Zimbabwe should deliberately choose a few people that it can make rich so that they become role models to young people, independent legislator Temba Mliswa told parliament recently.
He said South Africa had targeted people like Tokyo Sexwale and current President Cyril Ramaphosa and made them rich but in Zimbabwe the government had failed to empower its people.
“We are not proud of seeing our people rich. We are consistently doing ourselves down,” he said.
“You must deliberately choose people who you can make rich so that they become models for the country so young people believe in the country. When you have a country with one billionaire, people target that one billionaire, but if you have a country with many billionaires no one targets them.”
Zimbabwe currently has one billionaire, Econet Wireless boss Strive Masiyiwa, according to Forbes magazine.
“Look at Nigeria and America, how many billionaires are there? You never hear of anyone being attacked but when we have a few rich people, they are prone to be attacked. We have Strive Masiyiwa who is here in terms of his business and it is not a secret that his business worldwide has grown because of Zimbabwe but he is not staying here,” Mliswa said.
According to Forbes, Nigeria has four billionaires, South Africa has five, and the United states, 614.
“Why do we not, in this Second Republic, get those business people who have been helping to come back here and enjoy the peace and the weather and do the right thing at the end of the day? “ Mliswa asked.
“To me, I think it is more critical for us from a business point of view to be able to look at whose success and build more millionaires in women, youths, men, war veterans and in the disabled fraternity and from there we are a nation to reckon with.
“So, whoever is a millionaire and is disabled will certainly assist those who are disabled. Whoever is a millionaire who is youthful will assist those who are youths. Whoever is a millionaire who is a woman will assist the women. Whoever is a millionaire who is a war veteran will assist those who are war veterans. May we build that culture”, he said.
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