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Nqobile Tshili, [email protected]

BLACK empowerment is one of the major milestones brought about by Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle as the country celebrates 44 years of independence.

Prior to independence, sectors such as tourism, mining, banking and energy were controlled by the minority whites, while black Africans were largely limited to small businesses.

However, policy interventions and empowerment programmes have seen the rise of black entrepreneurs, who have created massive job opportunities in various productive sectors.

Now, indigenous people are heavily involved in the tourism and hospitality industry as employees and employers, with the Government establishing a revolving fund to support growth in the sector.

Through policy interventions and empowerment programmes, which have been scaled up under the Second Republic, a majority of Zimbabweans, including women and youths are now actively involved in economic activities in various productive sectors.

Unlike the pre-independence era when the levers of the economy were in the hands of whites, with Africans only limited to owning small businesses like running a grinding mill, general dealers’ shops and rural buses, independence saw the rise of black entrepreneurs who have created massive job opportunities.

As Zimbabwe prepares to celebrate 44 years of independence, analysts say black empowerment is one of the major milestones brought about by the liberation struggle.

Bulawayo businessman and Zanu-PF secretary for business development, Cde Elifasi Mashaba, said during the colonial era the economy was structured to benefit whites, with the black majority used as cheap labour.

“The country’s economy has always been agro and mining based, that is why whites never wanted to let go of the land. Today we speak of mushrooming of small scale gold miners, but this does not mean that gold has just been discovered,” he said.

“In these farms, the whites were conducting mining, but pretending to be involved in agriculture only. That is why they had airstrips in the farms, as they would smuggle our mineral wealth out of the country without being detected.

“But the Land Reform Programme changed all that and that is why now ,young black millionaires have emerged as they are involved in the mainstream economic sectors,” said Cde Mashaba.

He said while only a few conglomerates such as Total, PB, Caltex, controlled the petroleum sector pre-independence, post-independence saw the Government liberalising the sector and there are now over 143 indigenous players in the energy business.

“The banking sector was wholly controlled by whites, but now at least 90 percent of the country’s banks are run by indigenous people. Even the manufacturing sector is now controlled by indigenous players,” said Cde Mashaba.

“But we continue fighting the economic battle as the whites imposed sanctions on the country in a bid to stifle our progress and the economic battle is worse than before.”

The tourism and hospitality industry is the country’s third highest foreign currency earner and in an independent Zimbabwe, indigenous people are heavily involved in the sector not just as employees, but as employers.

Tourism and Hospitality Industry Deputy Minister, Tongai Mnangagwa, said the country’s liberation struggle empowered blacks to penetrate the sector, which was a no go area for Africans.

“From the advent of our Independence we have managed to open the space for indigenous black Zimbabweans in hunting and conservancy business, which was a preserve of the white people,” he said.

“All the big tourism players were whites. But now we have black people owning hotels, we have got black people running state-of-the-art restaurants in different resort areas. We have black people owning boats that are hired in areas such as Lake Kariba and Lake Chivero,” said Deputy Minister Mnangagwa.

He said Africans have been mainstreamed into the main levers of the economy and this is a result of the liberation struggle that ensured equal opportunities for all.

He said it was pleasing to see some black people thriving in business and offering quality services in the sector. He said the Government has established a revolving fund for the growth of the sector.

“As a Government we came up with a revolving fund, which players can access to expand their business. It is available in all the major banks and after submitting all the required papers, a revolving fund has been put in place by the Government. This helps these players so that they can offer international standards,” he said.

Former Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe president, Mr Farai Chimba, said traces of tourism can be traced back to the early 1900s, when indigenous Zimbabweans mostly participated in the sector as menial labourers.

“As a people we were mainly exposed to the tourism sector in menial jobs such as cooks and serving staff for the greater post-independence. The 2000s saw more senior roles in decision making and administration in tourism being taken up, bringing a generation of managers and owners culminating in the takeover of some of the country’s private hotel groups by locals,” said Mr Chimba.

“The shift to the service industry was from a realisation of the low hanging fruit and potential it bears while exposure in travel also brought in new products and ideas to invest back in Zimbabwe.” — @nqotshili