‘Eighty Parastatals Are Not Making A Profit’ – Mabvuku Tafara MP James Maridadi

 
MABVUKU-TAFARA MP James Maridadi has said Zimbabwe’s parastatals were not generating any profits hence that was a sign that the country’s economy was not functioning properly.
 
“There is something in Corporate Strategy, which is called ‘root cause analysis’. What it means is that when you see a problem and you want to deal with the problem, you do what is called an analysis of the root cause of that problem,” he said.
 
“I think what we are discussing here; children on the streets, drug abuse, and prostitution are symptoms. Symptoms are as a result of an underlying problem. It is that problem that we must unpack for us to be able to understand the symptoms. If we do not unpack the problem then we will not be able to understand the symptoms. The symptoms will continue to haunt us forever.”
 
Maridadi said in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe has a population of about 15 million. Unemployment is at 80%, industry is operating at below 25% capacity.
“There is unmitigated corruption. We have about 80 parastatals in the country; none of them are making profits,” he said.
 
“None of them have declared a dividend to Government ever since 1995. They are all making a loss. Every Minister of Finance, ever since Dr. Simba Makoni, has complained that parastatals are a drain on the fiscus. What it means is the fiscus is continuously bailing out parastatals. Yet before 1980, parastatals contributed 40% of this country’s GDP.”
 
Maridadi said Cold Storage Company (CSC), at its peak slaughtered 750 000 head of cattle every year.
 
“Last year, the CSC slaughtered less than 2 000 head of cattle. At its peak CSC used to make $740 million in profit. Today the CSC is more than US$100 million in deficit. The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), one of the key parastatals in the country, at its peak, moved more than 28 million tonnes. Last year, NRZ reported in their annual report, a copy which I have here, reported that they moved less than 3.5 million tonnes,” he said. by Stephen Jakes. Source: Byo24News

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