The state and black business development: The Small Enterprises Development Corporation and the politics of indigenisation and economic empowerment in Zimbabwe (Historia, 2021)
Using the historical experiences of the Small Enterprises Development Corporation (SEDCO), a Zimbabwe statutory corporation created to finance and support viable small to medium enterprises (SMEs), the article examines the state’s shifting black economic empowerment policies in the post-colonial period. SEDCO went through a decline following the creation of a SME ministry in 2002 and the subsequent passing of the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act in 2007, thus an analysis of its history is significant to unpacking the nature and trajectory of debates on black economic empowerment. The corporation’s history is also examined in an effort to understand the state’s changing interaction with the black businesspeople it had targeted as needing support to redress past disparities and to establish future national economic development. Here, the article examines issues on redressing the colonial legacy and economic justice, well aware of the Zimbabwean government’s early 1980s moderate response to the interests of black businesspeople and how this moved radically towards black empowerment rhetoric to prop up its waning political support. This article shifts the academic focus from land reform, by using SEDCO’s historical experiences to examine the “third chimurenga” (war of economic liberation) from an indigenisation and economic empowerment perspective.   AfrikaansHierdie artikel stel ondersoek in na die geskiedenis van die Small Enterprises Development Corporation (SEDCO), ’n Zimbabwiese staturêre liggaam wat gestig is om lewensvatbare klein- en medium ondernemings (KMO’s) te finansier en te steun. Daardeur bestudeer die artikel die staat se wisselvallige swart ekonomiese bemagtigingsbeleid in die na-koloniale tydperk, veral gegewe SEDCO se agteruitgang ná die totstandkoming van’n KMO-ministerie in 2002 en die daaropvolgende aanvaarding van die Verinheemsing- en Ekonomiese Bemagtingingswet van 2007. ’n Ontleding van sy geskiedenis is belangrik ten einde die aard en trajek van debatte oor swart ekonomiese bemagtiging te ontrafel. Die instansie se geskiedenis word ook onder die loep geneem om sodoende die staat se veranderende interaksie met swart besigheidsmense, naamlik dié wat geteiken is vir hulpverlening om historiese ongelykhede aan te spreek en toekomstige ekonomiese ontwikkeling te vestig, te verstaan. In hierdie opsig stel die artikel ook ondersoek in na vraagstukke betreffende die hantering van die koloniale nalatenskap en ekonomiese geregtigheid met inagneming van die Zimbabwiese regering se aanvanklike gematigde houding jeens die belange van swart besigheidsmense, en die wyse waarop dit radikaal omgeswaai het na swart ekonomiese bemagtigingsretoriek ten einde kwynende politieke steun die hoof te bied. Die artikel verskuif die heersende akademiese fokus, weg van grondhervorming, deur gebruik te maak van SEDCO se ervaring om sodoende die “derde chimurenga” (ekonomiese vryheidsoorlog) vanuit die hoek van verinheemsing en ekonomiese bemagtiging te bestudeer.
Keywords: Zimbabwe; indigenisation and economic empowerment; state politics; economic development; Small Enterprises Development Corporation; verinheemsing en ekonomiese bemagtiging; staatspolitiek; ekonomiese ontwikkeling; (SEDCO)