We need the visionary intellect of the entrepreneur

Written by GODFREY GONESE

Saturday, 07 November 2009 13:32

The partisan politicisation of state and national development institutions in Zimbabwe in the last three decades has misdirected huge amounts of public funds towards individual and party interests to the detriment of national development, writes GODFREY GONESE.
Dished out only to those in the favour of individual ruling party wigs were business loans from development and commercial banks; exchange control authorities; farms and farm equipment; government guarantees; presidential scholarships; parastatal executive, management and directors’ job opportunities; residential stands, and even seed, maize and mealie meal.
The fact that the resources being distributed are national assets, which belong to every citizen of the country, did not bother the evil rulers. This patronage system, so shamelessly practised in the name of liberation, was legitimised by a gullible state media commanded by the same self-serving elite.
The result is there for us all to see: a collapsed economy with as low as zero to 10 per cent industrial production levels, 90 per cent unemployment, massive externalisation of skilled manpower, shameless mismanagement and looting of national assets.
Many genuine entrepreneurs fell victim to this heinous selective system because many of them are, by nature, not bootlickers, but are men and women of independent thought and pursuit and were labelled enemies of the establishment.
A democratic Zimbabwe must dismantle this retrogressive system of political patronage because of the devastating national disaster it has brought to our previously prosperous country. We must establish a truly national, equitable and sustainable system of national asset utilisation. The new system, based on a democratic constitution, must enable the genuine entrepreneur to grow the economy for the good of all.
I have argued previously that all public institutions mandated to empower entrepreneurs must be directed by successful entrepreneurs not bureaucrats. For example, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC ) is used to reward loyal politicians and civil servants who know nothing about resource mobilisation and management for industrial development. Instead, they are used to syphon the little profit and opportunity state-funded business generates for the ruling elite.
The IDC failed in 30 years to empower Zimbabwean entrepreneurs, but has misled the public with the creation of a fake industrial public business empire.
The mandate of the new IDC is the empowerment of all entrepreneurs throughout the country. IDC will be visible and accessible in all provinces of the country. IDC will mobilise technical and financial resources for greenfield and brownfield projects of national significance initiated by Zimbabwean entrepreneurs.
I contend that an IDC driven by entrepreneurs is the only vehicle able to deliver on that mandate. The same should apply to Land Bank, the Mining Industry Development Fund, the National Investment Trust and the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe. These instruments of indigenisation and entrepreneurship development, when led by entrepreneurs, must be well financed to enable them to fulfil their mandate.
In fact, I am persuaded by our bitter experience, that all parastatals as public business need the visionary intellect of the entrepreneur. No civil servant, no soldier, no politician, is good enough as a director of such profit-oriented national assets because he/she does not appreciate the underlying principles of business. Even the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe needs entrepreneur inspiration to avoid exchange control decisions that discourage entrepreneur innovation and enterprise growth initiatives.
We need to overhaul these institutions, redirect all of them, to nurture and support entrepreneurship, the driver of national economic development.

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