By Joyce Mukucha
The Office of the President and Cabinet, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development and the State Enterprises Restructuring Agency together with line ministries and other relevant agencies of Government are carrying out procedures to improve a rationalisation of the State Enterprise and Parastatal sector.
Finance and Economic Development minister, Patrick Chinamasa said there has been a lot of reporting over the past two weeks or so about the Government’s aims with respect to the suggested rationalisation of the State Enterprise and Parastatal sector announced by Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa in his inauguration on the 24th of November 2017.
In a statement, Chinamasa said the proposal is being crafted from Line Ministries in respect of all State Entities which include liquidation, privatisation, part-privatisation, engagement of strategic or joint venture partners or departmentalisation.
Their respective purview include evidence-based assessments of the current financial and performance status and potential future viability of each Entity together with recommended options for reform.
“In cases where the Entity is of critical strategic nature and must therefore remain under Government control or with a majority Government shareholding, the Line Ministry has been directed to develop credible proposals for effective turn-around of the Entity.
“It goes without saying that once the principle of the proposed reform in respect of each Entity has been approved by Cabinet, the relevant Line Ministry will be required to develop within a specified timeframe, a detailed implementation matrix and to drove that programme as per greed timeliness,” said Chinamasa.
Chinamasa added that following the misleading information which social media networks have spread concerning the invitation of investors, it has resulted in the generation of expressions of interest from a wide range of potential investors.
“Social media networks even carried a purported media release from the long defunct Privatisation Agency of Zimbabwe inviting investors to bid for shareholding in a wide range of State Enterprises, which in turn gave rise to a raft of unhelpful speculative reporting,” he said.
Chinamasa alluded to the fact that although the dissemination of a false media release from a non-existent State Agency was unhelpful and misleading, joint venture partners and strategic partners in respect of a number of State Entities responded positively.
“This is most welcome and reflects the growing confidence shown both from within the country and from beyond our borders in our new political leadership, its intense focus on the economy and its collective determination to restore our country to a path of sustainable economic growth and development” Chinamasa said.
As the Government moves to rationalise the State Enterprise and Parastatal minister Chinamasa urged the interested parties to direct their expressions of interest to the relevant Line Ministry for initial consideration and evaluation.
“Thereafter, the Line Ministry in collaboration with my ministry and the aforementioned agencies of Government will work together to ensure that where appropriate those expressions of interest are factored into the reform path and options identified for the Entity/ies concerned,” he said.
This is done to avoid discouraging those within Zimbabwe and without who are sincerely attracted in ancillary or contributing in the reform process during a pending of the finalisation of the consolidated proposed reform programme and its submission to the Cabinet.
