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Minister Zhuwao

Ivan Zhakata and Ellah Mukwati
Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Minister Patrick Zhuwao has slammed foreigners who claim to create value for Zimbabweans through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), arguing that they were bent on looting the country’s natural resources.

Speaking at the official opening of Meat Box, a butchery that employs 235 people in Epworth yesterday, Cde Zhuwao said foreigners would never help build Zimbabwe’s economy without strings attached.

“Why should we as Zimbabweans go outside seeking foreigners to build our economy? We do not need a foreigner to sort out our economy, no,” he said.

“The foreigners can never come and build the Zimbabwean economy; they must come and assist us on our terms because they never come here to assist us but they come here to extract value.

“Please (foreigners) don’t try to come and tell us that you are creating value because you did not create platinum, God created platinum, you did not create diamond, God created diamond, you did not create gold, God created gold and when God created that gold he puts it on a piece of land called Zimbabwe for me and every Zimbabwean.

“So the conceptualisation that Foreign Direct Investment comes to create value is totally false and unGodly,” he said.

Cde Zhuwao said people should know how to identify problems and come up with solutions, therefore creating value for the economy.

He said that the reason why foreigners got investment certificates was a clear indication that they came here only to extract and loot our natural resources in the disguise of investing.

Speaking at the same event, Meat Box chief executive officer and Zanu-PF member Cde Acie Lumumba challenged Epworth residents to empower themselves and desist from relying on donors.

He said the only way to create jobs in Zimbabwe was through identifying and fixing problems in various sectors of the economy.

“We have created 235 jobs in Epworth and we are aiming at 600 jobs in the next six months in Harare alone,” Cde Lumumba said.

“We are committed to working in Zimbabwe and I am committed to Zanu-PF and I follow President Mugabe’s indigenisation policy. We do not need FDI, but we need to teach the people of Epworth to work and empower themselves as 50 percent of Meat Box belongs to the Epworth community,” he said.

Epworth legislator Cde Zaleriah Makari and Affirmative Action Group president Mr Chamu Chiwanza among others, attended the event.