‘You have to travel from Byo to Hre and camp there for a week just to get a permit’ – Diaspora group on Zim business frustration

By UK Correspondent

LONDON: The Harare government’s oft-repeated mantra is that ‘Zimbabwe is Open for Business’ and treasury chief, Professor Mthuli Ncube, last week led a delegation to the UK on a charm offensive aimed at attracting investment.

However, while Zimbabwe is supposedly ‘Open for Business’, not enough is being done to improve the ‘ease of doing business’ in the country.

The point came up last Friday on the second day of what was dubbed the Zimbabwe Capital Markets Indaba at London’s Queen Elizabeth 11 conference centre.

Sithule Tshuma is the founder of Qoki ZiNdlovukazi Women’s Group which she says has a membership of more than 20,000 Zimbabweans spread across the diaspora.

Sithule Tshuma (left) with West Property’s Ken Sharpe at the Indaba in London

Tshuma said members of her group were frustrated when trying to complete seemingly simple processes like securing a permit for land sub-division.

“You have to travel to Harare from Bulawayo just to apply for sub-division permit,” said Tshuma.

“And when you get there, you’re told that the permit cannot be processed because the person responsible has taken some days off.

“Why should the processing of permits stop just because some official has taken time off work?

She continued; “We then end up spending a lot of money travelling back and forth between Harare and Bulawayo.

“And even when you’re finally attended to, the officials treat you like they are doing you a favour.

“It would really help if some of these things are addressed.”

Listen to Tshuma’s intervention in full below;