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Mr Pasi

Joram Nyathi  Group Political Editor
TENDAI Biti, until recently MDC-T secretary-general, earned the wrath of his party when he admitted that Zanu-PF had won the July 31, 2013 harmonised elections because it had policies which spoke to ordinary people, including villagers in communal lands while the MDC-T tried to be too “sophisticated”.
My interest here is the idea of a party as a political formation whose members share a common world view and agree broadly on policy issues, be they economic, social or environmental.

There are certain views, at times experiences, which bind them together.
In the case of Zanu-PF, a key bond is their shared experience of the liberation war.

That has influenced the party’s ideology since independence.
The party went into the elections last year riding on the strength of the land reform programme and the indigenisation and economic empowerment policies, both part of the war dividend.

I believe that’s what Biti was referring to in his “offending” comments.
It is thus my belief that when a party manages to win an election so convincingly on the basis of such clear policies, the political leadership and Government bureaucrats must be clear enough to articulate those policies.

Unfortunately, we are not always getting that from Zanu-PF.
There is a lot of discord even on things which one expects to have been ironed out and clarified in Cabinet.

Ministers at times speak on the hoof, sometimes lending opportunistic credence to those who complain about lack of policy clarity and consistency.
We had a plethora of that this week, and it can be frustrating, more so when the contradictory messages all have a bearing on Government’s Zim-Asset economic recovery blueprint.

All the pronouncements relate to how Government wants to deal with the issue of cheap foreign imports, especially finished textile products.
It is no revelation to state that our textile industry collapsed as a result of Esap.

Those manufacturers who remain have shown a lot of resistance and deserve everyone’s support for coping with near obsolete equipment, high production and labour costs and no subsidies of any sort.

One would expect Government and its ministers and bureaucrats to be clear on how to address this seemingly straightforward matter in the interests of providing direction to that specific sector. Not quite.

In his 2014 national budget speech, Finance and Economic Development minister Patrick Chinamasa proposed the imposition of higher import duty on finished goods to protect the local textile sector.

This made sense: only those products which can’t be produced locally should be imported, and ordinarily only inputs for the manufacturing sector should be exempt from duty.

The rest should attract premium duty.
Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment minister Francis Nhema was last Friday a guest speaker at a function to launch the “Buy Local, Save Jobs” initiative which is intended to promote the consumption of local products.

Minister Nhema called for a change of mindset fixated on the “foreign is better”. He said as Zimbabweans “we try everyday to run away from ourselves” by associating with foreign products instead of buying from our neighbour and saving a job for our children.

He noted that buying from one another helped revive industry and also those who produce to improve their skills to be able to give us better products next time.
“It’s not about buying only but identifying who we are and that is reflected in the choices we make,” he agonised, adding; “Why are we embarrassed to be ourselves? Unless we deal with that mindset and accept who we are, it will be difficult to buy Zimbabwe and its products. It’s a serious matter…”

Let’s switch over to another venue. This is Parliament.
Our guest is Zimra commissioner-general Gershem Pasi. The day is Monday June 23 2014.

Comm-Gen Pasi told the parliamentary portfolio committee on budget, finance and investment promotion that top clothing retailers Edgars, Topics, TM Supermarkets, Truworths and Greatermans imported finished products worth about $2 million in the first three months of this                                                                            year.

At the same time, they want Government to ban cheap imports from South Africa, China, Zambia and Mozambique, especially second-hand clothes.
Textile manufacturers on the other hand want Government to reduce duty on raw materials and spare parts to 10 percent while raising duty on finished textiles up to 60 percent.

It makes sense.
They want to manufacture locally and create or preserve jobs.
Even Comm-Gen Pasi agrees.

He is worried that the big companies in the retail sector are not importing fabric but finished products, thus rendering local textile factories redundant and there is no job creation.

But Comm-Gen Pasi has his eye not on the bigger Zim-Asset agenda but rather on meeting his revenue target as a civil servant.
He told the parliamentary committee that all revenue collecting agencies should remit the same to Treasury.

Then he went against Minister Chinamasa’s proposals (without naming) to raise duty against cheap foreign imports.
Comm-Gen Pasi said heavy import duty on finished goods to protect local manufacturers was counterproductive because it forced people to smuggle goods, and this cost the country US$35 million every year in lost duty.

The country imports textiles valued at $300 million annually.
Then came his solution, a deus ex machina of sorts: “Would we not be better off opening up and allowing people to import freely so that they declare and we get some duty?” he asked Parliament on Monday.

This is a country which is trying to fight the scourge of corruption and we want the commissioner general to nip it at the border. No, he avers, heavy duty justifies corruption.

Or is he making a statement; that so long as those fingered in corrupt activities and other malfeasances are not punished, why should Zimra earn itself enemies by trying to fight corruption? After all it’s always small fish which get caught.

So lower the duty and damn the local textile manufacturers!
It gets worse, from shock to scandal, when you soon discover that there is a higher authority in Cabinet who supports Comm-Gen  Pasi’s logic on finished imports.
Industry minister Mike Bimha is dismissive of protectionist measures for two reasons.

He said recently that raising duties on imports only served to protect inefficient local manufacturers.
Second, and more important, “Shutting all our borders would be a brilliant idea as politicians but as Government we should consider all regional conventions we subscribe to,” he said.

Both points have limited validity even without being polemical.
I have been reading Rtd Colonel David Chiweza’s book, “From the Rabble” in which he cogently explains the rise of China, India, Brazil and South Africa.
His point in a nutshell is that if we want to develop, we need to develop local skills.

You move from imitation, improvement, improvisation through to invention.
Along that journey, those who produce need a market for their shoddy goods.

It is a period of incubation during which only locals can provide that market.
We don’t expect those people making beds, chairs, sofas and wardrobes in Glen View to immediately start supplying Greatermans and Barbours in competition with South African imports. But it is the role of Government to protect their market, to ensure they grow until they can export.

So yes Minister, the SMS operator needs protection if Zim-Asset is to make sense.
Necessity provides both the market and the impetus to do better.

We don’t need to beat our chest dressed in borrowed robes.
After all the US and EU nations provide protection to their farmers in the form of subsidies, allowing those farmers to dump their produce in Africa.
South Africa this week raised the issue of dumping of chicken products from EU countries, particularly Germany, the UK and the Netherlands.

The second issue, these conventions we sign up to are not cast in stone. But even more importantly, it teaches us to approach these EPA with our eyes wide open.
Because we love to be seen as nice guys and sign documents we haven’t read, let alone draft, we Africans tend to tie our nations to bad deals which prejudice us.

Thankfully, WTO protocols allow contracting parties under the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) to renegotiate if there is sufficient evidence that as a result of dumping, our industry (textile in Zimbabwe’s case) is being suffocated and destroyed. South Africa is taking that route to protect its poultry industry.

What stops Zimbabwe from doing the same to correct agreements signed in moments of ill-informed exuberance?
Is it because of pride, because we imagine we are literate?

Let me conclude with Minister Nhema on the foreign mindset; “Does it really pain you to stop listening to Beyonce and listen to our local music? It’s a mindset I am worried about … because what is produced in the beginning may not be what you expect.”
Ya, Gentlemen, you make a riotous span of oxen.