of National Healing, Reconciliation
and Integration, Moses M Mzila who presented alongside the Minister
of State Enterprises and Parastatals, Gorden Moyo. Dr Ruth Labode,
president of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries and Prof Calistus
Ndlovu also shared their views on the possible solutions to the
industrial flight.
The moderator
was Anele Ndebele, Director of Matabeleland
Aids Council. Below are brief excerpts from the panelists'
presentations.
The following
were issues raised at the meeting:
- There is
over centralization of administrative power in Zimbabwe. This
over centralization has dire consequences for other regions as
it results in the making of unilateral decisions on important
issues like the economy.
- The current
centralized system of governance leads to the denial of people
to exercise their authority within their localities for example,
companies like Security Mills and Textile Mills are under provisional
judiciary management and if they subsequently close, a lot of
people will lose their jobs.
- Statements
that the people of Matabeleland are "lazy, cry-babies"
and that devolution of power as a system of governance will be
divisive.
- It was also
said that devolution of power is practiced in South Africa, Mozambique
and in Kenya (with effect from 2012) but the people are united.
Claims that the country is too small for devolution of power were
rendered baseless, it was said that most Scandinavian countries
are five times smaller than Zimbabwe but have sound decentralization.
- It was added
that if industry of Bulawayo is to be revived, the banking act
should be changed and new laws be enacted to force banks to set
up headquarters outside the capital. This will deal with the failure
of bank managers in branch offices to approve loans.
- Participants
also felt that the said problems of de-industrialization are a
regional phenomenon precipitated by the growth of the Chinese
textile industry which has also affected South Africa despite
its state of the art machinery.
Visit the Bulawayo
Agenda fact sheet
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