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CDE PATRICK ZHUWAO

Farirai Machivenyika Harare Bureau
YOUTH Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Patrick Zhuwao is proposing a 10 percent empowerment levy on companies as part of efforts to generate internal resources to fund the indigenisation programme.

He disclosed this in an interview on Friday saying the money would be used to make economic empowerment a reality for the majority of Zimbabweans.

“For us to be able to fund empowerment programmes in the long-term, we’re proposing the introduction of an empowerment levy and we’re empowered by law to propose the levy although it can only be implemented with the approval of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development,” said Minister Zhuwao.

“The legal opinion we have is that the levy should be standard. However, we must be thankful to those companies that have indigenised so we’ll offer them discounts on that empowerment levy. This, therefore, means that entities that are 100 percent indigenous will get a 100 percent discount while those that aren’t, will not get any discount and will have to pay the full levy”.

He said from their projections, $93 million could be raised annually from the levy and the money could be used to fund community share ownership trusts established across the country.

Asked whether the proposed levy would not burden companies already struggling in the current environment, Minister Zhuwao said his mandate was to see Zimbabweans empowered.

“I’m a minister of government appointed by a President elected by the people of Zimbabwe to deliver economic empowerment to them. My job requires that I address the concerns of the people of Zimbabwe. Creating economic empowerment is a major concern for the people of Zimbabwe. I can’t advocate for the interests of foreigners ahead of people who’ve put me in this job,” he said.

About $38 million has so far been deposited into community share ownership trusts with $14 million having been spent already.

The Youth Development, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment ministry says it has approved indigenisation plans for 12,000 companies that include small enterprises.

The Marange-Zimunya Community scheme was launched by President Mugabe in 2012 and five diamond companies operating in Marange diamond fields pledged a total of $50 million towards the trust.

Anjin, Mbada, Marange Resources, Diamond Mining Company and Jinan reportedly pledged $10 million each then.

But they have denied knowledge of the trust together with the pledges they allegedly made.