President hailed for transformative vision
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa has been commended for transforming several sectors and institutions after he opened doors for indigenous players’ participation soon after Independence.
During his tenure as Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, President Mnangagwa took it upon himself to reform sectors and institutions to have a national and indigenous outlook from their dominance by whites.
This came out during a meeting President Mnangagwa held with members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe (ICAZ) at State House in Harare yesterday where it emerged that the Head of State and Government was instrumental in reforming the profession.
President Mnangagwa held an hourlong meeting with executive members of ICAZ where they drew his memory to the country’s formative years after delivering newspaper articles published in the early 80s showing his contribution to the democratising of their profession.
They also delivered a book chronicling their 100 years of existence.
In receiving the presents, President Mnangagwa reminisced about the long journey he travelled fighting to change the racial structure in organisations.
“So we wanted things to change very fast, so what we did was to assist, so many organisations were predominantly white, but we had to find ways to assist to change the texture,” said
President Mnangagwa.
Some of the pioneers of chartered accountants include Mr Ngoni Kudaro who was the first black person to qualify for ICAZ and Mrs Emilia Chisango who was the first black president of the organisation. In an interview soon after meeting President Mnangagwa, ICAZ president, Mr Tumai Mafunga, commended the Second Republic for stabilising the economy through enhanced capacity utilisation of industry and dealing with corruption.
He said Government had registered marked achievements in steering the economy and judging by the current economic trajectory, better things were beckoning for the country.
“If you look at most industries, particularly in manufacturing, there has been an increase in capacity utilisation, it is something that is commonly known and there has been some stability that has come up on the economic front, but we are still faced with certain challenges that we need to address,” Mr Mafunga said.
“We had an opportunity to meet with the President. We were celebrating more than 100 years of existence within the country.
“He has quite a significant part of that journey as far back as the 1980s in terms of his specific personal input in changing the demographic statistics and racial statistics of the ICAZ.”
He said they also discussed economic developments in the country and President Mnangagwa’s zero tolerance for corruption, saying it resonated well with their profession.
“We also spoke about what is happening in the economy, some of the positives in terms of the policies that have been implemented and some of the challenges that some of our members who are sitting within the industry are facing and we are saying we stand ready as chartered accountants to assist.
“Beyond that we are also engaging the Ministry of Finance in terms of professionalising some of the accountants within Government as well as working with the Ministry of Education to expand the number across the country,” he said.