The complete debate on why Zimbabwe MPs opposed the National Competitiveness Commission Bill

I think the Minister, as a politician, has influence on the political direction of the country.

THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER:  Order, Ford Ranger grey ADI9028 is wrongly parked – [HON. MEMBERS:  Inaudible interjections.] – Hon. Members you are busy talking, I am announcing about a Ford Ranger grey ADI9028 which is wrongly parked.

HON. MAJOME:  Thank you Madam Speaker for giving me this opportunity to debate about the Bill that is proposing to establish a Commission to solve the problems of economic competitiveness that we have.  Madam Speaker, while I commend the Hon. Minister for his good intentions, that is for wanting the economic competitiveness of Zimbabwe to improve, I however must lament that I want to join the chorus of voices that oppose this Bill.  I want to state that I oppose this Bill vehemently.  Madam Speaker, it is not that I do not want the Zimbabwean economy to be competitive but I oppose the Bill because I am not convinced that this Bill would do anything at all to change the evils and the ills that dog us as a country, that hamper economic productivity and business performance.

Madam Speaker, what I will say to the Hon. Minister is that when I was listening to his speech and when I read the Bill, I got the sense that the Executive Commission that the Hon. Minister intends to put in place is a Commission that essentially will be a Commission to tell us common sense.  In other words Madam Speaker, I am saying that it is common sense to Zimbabwe everywhere, that what needs to happen in Zimbabwe is for our businesses and economy to be competitive.  We cannot establish a whole commission to tell us common sense and to state the obvious.  Speaker after speaker Madam Speaker has indicated that everybody knows that those issues that impede our economy are common cause and indeed are common sense.

I want to urge the Hon. Minister not to spend his precious ministerial time putting in place a commission to tell him what he already knows and what everybody else knows.  Madam Speaker, the economy is not functioning because of clear basic economic variables.  I will echo other speakers who said that business is failing because the economy is not doing well, which is common sense.  The economy is not doing well because of the state of our governance.  If the Hon. Minister wants to effect change in the way that business is done in Zimbabwe, that becomes easy and we become competitive as a destination.

We usually talk about foreign direct investment.  Madam Speaker, I want to talk about domestic investment.  There are Zimbabweans in this country who are able to unlock their resources so that they can invest them as capital to start industries and other profitable businesses but they do not do so because of competitiveness.  It is the risk factor that others have mentioned.  The Hon. Minister must sit down with his colleagues in Cabinet to address the risk factor that Zimbabwe is facing.  They must collectively answer the question – we start with the outside – that when an investor wants to invest money in Zimbabwe, when they look at Zimbabwe, what do they see.  How do we appear to anyone who has money and wants to invest?  Do we invoke the confidence that if a person brings in their money, it will arrive in that productive sector and generate profits.  Will it be allowed to do so?

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