Govt failing to walk the talk on promises

EARLY last year, a Chinese diplomat remarked that Harare had frustrated Beijing’s corporations by turning back on honouring crucial promises and agreements that it usually undertakes before inking vital investment deals. Chinese investors felt badly let down. This is a country their government was working around the clock to help stem a two decade- long economic crisis triggered by diplomatic gaffs that ended in with a gruelling isolation. It looks so ordinary and simple when investors raise these critical issues. But we can choose to ignore them at our own peril.

Chinese investors are withholding FDI because they want to deal with regimes that protect their capital, not governments that violate their own undertakings. Capital is hard to raise.

These remarks should have jolted President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration into immediate action, coming from its ‘all weather friend’, a powerful ally that is already flexing its economic muscles worldwide.

The Chinese have already committed US$2,5 billion to prop up Harare during the era of isolation. Yet shockingly, Zimbabwe continues on its self-destruction path, which has relegated Mnangagwa’s much hyped “Open for Business” refrain to a joke.

In this issue, the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce warns strongly against rampant corruption in high offices, slams political instability and government’s laissez-faire attitude towards addressing a long-drawn currency conundrum. It explains how such vagaries have pushed off investors and drained vital public resources. We are also worried that Mnangagwa’s regime has failed to break with the past.

Leaders within its ranks still think that it is fashionable to raid white farmers and kick them off their land without paying a dime.

The case of Goromonzi farmer, Martin Grobbler comes to mind. There are consequences to such brainless actions. We remind Mnangagwa that unilaterally grabbing farms inflicts irreparable damage to the economy and our trustworthiness as a nation. That is why the government is having to pay former white farmers $3,5 billion in compensation.

Zimbabwe requires a leadership that applies rational thinking. Our national image has been badly soiled by self-enrichment schemes that benefit only a few.

The outcry over Grobbler’s ouster may have fizzled out, but the imprint will take long to be erased in the hearts of investors and Zimbabwe will pay dearly for this blunder. But the case of Premier African Minerals reported by our sister paper Newsday this week illustrated just how the crisis may be spiralling out of control.

After undertaking to develop a world class lithium operation in Zimbabwe, Premier was promised that its assets would be granted an exclusive prospecting order.

Many months on, they still wait to hear from the Ministry of Mines. And they are “frustrated and disappointed”.

This is not how it should be, and we implore Mnangagwa to do the right things before this economy relapses again. Open for business? We think not. But it is not too late, if Mnangagwa and his cabal can turn over a new leaf. But at this rate, we are not that hopeful.