Masvingo Bureau
Politicians who are opposing the indigenisation and economic empowerment programme are cowards getting angry on behalf of foreigners, a Cabinet minister has said. Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere said

yesterday that the country will press ahead with the programme despite the opposition.
He was addressing students at the           Great Zimbabwe University during a public lecture on Indigenisation and Empowerment.
Minister Kasukuwere said it was a shame that there were some Zimbabweans fiercely opposed to the indigenisation programme whose main objective was simply to make sure that indigenous people benefit from their God-given resources.

He said the Government will not pay cash for natural resources under the soil to get equity in foreign-owned mining companies.
Minister Kasukuwere said locals who were opposed to the programme were supposed to be “examined by psychologists to determine their mental propriety” as the indigenisation programme sought to make sure that Zimbabwe accrues maximum benefits from its resources.

He said the local resources have been repeatedly pillaged by foreigners for over a century.
“The truth of the matter is that we will never back down from the indigenisation programme which at the moment is targeting mainly those companies that control what we can call our ‘soil assets’, those natural resources that are under the soil,” said Minister Kasukuwere.

“If there are some Zimbabweans who are opposed to the programme they should instead keep quiet because I for sure know that the majority of Zimbabweans want to be empowered through the indigenisation programme and we will empower them.

He said the indigenisation and economic empowerment programme did not need cowards.
“There is no place in the programme for locals who get angry on behalf of foreigners,” he said. “Why should an indigenous person get angry on behalf of a foreigner instead of getting angry on his or her own behalf.

“These are our God-given resources that we are talking about, resources that are underneath the land between Zambezi and Limpopo, which is Zimbabwe.’’