The public enterprise reform which earnestly started in the early 1990s with the commercialisation of a number of parastatals has entered a new phase where the commercialised government companies are being privatised and this process is expected to gain added momentum after the successful June, 1997 public flotation by Dairibord Zimbabwe Limited, the first by a former parastatal. However, there has been very little public debate and still less academic discourse on such a major policy issue of reassessing the role of the state in the economy. This article discusses the pertinent issues of public enterprise reform and privatisation in Zimbabwe and, based on lessons from international experience, suggests a conceptual, institutional and legal framework for the way forward.
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