Last week, Deputy Minister of Industry & Commerce, Chiratidzo Mabuwa just woke up from wherever she had been and reached out for the microphone to intimidate journalists. She had emerged guns blazing against “irresponsible journalism” over negative coverage and discouraging support for Indigenization laws in Zimbabwe. She forgot that she is living in her own little tower far away from the majority of Zimbabweans who feel short-changed after having been left out in the quay by ZANU (PF) that has fought hard to encourage people to think that indigenization means raising chickens in a cage for sale to make profit. Of all possibilities, indigenization has been collapsed into feeding broilers for sale.
And people must celebrate empowerment despite the screaming product shortages and poverty. I wish she knew the truth about the whole circus. Indigenization in Zimbabwe has become synonymous with robbing national wealth to put into the hands of the top 100 people who belong to ZANU (PF). Nothing came out of the Indigenization laws or Black empowerment laws except for the economy was destroyed to nothing. People now live in dire poverty, everything is sinking, farms covetously taken have stopped producing. Even farm workers now go unpaid and the system is in chaos. Mines were confiscated and the farm produce was harvested. After that, nothing else emerged from the so called Black Empowerment.
Where big wig and big headed politicians took over the most productive farms, they then turned around and encouraged youths to rear chickens. That was the empowerment that they were referring to as they sought to blindfold the gullible yand desperate youths. Foreign Direct Investment was quashed. Nothing came to function. Those at the apex of the program got richer and fatter as the wider base was left where it was found without any meaning or benefit in the so called land reform, or affirmative action, or economic leveling. There was no benefit for the common man. Villagers still remain squashed in stony patches of land as production remains challenged. The grazing areas are hounded with erosion. Deforestation and hunger have become the order of the day. In the name of Black Empowerment, all city transit systems have been killed and replaced with the matatus. The dirty kombis. 35 years ago we had a polished city transit system that saw buses run on time with uniformed drivers who stopped the buses at legal spots of loading and offloading passengers.
Then, police had respect because they never openly asked for money or chased kombi drivers killing people just for money. There was no horse play between the police and the public community members. Now we are back in the Neanderthal phase and here we go as we start again. People get killed daily through road accidents or police chasing kombis for bribes. As if that is not enough, police make kombi business their ATM machines that must produce cash by the day. To add more poverty to the already weak and impoverished we now have toll gates. More money for the top 100 politicians like the most absent-minded VP on earth, Mphoko as the whole nation suffers. And that is the very Indigenization the drunken Minister is talking about. She doesn’t even know what time it is in Zimbabwe. If one were to challenge her to point to the benefits of the empowerment program especially to the ordinary person she would be stuck. People have been left poorer. The Ministers now have taken over every profitable venture, mine and factory and destroyed it.
The most productive farms have been taken over and after the first harvest that was never worked for, the farms have died. Cows have become barbeque beef. Nothing is working in Zimbabwe. They claim they gave people power. They should say we gave ourselves power to take over or confiscate anything of value and destroy it. Zimbabwe has been destroyed by this empowerment or indigenization law. Even the President Mugabe can hardly be home. It’s not worth his time because the environment is depressing. That’s why he hops from nation to the next as he rules from the skies. There have been more burdens than benefits. There is nothing good to talk about regarding empowerment. People have been left anxious and angry. The infrastructure is no more. Now they sell elephants to get revenue.
Where are the tourists going to come from when we send the elephants to abroad? Poor planning, lack of foresight, selfishness, big headedness, malice and negligence are part of the Indigenization policy in Zimbabwe. There is gross abuse of political power. Mugabe now owns 85% of Borrowdale. It’s like the gold rush days. Mai Mujuru owns most of the good mines today. Now she claims victim because she no longer eats at the big table like Didymus Mutasa. Every top Minister is filthy rich. Even Mphoko refused a $3 million home in Harare because he felt he deserved a bigger and better one. That’s just the culture. And all this is the very indigenization that Zimbabweans must cheer for and wipe sweat about. Indigenization or Black Empowerment in Zimbabwe was like a legalized plunder or robbery of national assets. There is nothing to celebrate. It’s too chaotic and there is no benefit for me, a poor citizen without political muscle. What’s left to celebrate in Zimbabwe? Maybe good rains. People cry daily about poverty, joblessness, homelessness, hunger, disease. Is this the indigenization or the Black Empowerment. Black Empowerment or Indigenization my foot!