The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Tuesday, May 18, 1993 — Deregulation is not only to liberalise the economy but it is also a process of decriminalising a lot of conduct and practices which at the moment constitute crimes.

Calling for a clearer and more definitive policy to make it easier to draft the necessary legislation, the Attorney-General, Mr Patrick Chinamasa, told an Indigenous Business Development Centre seminar on deregulation here yesterday that “too many unnecessary regulations have made criminals of our people and increased hundredfold opportunities for corruption.”

The Attorney-General said certain acts had to be scrutinised as they were stifling development.

He cited the Control of Goods Act, Shop Licences Act, Regional Town and Country Planning Act, Urban Councils Act, Rural District Councils Act and the Labour Relations Act as some of the regulations that needed to be reviewed.

Mr Chinamasa said that the Shop Licences Act gave the ZRP or the municipal police “the legal energising sprint” to arrest street vendors.

The Liquor Act which he said was the sister piece of legislation to the Traditional Beer Act was also an area that could be debated. As a result of criminalising the brewing of opaque beer by communal women, it gave giant companies the monopoly while the peasants might have done it to earn a living.

Speaking on the same theme, the deputy Minister and Commerce, Cde Simon Moyo, said that domestic deregulation was important under the economic reform programme “as competition, efficiency and growth cannot be undertaken in an environment of a myriad of regulations.”

Cde Moyo said that the informal sector had remained stagnant and submerged because of regulations that inhibited its growth.