Mashakada says Zimbabwe can be turned around if ministers work as hard as Chinamasa

Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai Shadow Minister of Finance Tapiwa  Mashakada has commended Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa for his hard work and said if other government ministers worked as hard as him, Zimbabwe would turn around.

Mashakada, however, said he was disappointed by Chinamasa’s mid-term review on Thursday because it was silent of cash shortages that are bedeviling the country as well as on corruption.

He understood the difficult position Chinamasa was in but said he should have talked about what government was doing to get rid of ghost workers as they were inflating the government wage bill which last year gobbled more than 90 percent of the government revenue.

He asked the government to follow the example of China which had opened up for foreign investment and is now an economic powerhouse.

Mashakada said government’s indigenisation programme had completely failed and  should be abolished.

“If I ask you Mr. Speaker to tell me only 20 names in the whole country of indigenous Zimbabweans who have benefited from this Act on a large scale, the Minister will struggle to find the people that have benefited from the Indigenisation Act,” Mashakanda said. 

“Yet it is doing so much harm as a red flag to new direct investment.  I would urge us to repeal this Act; revisit it and make sure that we attract more investment into the manufacturing, mining, agricultural and construction sectors.  We need to see cranes in Harare, that will show you that the economy is responding.”

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