Zimbabwe Finance Minister laments he has no money to spend as $97 out of every $100 he gets goes to wages but he is not adopting South African rand

Hon. Zindi, I have replied you.  I need to tax something.  I hear you, but I need to tax something.  Link taxes to the demands for more expenditure and ask yourself, where am I going to get the money.  The response is, yes, we are rich and so on, but to get a response on the supply side takes ages and a lot of hard work.  It is not a miracle and I want us to understand that.  So, when we identify, because already we have identified the volumes of money that is transacted in all those areas and we think that if we restore this 15%, it will make a change for the better and in any case, we are targeting those items which are bought by rich people.

So, the mega deals with China – let me say something about the mega deals.  They are all to do with infrastructure – Kariba South, Hwange 7 and 8 and some from independent power producers.  The requirements of Chinese Financial institutions are that when they lend us money, the contractor must be Chinese and the equipment must be sourced from China.  We then remain with a little which we can use to source local materials.  When you look at the cost benefit analysis, we want power and the sooner we can start on those projects, the better and it is the only country where we can borrow from right now.  So, we decided we take the loan, notwithstanding the restriction on where to source equipment and where to source the contractor.  I must say, this is also the practice of most countries.  They do not give you money to pay to companies from other countries.

With respect to some of the dualisation, we have to negotiate like what we have done with the dualisation from Beitbridge to Harare.  We have negotiated a local content of not less than 40%. The FDI, which she mentioned, that is what Special Economic Zones (SEZ) are going to be all about.  I do not want Bulawayo to be left behind in this regard.  You should feel free to talk to any investor who may want to come to Bulawayo to resuscitate the industry there and you should also come to me with any investors.  Ask them what incentives they want in order to operate there and I will certainly consider granting them.  So, let us be helpful and collaborative in this matter.

There are obviously complaints over Chinese nationals who come to set up businesses in reserved sectors.  It is a matter that the Hon. Minister of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment has to work on.  The law and the reserved sectors are set clearly.  What is problematic though is that there were already people in those sectors before we were strict on enforcement.

However, that can be sorted out easily.  I agree with you though on reserved sectors for Zimbabwean but you can ask where were you when the Chinese were setting up a bakery in Mutare?  Why did you not know that Mutare eats bread?  The bakery equipment does not cost much, we are probably talking about US$5 000 and Hon. Minister Nyoni is spearheading that.  Where were you? Do you want us as Government to tell you what to do?  It must come from you, not from Government.  We do not create entrepreneurs; it is not the responsibility of Government to create entrepreneurs.  What these contributions basically mean is that we lack an entrepreneurial class in our country who show their own initiatives and take the first step. As said earlier on, to set up a bakery needs US$5 000 to US$10 000.  You can also buy the machinery from China at a cheap price, may be US$2 000, but why are we not doing that?  You want the Government to operate bakeries? No please, it is us who should do that Mr. Speaker Sir.

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