‘Targeted sectors will unlock country’s economic potential’ Professor Jonathan Moyo
Professor Jonathan Moyo

Professor Jonathan Moyo

Cletus Mushanawani in Nyanga
ZIMBABWE has targeted major economic enablers among them energy, telecoms, transport and irrigation sectors to unlock the country’s economic potential, a cabinet minister has said.There has not been any investment in these over the past 14 years.

In his keynote address at the Chartered Institute of Secretaries and Administrators annual conference in Nyanga last Friday, Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo said the past three weeks had been remarkably different as unprecedented developments took place in the country.

“As a country, we have entered into serious partnerships with the second largest economy in the world,” he said.

“This is a result of the serious hard work that has been going on in the past 10 months of engagement and dialogue which gives hope of unlocking Zimbabwe’s economic potential.”

Prof Moyo said it was misplaced for people to attack the government on fulfilling its election promises of creating two million jobs before the lapse of the five-year time frame provided in the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset).

“People want to see the benefits of the Chinese and Russian deals today,” he said. “Some are threatening us with demonstrations saying you promised two million jobs, but they are forgetting that the jobs will come over a five-year period. The benefits of the Chinese and Russian deals are over five years.

“Yes, our economy took a battering, but as we speak today the economy is on the rebound because of policies and the self correcting process it is undergoing, especially in this multi-currency regime.

“At one time our economic growth rate went up to 12 percent, but that was a result of indiscipline, especially between 2009 and 2011.

“It was that time when interest rates were too high and we did not understand the true value of the dollar.”

Prof Moyo took a swipe at company secretaries at some parastatals whom he said had contributed to the salarygate scandals in which some bosses allocated themselves hefty salaries.

“The salarygate was a result of failure of professional technical cadres to do their jobs,” he said.

“How can you unlock the country’s economic potential when you allow such madness to take place as professionals? We should engage each other through meaningful dialogue and come up with solutions.

“We should understand that we as a country have been polarised, not just in political terms, but in terms of how we see ourselves in relationships with one another.

“We should understand that because of polarisation we made life difficult for our country as we are unable to access offshore financing because people view us as a country in perpetual clashes. We don’t use common language in discussing our situation.”

Prof Moyo said it was important to go back to the basics and have the economy moving.

“We must think inside the box and not outside the box,” he said.

“How can you tell us to think outside the box as if you have noticed that we are thinking inside the box? In short, we should go back to the basics.”

Answering questions from the floor regarding the salarygate scandal which appears to be losing steam, Prof Moyo said the media had been found wanting as they waited for someone to avail documents and leak information for them to publish stories.

“There is no culture of investigation among media personnel,” he said.

“We are still seized with the issue of salarygate, but we are doing targeted audits.  Issues of corruption require public awareness. For ZBC, the forensic audit has been completed and it chewed up to $245,000 minus the turnaround strategy. This goes to show that a lot of resources are needed to complete all the audits.”

 

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