State entities reforms attract foreign interest

The current State entities reform exercise has attracted interest from renowned international financial institutions that have pledged technical support to the initiative that is meant to breathe life into the companies and save the fiscus from ‘unnecessary financial bailouts’.

The Sunday Mail has gathered that the World Bank and Africa Export-Import Bank have come on board with technical support to the reforms that will result in parastatal mergers, privatisation, partnerships and dissolutions.

State enterprises have over the years come under fire from Government for failure to transform and provide efficient services.

The majority of the companies are saddled with serious maladministration with the Government’s auditor general Mrs Mildred Chiri bemoaning cases of gross abuse of office by some parastatal bosses.

The Sunday Mail has established that implementation of the parastatal reforms is progressing steadily, with committees for asset evaluation having been established in most of the entities.

A number of international and regional suitors continue to lodge enquiries to Government, expressing interest in investing in State enterprises.

In an interview, State Enterprises Restructuring Agency (SERA) acting executive director Mr Ernest Mujongondi said they had met senior officials from Africa Exim Bank last week over the reform exercise.

“We met officials from Africa Exim Bank on Wednesday (last week) and they will be back on the 10th of June so that we finalise,” he said.

“They indicated that they can offer technical support in line with what World Bank is also doing.

“They also said they can come in and assist in the restructuring of the parastatals, debt restructuring and working capital before we privatise. But we are still scoping on the actual extent of the support they are going to give.”

Mr Mujongondi said Africa Exim Bank had expressed willingness to consider availing funds to clear some debts that have been accrued by the parastatals.

He said the debt clearance strategy was upon realisation that privatising some of the companies could be difficult because of the huge debts the companies are sitting on.

Mr Mujongodi said a team of experts MDC Alliance leader Mr Nelson Chamisa says the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) is a professional and patriotic national body, which is unlikely to block him from assuming the Presidency in the implausible event that he wins the forthcoming elections.

Addressing a rally at Pelandaba Stadium in Gwanda on Friday, Mr Chamisa told supporters he believes that the army prioritises the interests of the people.

Mr Chamisa’s assertions puts paid to claims by some sections of the opposition party that sought to besmirch the country’s defence forces as forerunners of Zanu-PF’s elections machinery.

“Mukupe said if I win, the army won’t allow me to rule, he said they will stop me from ruling. This will not happen because soldiers are patriotic and professional. They don’t serve an individual, but they follow the will of the people and therefore they will support the will of the people because it’s the people who would have elected me,” he said.

Last week, Government reiterated that the army, which religiously upholds the Constitution, will not be involved in the elections. The assurance came after Finance and Economic Development Deputy Minister Mr Terence Mukupe was quoted as having said the army will not allow Mr Chamisa to rule if he wins the elections.

Mr Mukupe has however claimed that he was quoted out of context.

At Friday’s event, Mr Chamisa also berated the party’s interpreter for demeaning President Mnangagwa after he kept on referring to him as “chiMnangagwa”.

Party members, he said, had an obligation to respect President Mnangagwa despite their political differences.

“Can you show some respect and address him properly! I respect Mnangagwa from World Bank was already on the ground. “World bank is giving what it is calling technical support, like for instance Zesa, it (World Bank) will come and give us expects who will look into the power sector, our needs and the proposal that we have,” he said. (The experts) will then give us advice to say for you to achieve this you look into these issues so that as we do that we are informed technically by the experts,” he said.

Following the approval of state enter- prises reforms by Cabinet last month, Government has made great strides in implementing the reforms.

The programme has been put under the 100 days Rapid Results Initiative.

The boards for Zimbabwe Power Company, Zesa Enterprises and the Zimbabwe Electricity and Distribution Company are currently being merged into one while the Grain Marketing Board is working on unbundling the Strategic Reserve section from the commercial operations.

The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority’s reform memorandum is being considered by Cabinet.

Technical committees have been set up to evaluate assets and initiate the privatisation processes in Agribank, Petrotrade, ZUPCO and the Industrial Development Corporation subsidiaries. Modalities for the partial privatisation of the 17 Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation subsidiaries have also been set in motion and are being implemented in batches. Mr Mujongondi said Government is pursuing an organised approach to engage the suitable investors through a bidding process.

He said specific details on the investors who have expressed interest for each parastatal will be made public soon, when the tendering processes start. The move to privatise parastatals is expected to capacitate them to operate efficiently.

Government will also gain some proceeds from the sale of its shares, as it moves to raise revenue for the fiscus.