 |
| Professor Amon Murwira |
Moses Ziyambi
More employers are now beginning
to trust the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (Zimdef) because it is no
longer a vehicle for self-enrichment but for skills creation, the Minister of
Higher and Tertiary Education Professor Amon Murwira has said.
Speaking to members of the media
fraternity at his offices in Harare last week, Murwira said there has been a
turnaround in how Zimdef is conducting its affairs.
“We have put governance systems
in place and today Zimdef does not borrow and companies that contribute towards
Zimdef are beginning to trust it. So their contributions are increasing; all
these innovation hubs we are building are being built though Zimdef. That is
evidence of a governance turnaround,” said Murwira.
He said there had hitherto been a
culture of non-accountability and transparency at the institution, resulting in
dubious payments being made to individuals.
“When we arrived, we started
putting some of it to good use. I remember by that time, a minister was giving
themselves a quarter of a million dollars called Minister’s Protocol. But I
rejected it. There is no budget system that works like that.
“Their deeds had been given to
CBZ as surety. So people were being paid by CBZ (Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe)
because their own money had been finished. The money had been stolen, there was
no money,” he said.
Murwira’s predecessor, Professor
Jonathan Moyo, who is in self-imposed exile in Kenya, was indicted for
embezzling over US$200 000 from Zimdef.
Moyo’s then deputy Dr Gondfrey
Gandawa, his former personal assistant Shephard Honzeri and then Zimdef CEO
Fredrick Mandizvidza and have also been in courts for conniving to defraud the
fund of hundreds of thousands of US dollars.
Established by Section 23 of the
Manpower Planning and Development Act, 1984 (now revised Manpower Planning and
Development Act Chapter 28:02 of 1996), Zimdef’s objective is financing the
development of key skills needed in the economy.
“Since 2018 to date, Zimdef has
channeled more than $605 million towards the establishment of innovation hubs and
industrial parks as key inputs to industrialisation and modernisation,” Zimdef
claims on its website.
Murwira said the country was
endowed with massive economic potential which required its people ton harness
and turn into tangible wealth.
“This country has a lot of
opportunities and one of the things we have done is just to recognise that
people of this country are very good, they just need a good framework in which
to work. So it’s just the framework the framework we provided and that framework
encourages private sector cooperation and collaboration,” said Murwira.
