The Sunday News
Economic Focus
ONE of life’s most common mistakes is holding onto something for too long until it loses relevance. It might be at personal level or even at corporate level, we have tended to hold on to many things, some worthless and contributing nothing to our progress in life.
That is why even at personal levels, some people still keep goods that have lived way past their usefulness.
There are garages in some residential areas with cars perched on stones. Their owners watched as the cars lost value and without releasing, these cars and other goods have become worthless and cannot even be sold.
That is the problem of holding onto something and refusing to let it go.
That seems to be the exact problem that has resulted in the problems facing most parastatals in the country.
Worldwide parastatals play a very important role in the growth of economies.
In fact in some countries, Governments have taken deliberate policies to ensure that they support parastatals and that they become major players in the economy. It makes sense because at least Governments have the chance to monitor the provision of goods and services at competitive prices.
Many countries are not comfortable leaving the provision of essential services and goods to private players whom by their nature are always driven by the hunger and desire to line up their pockets.
The idea of having strategic parastatals once worked in Zimbabwe as some of these companies managed to grow and become major players in the economy.
In fact some of them became huge employers. An example is the National Railways of Zimbabwe.
This strategic company grew to phenomenal levels and became an employer of choice for many people.
Further it became a major player in the provision of accommodation, building houses for its employees in many cities. Many companies were also formed to feed directly or indirectly into NRZ.
This was not the only parastatal which was performing well. The Grain Marketing Board was once every farmer’s choice.
It used to buy grain from across the country.
In some cases as a way of supporting rural farmers, it even used to provide transport to ferry the grain to its depots. It was the dream of every farmer to receive a cheque from GMB at the end of each selling season.
It was a mark of approval for a successful season. It never took ages to get payment from GMB after delivering the grain.
In most cases once the grain was delivered it was common knowledge those who would have delivered the maize would come back home with the cheques.
For cattle farmers, the Cold Storage Company (then Commission) was one wonderful hunting area. Once your cattle were delivered there then you would smile all the way to the bank.
Air Zimbabwe was the pride of the country and it won many accolades for its service and was more pronounced for carrying the flag of the country across the globe. It became the face of Zimbabwe outside its borders and air travellers were happy to be associated with the airline. There were many other parastatals which used to provide efficient and wonderful services.
These parastatals were also important for the Government and would be called in to carry out their duties whenever called to.
The GMB for example would ensure that when there was a drought, it would be ready with reserves to feed the nation. It was a well-coordinated affair and almost every parastatal was doing its duty to balance between its workers, its clients and its major shareholder-the Government. But such services from parastatals have become just part of our history. Most of these companies have become a laughing stock.
We can agree that most of the parastatals are literally perched on rocks. Their services have deteriorated to unacceptable levels. Most of these companies are dying a natural death and sooner rather than later they may become history.
Not only history but like old cars which sometimes turn into breeding grounds for rats and snakes, some of these dying parastatals have become problems to the Government and the country at large.
They are doing nothing except begging for money from the Government. Look at NRZ, workers have not been paid for almost a year. Most of its equipment is beyond repair and is piling into heaps of scrap metal.
Its management cannot address workers’ concerns and have the temerity to thank those workers who continue to work for free. The company has lost most of its customers. It never used to be like this. Companies used to queue to get their goods railed.
As for GMB, it is even worse. Workers have staged demonstrations at the company headquarters for countless times over unpaid salaries. Farmers who delivered their maize many seasons ago are still waiting for their payments. You wonder what the GMB has used the maize for if they cannot pay the farmers.
As for Air Zimbabwe, it has cut most of its regional and international routes and you will be lucky to arrive in time even on the few local routes they are still operating. The question is then why should Government continue holding on to dying companies and is it worth it to continue holding on just for us to admire their shells?
We need to admit that some of these companies must just be privatised and we let them go.
The situation on the ground shows that these companies are not performing not because there is no business but because there is no money to run them.
Look at NRZ. Yes, many companies that used to use its services are also not doing well but certainly not all.
There is an increase in coal mines in Hwange and we have seen an increase in coal being transported by road. This is rail market and surely NRZ business. Sugar in the Lowveld in also now being transported by road when it is supposed to be railed.
As for GMB, we have seen private players importing and milling maize and wheat. Zimbabweans have not changed their staple food and it shows that they still eat mealie meal and bread.
All these are being provided by private players while GMB is sliding further into crisis.
Private buyers and abattoirs have sprouted across the country. Farmers have not stopped cattle rearing and people have not stopped eating meat. The cattle are being slaughtered by private abattoirs while we still hold on to a dying CSC.
As for Air Zimbabwe, its market is slowly being eaten by new airlines. They are literally feasting on the Air Zimbabwe carcass, getting into the same routes the company was plying or is still plying with limited service. This is just to show that the business that these parastatals must provide is there but the companies simply do not have the capacity to carry out their mandates.
So do we just continue to hold onto them for prestige while the same business is being taken over by private players? We need to privatise most of these parastatals.
After all once we are on sound footing financially we can always reclaim the companies by buying back some shares or even form new companies.
What we cannot continue doing is to hold on to them, with no or limited production while there are ways to make them productive and help in reviving the economy.
