- Dear Family and Friends,
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- We all wondered what would happen when there were no
more farms left to grab and this week we got the answer. It's not diamonds
as we thought, those are undoubtedly destined only for the very deep, velvet
lined pockets of the really big wigs. It's the companies and businesses
that are next.
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- After a year of appeals, conferences and seminars to
try and attract investors back to Zimbabwe, everything was wasted in a
single stroke this week. A new regulation has just been gazetted requiring
that all local and foreign owned companies must hand over at least 51 per
cent ownership to "indigenous" Zimbabweans. Multiple thousands
of companies are going to be affected and economists predict that many
local industries will be forced into bankruptcy.
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- An article in the UK Daily Telegraph quotes an expert
who explains the implications in simple language that anyone can understand:
"Daniel Ndlela, Zimbabwe's most eminent regional economist said: "There
will be no foreign investment into Zimbabwe. Why would anyone come into
Zimbabwe with $100 and be left with $49? ... those who might have invested
in Zimbabwe will now never come."
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- This new regulation does not just affect foreign companies
but also those belonging to Zimbabweans whose skin happens to not be black.
It affects men and women who were born here, went to school and university
here, built homes and businesses here and have lived in Zimbabwe all their
lives - people who know no other country but Zimbabwe.
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- Standing chatting to a young "indigenous" Zimbabwean
one evening this week he said to me:
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-
- "It shames me to say that nowadays if you are white
you are always in the wrong. Even if you are in the right, if you are white,
you are
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- wrong."
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- "Like it was for blacks before 1980?" I suggested.
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- He laughed and said :"I don't know, I wasn't even
born then!"
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- We slapped hands in that Zimbabwean way of sharing a
good laugh and changed the topic.
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- We've just heard that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
is talking about elections in April next year. "Park and proceed"
is what the PM is saying. Everyone knows that the endless stalling and
so called negotiations between Zanu PF and the MDC are never going to be
resolved. As MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said this week: " We don't
want to keep Zimbabweans in suspense and anxiety. We are holding everyone
to ransom."
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- They are indeed because all we want to do is get on with
our lives, change, improve, prosper and stop going backwards. So lets park
that rusty old bus and proceed. What a good idea.
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- Until next time, thanks for reading,
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- love cathy
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- Copyright cathy buckle 13 February 2010. <http://www.cathybuckle.com>www.cathybuckle.com
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- For information or orders of my new book: "INNOCENT
VICTIMS" or previous books "African Tears" and "Beyond
Tears," or to subscribe/unsubscribe to this newsletter, please write
to:
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- cbuckle@mango.zw
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