The Zimbabwean state has started another “blitzkrieg” — this time on businesses, threatening to take 51% of the equity in all foreign-owned concerns, the country’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) economics adviser Eddie Cross has said.
In his Christmas message carried on his internet newsletter and commentary on the situation in Zimbabwe, Cross said there are already signs that foreign businesses are withdrawing from the embattled state.
Noting that the Zanu-PF ruling party’s argument is that it wants to turn this equity in foreign-owned concerns over to the “people” and ensure that Zimbabweans are in control of all economic institutions, he said this merely boils down to handing them to the ruling party’s cronies.
Cross said businesses know “full well what that means and the signs are there already as to what their attitude is going to be — withdrawal”.
Cross reported that he already saw Mobil and BP taking down the signage on their petrol stations throughout the country.
“Anglo American, once the owner of 40% of the country’s private sector, has almost totally liquidated its holdings — remaining with a platinum mine in the midlands that is simply too valuable to relinquish unless the situation becomes totally impossible.
“Mines have halted all prospecting and drilling for new ore bodies, and have suspended all major maintenance and expansion. The next step is closure,” he charged.
The International Monetary Fund team that has just completed its latest Article 4 consultations warned that unless radical changes take place, the outlook for Zimbabwe is grim.
Cross said: “I could not agree more. I see no sign of change in the way that Zanu-PF is running the country — in fact I can only see things getting worse.”
Painting a grim picture of the recent political history of the country — under the headline “Walking in the Dark” — Cross noted: “We have survived a total onslaught by the [President Robert] Mugabe regime since the people first made their feelings known in 2000.
“Having suffered their first electoral defeat since 1980 in the February 2000 [constitutional] referendum, the regime has launched an onslaught against the freedoms and rights of the people of Zimbabwe in an unprecedented manner. We may not be at war, but our condition shows all the symptoms of a nation that is at war with itself.”
Cross reported that the Zimbabwean economy has shrunk every year since 1998, total economic output is half what it was in 1997 and exports are a third. Life expectancy has fallen from 60 years to 34 for women and 36 for men.
His advice to fellow Zimbabweans is: “Let’s enjoy each other’s company and stand together in a common determination that whatever 2007 throws at us we will manage the outcome and help each other to do so as well.” — I-Net Bridge