Tafadzwa Nyikadzino

Businessman Mike Chimombe yesterday launched the Economic Empowerment Group (EEG), a new lobby group which he said will be inclusive to diverse groups across the country in its membership.

The launch comes a few weeks after he was deposed from the helm of the Affirmative Action Group (AAG) which he led for a short time. His dismissal saw about 90% of AAG’s membership defecting to the new group including its incumbent president Scott Sakupwanya and other famous members like Passion Java.

Addressing journalists at their temporary offices, EEG President Mike Chimombe said the new association will be people centred and will focus mainly on pushing for an economic environment that is conducive for native Zimbabweans to conduct business.

“EEG is going to be very radical in pushing for economic empowerment policies. We are going to approach Parliament to lobby for the Empowerment Bill to be established so that it can guide us on areas we can exploit for business, “ said Chimombe.

The group’s Vice President Munyaradzi Kashambe said joining EEG will not require subscriptions as they will exclude those who cannot afford to pay them from benefiting from their future programs.

“This is new baby. It is constitutionally guided and we have a concept paper as to how we will be operating. We will not require new members to pay subscription fees to be part of us because we do not see why a person should pay money to be empowered. Those who wish to join should simply come to our offices and register with us. We are going to hand our blue print to the highest office in the land.”

“When we had our last presser here, when we accepted that we had been sacked from AAG, we realized that we had a duty carry on.

“Our president Mike Chimombe reiterated that we have to come up with our own economic empowerment group and I am happy to introduce EEG,” Kashambe added.
The official launch of EEG is expected to be held this month.