TIME and again we have spoken and emphasised that we are a people ruling themselves for themselves.
We fought and lost limbs and lives, thousands perished for us to become a self-determining people.
The major objective of our struggle was putting ourselves in a position where we called the shots.
Now we are calling the shots.
And that is why some of us find this animal called Special Economic Zones (SEZs) disturbing.
The crafting of the indigenisation and economic empowerment law was no political gimmick.
It was not an exercise to keep legislators busy.
It was not crafted to win favours.
It was not created to rile the West.
It came into existence for the people inspired by the desires of the people.
For some of us, SEZs are a way to circumvent this all important law.
We have never closed our doors to foreign investors.
All we have sought is that we all benefit, the investor and citizens of the country.
Terms and conditions of SEZs are unpalatable.
We get infrastructure and employment under the SEZs, we say that is not sufficient.
Kamativi and Mhangura and many other places are all infrastructure left behind after exploitation of resources and the infrastructure lies idle, it is not benefiting us.
The SEZs come highly recommended, recommended by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Our memories are not short we remember these very same organisations recommending that we adopt the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) for the good of the people and country, we did and we suffered, the economy and people suffered then.
We are not arrogant or foolhardy; we know exactly what is required to get the economy working.
It is the conditions of the SEZs that make us uneasy.
We cannot afford to create Economic Bantustants that will benefit outsiders with cheap labour.
We cannot afford to be impressed by promises of infrastructure.
Shall we be impressed by the fact that Zimbabwe’s employment rate stands at 95 percent yet our livelihoods do not denote it, do not get any better and improved?
For instance, if Domboshava becomes a Special Economic Zone, the ‘benefit’ to be accrued by people in the area will be employment.
Besides gigantic steel structures, the factory, for example, that will be set up in Domboshava to process horticultural produce, will there be any other development in the area.
It is not a secret that anyone that gets into business is seeking a profit and nothing else.
That is why we have come up with a law that seeks to ensure resources anywhere and in any sector will be exploited and benefit the people, benefit them in a significant way.
We are not even in a position to determine how much the workers will be paid in these SEZs, they will be little independent states.
As much as we want foreign investment we cannot afford to have the foreigners operating in isolation as little independent states, in an independent state.
SEZs are simply the West coming to engage us on their terms.
The West needs us more than we need them but they cannot stomach coming to operate and work with us under conditions we have set.
They cannot ‘bore down’ to Mugabe’s desires, to African desires, to black desires, to Zimbabwe’s desires.
They want to come and ‘loot’ our resources and they want to do so under terms they have set.
The fist that has tried to crush us in the past has now been clothed with a velvet glove.
And it remains lethal.
We are not anti-progress or anti-development, we are just wiser.
For long we were ridden.
And we have said no more.