ZIMBABWE: Activists Seek WSF Solidarity Against Privatisation

By Stanley Kwenda
HARARE, Feb 7 (IPS) Zimbabwean activists will raise the issue of
privatisation at the World Social
Forum, taking place Feb 6-11 in Dakar, Senegal, and seek solidarity from
other
activists to resist a renewed government attempt at selling
Zimbabwe’s state-
owned enterprises.

"Privatisation is one of the issues that we will talk about in
various
discussions. We have seen its devastation in many countries where it has
been
tried. All it does is to leave the poor at the mercy of the rich,"
Darlington
Madzonga, convener of the Zimbabwe Social Forum (ZSF), told IPS.

"We want mobilisation towards a new world order where governments
consult
citizens before mortgaging state property through privatisation. We seek
international solidarity from social movements across the world in our
fight
against privatisation," he added.

ZSF is a member of the Southern Africa Social Forum, a loose grouping of
organisations working to promote social and economic rights in the region.

The Zimbabwean government has embarked on an ambitious privatisation
programme, pitched as reviving loss-making enterprises that burden the
national purse.

The country wants to turn around 10 struggling state enterprises by
restructuring, commercialising or privatising them during 2011.

The targeted firms include the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), National
Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), fixed telephone operator Tel*One and mobile
phone operator Net*One, AgriBank, the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe
(NOCZIM), Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), Air Zimbabwe and
beef producer Cold Storage Company.

The Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (ZISCO) has already been sold to an
Indian company.

The unity government formed by political rivals ZANU-PF and the Movement
for Democratic Change in 2009 is battling to fix an ailing economy.

State enterprises minister Gorden Moyo told IPS that the government is
determined to change the fortunes of state-owned firms, many of them on
their knees due to years of mismanagement.

"We are consulting with a view to implementing privatisation but we
will use
the best possible model to benefit the people of Zimbabwe," Moyo told
IPS.
According to ministry of finance statistics, if properly managed,
state-owned
enterprises could contribute 40 percent of the poor southern
Afrocan’s
country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

For instance, when ZISCO operated at full capacity in the 1990s it
contributed
10 percent of GDP.

But opponents of the programme say privatisation prejudices citizens who
are
already suffering due to high costs and inadequate public services.

"To expect to make billions out of services that are supposed to
serve the
populace is unfair as they are the ones who have to pay for such service
provision," Hopewell Gumbo, a Harare-based activist who works with
the
Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD), told IPS.

"Selling to the private sector means a loss of state control.
Resources could
be used for whatever purpose," he argued. ZIMCODD is an organisation
that
works to promote social and economic rights.

Giving an example, Gumbo said a company like the Zimbabwe Electricity
Supply Authority (ZESA) might after privatisation decide to sell
electricity to a
richer neighbouring country for a profit, leaving Zimbabweans literally in
the
dark. South Africa has struggled with power outages in recent years.

Masimba Kuchera, who works with the Students’ Solidarity Trust
(SST), a
tertiary education pressure group, told IPS that privatisation is not
entirely
detrimental but should not be implemented in areas that are vital to
people’s
daily survival.

"By its nature privatisation is about re-orienting companies to make
a profit,
so it must be confined to those areas that do not have to do with
people’s
survival," Kuchera said. "Services such as water, electricity,
health and
education should not be privatised."

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions’ (ZCTU) secretary general
Wellington
Chibhebhe told IPS that, "privatisation is concerned with maximising
profits
ahead of human needs, rights and interests".

ZCTU believes privatisation will result in massive exploitation,
considering
that most of state-owned companies hold monopolies in their markets.
Chibhebhe cited the problem of high tariffs charged for electricity, water
and
telephone services.

Economist Eric Bloch believes many of the concerns about privatisation are
unfounded. "The competition and tariffs commission will address
excessive
pricing and contain it," Bloch told IPS. However, the
commission’s role
remains very much that of a paper tiger.

Proponents maintain that failure of privatisation has largely to do with
lack of
political commitment, poor design, insufficient resources, weak management
and corruption.

In the past privatisation in Zimbabwe has had mixed results. After the
world
prices of platinum, copper and tantalite fell in the late 1990s, three
privatised
mines closed and left behind ghost towns and thousands of workers without
jobs.

However, a study done by the trade union-linked African Labour Research
Network (ALRN), titled "Privatisation: African Experiences",
discovered
successes following the privatisation of Dairibord Zimbabwe Limited (DZL).

DLZ managed to widen its product base and to launch other local and
foreign
investments in Malawi.

It achieved real growth in sales volumes and employment and earned foreign
currency for the country. It also contributes to the development of small-
scale dairy farms through a special scheme it finances.

But in neighbouring Zambia, privatisation resulted in job losses when
state
assets were sold. The ALRN study concluded that women workers are often
the hardest hit by retrenchments that accompany privatisation.