Formalising Zimbabwe’s informal economy- full statement and debate

MR. NDUNA: Thank you Mr. Spear Sir. I want to pose a question to the hon. Minister. Cognisant of the fact that our rural set up is now farm and city. It has been derived from the people coming from the city to the farming community and that only 26% of women who are the leaders in any agricultural set up, benefited from the agricultural reform programme of 2000. That means, we still have shortchanged our agricultural system. We, in a way have shortchanged our Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) system. I want to know, what you are going to do in that direction as a thrust to deliberately empower the women who are the majority when compared to men in terms of population and who have been sidelined in this equitable distribution of land?

Also, you have mentioned an issue where you want to bring the SMEs or the informal sector into the mainstream economy. I will give you an example, that as we speak, Plate and Glass Industries (PG) today buy from Siyaso in Mbare, the hardware, which because of their own ISO Certification and maybe the tax compliance systems that they are involved in – they then sell their hardware which they would have taken from Siyaso to big construction projects, thereby sidelining in a way, the Siyaso market in that they will then give them half the price that they are getting paid for their hardware. So I would also want to know what it is, as pressure which you are giving to Government and quasi-Government organisations.

Government being the single biggest service user for any particular service, which is building, infrastructural development or anything, what is it sector by sector, that you are going to be doing or giving as pressure to make sure that they utilise the services of the SMEs in order to bring in the SMEs into the mainstream of the economy? This will in a way broaden the tax base and reduce the tax here in Zimbabwe as the largest tax economy in the whole world. Thank you.

MRS. NYONI: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. The first question on the rural farm city and the fact that women where shortchanged during the land reform, I could not agree with you more. I think that, we as women need to stand together and see how best we can redress this because women are not just the majority of the people in the rural areas, but are majority producers of food that we eat. Therefore, the means of production need to be in the hands of those who produce. So this is a very pertinent question that I hope you can pose to the relevant ministries to address because my Ministry is very supportive of your question, women and the fact that they need to be treated with recognition that they are the producers of food. Therefore, more land should be given to them than the men really who most of them spend most of their time in beer-halls and walking around. So, it is important that a question be posed to the relevant ministries to address the question. It would also save my Ministry. I agree with you that a lot of companies and not just PG Timbers, a lot of companies are buying from SMEs and by formalisation, we are trying to stop this exploitation.

Let me give you an example hon. member. Apart from Siyaso, go to Glenview where they are making furniture. A lot of sofas that you are sitting on that you buy from big shops in town come from Glenview. They are made under very unpalatable conditions; in the sun, the wind and under the rain. At night hon. member, these big companies will drive their big lorries so that you do not see them; to go and buy this furniture at next to nothing. They come and put 100 – 150% mark-ups in their shops because they think the more they are expensive, the more people will value it., but it comes from the SMEs. So I need your support to formalise and make these SMEs that are producing to have their own value chain and their own production chain. Who is providing the raw materials? Who is manufacturing and where is this SME selling? All that needs to be programmed now so that SMEs are not exploited because they are the most exploited people in this country.

In terms of putting pressure on Government, I think you will be happy to say the Bill, which you passed in this House says that 25% of any Government or other procurement should be given to SMEs. So, we all need to monitor this so that any tender that is given to people, 25% of it should go to the SMEs and that is the only way we can include them into the mainstream, through Government procurement. I thank you.

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