Captains of industry to meet MDC leaders

Industry sources said apart from meeting Morgan Tsvangirai and his counterpart, Arthur Mutambara, the captains of industry might also send emissaries to ZANU-PF to express their concern over the delays in the conclusion of the talks.
The negotiations between the two MDCs and ZANU-PF stalled in September over the allocation of ministries, chief among them being the Ministry of Home Affairs. The impasse, which has been taken to the Southern African Deve-lopment Community, has dampened investor confidence while heightening speculative practices on the market, leading to price increases across the board.
The Zimbabwe Na-tional Chamber of Com-merce, the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Mines and the Confede-ration of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) have previously warned that the stalemate will inflict more damage on an economy that has suffered nine years of distress.
Sources told The Financial Gazette that the captains of industry were likely to task the newly created Business Council of Zimbabwe to lobby the main political parties at the centre of the Zimba-bwe crisis.
“It is time we sit with Morgan Tsvangirai, Arthur Mutambara and ZANU-PF to tell them ‘please get this thing moving’,” a source said.
“It is high time we engage them. We have been stuck for too long and industry has declined in the past 10 years,” he added.
Zimbabwe is currently reeling under hyperinflation, rapid currency depreciation, negative real growth, low industrial production, drought and a wide spectrum of socio-economic hardships.
It is general consensus that the root cause of all the problems being faced by the nation lies in politics.
The central bank governor, Gideon Gono, even blamed the economic failures on political instability when speaking at the CZI congress last week.
“It is therefore clear that unless a solution is found on the political front, the future of the Zimbabwe economy remains very bleak,” said Infinity Asset Manage-ment in its weekly report.
The economic crisis has taken its toll on everything from health, infrastructure, education to farming.
In most hospitals there are no drugs or working equipment.
A handful of doctors who stayed put at the health institutions have been overwhelmed by the workload, with some embarking on endless industrial actions to press for better working conditions and remuneration.
In education, the government has postponed the Higher Education Examinations Council examinations due to the escalation of costs to run the tests.
There has been a flight of artisans, skilled and semi skilled workers from Zimbabwe into the region, a situation that is also worrying industry.
The government has been battling to secure funds needed to fund a multiplicity of its needs after the international community withheld its funds citing fiscal indiscipline and human rights abuses.
Industry is likely to argue before the politicians that without export revenues from the ailing local companies, the foreign currency required to purchase key requirements might remain in short supply.
Last week, former CZI president, Callisto Joko-nya, said the political parties must end the squabbles to resolve the economic crisis.
“The main issues affecting Zimbabwe are the squabbles in politics,” he told The Financial Gazette.
“Why they are delaying signing the agreement boggles the mind. And it is totally unacceptable when industry is at a standstill, when people are suffering,” Jokonya added.