Rolling Back State Ownership in Public Enterprises in Zimbabwe

Public Sector Reforms adopted in the 1990s obliged the state to roll back its ownership frontiers in public enterprises through sale of shares, equities and assets to the public. However,this shift raises fundamental questions on the extent to which the African state has the political will to ensure broad based ownership transfer processes. This question is particularly pertinent given that in most African countries, the state is yet to resolve the colonially inherited skewed ownership patterns.Global experiences in ownership transfers also point to disturbing cases of dilutions in indigen shareholding during and after ownership tranfers. In Zimbabwe while the issue of broad based ownership has since independence graced the national agenda, by 2000, a clear-cut ownership transfer policy and legislation was yet to emerge. Against this backdrop the book questions the extent to which ownership rolling back processes in state owned companies in Zimbabwe were sensitive to the fundamentals of broad based participation. Issues raised in this book should be useful to decision makers, policy practictioners, students of political science, development studies and public administration.