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Jacob Mudenda

Prosper Ndlovu  in Victoria Falls
ZIMBABWE’S economy is a victim of the scourge of “excessive” bureaucracy which is manifested in delayed strategy implementation that hampers progress on the economic front, the Speaker of Parliament, Advocate Jacob Mudenda, said yesterday.

In a presentation on the role of Parliament in enhancing economic development at the on-going Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce 2016 annual congress here, Adv Mudenda called for a paradigm shift in the governance attitude, particularly on the part of decision makers and heads of ministries.

“We’ve a problem of excessive bureaucracy in Zimbabwe. Zim-Asset seeks to bring about results-based management approaches but the cancer (bureaucracy) is still there. We need a change of mindset in this,” he said.

“In August last year President Mugabe announced that by December 31, 2015, the One Stop Shop investment centre must be there but it’s not there. This (one stop shop) is the gate way to investment in Zimbabwe. Without it how do you promote investment? Our bureaucracy needs to be more pro-active.”

The establishment of the one stop shop centre is envisaged to speed up the process of establishing businesses in Zimbabwe by weeding out the multiplicity of regulatory and compliance stages that repel investors.

The implementation of the strategy has remained in limbo for nearly three years with little progress and it has missed numerous deadlines.
Advocate Mudenda challenged the business community to be pro-active and come up with implementable resolutions as opposed to complaining and drafting “wish lists”.

He said while the Office of the President and Cabinet was spearheading investment reform processes having identified several laws that need to be realigned, the 100-day target period was “too” long.