However, the business community in Bulawayo had complained that the requirements for Dimaf beneficiaries to produce tax clearance certificates was discriminatory with most firms struggling to meet the stringent tax requirement.
Surely, the economic situation in Bulawayo has left a lot of companies crippled such that they cannot afford to get healthy tax clearances in the end. With that, most companies seeking to be revived have been left in the cold.
People in Matabeleland also lament that DIMAF is not fairly disbursed as companies in Bulawayo have benefited little despite the fact that the city is mostly affected. Despite the reported distribution of the funds to 41 Bulawayo based companies in January 2013, there were also accompanying reports that companies were struggling to access the funds.
Furthermore the DIMAF funds were launched in 2011 and it took two years for them to be finally dispursed, a time in which more companies were closing and more residents of Bulawayo were bveing forced to relocate due to economic hardships. Furthermore just the requirements to access the funds were difficult for companies that are in fact "distressed" to meet.
In particular the minimum requirements for companies to qualify to access the funds include two years accounts in the form of management accounts or financial accounts, acceptable collateral, clean tax records, projections for capital expenditure loans, budgets and cash flows, among others.
The distribution of DIMAF with 6 months left till the harmonised elections raised suspicions that it was a campaign tool. The matter of Bulawayo and generally southern region company relief efforts was slackly handled, with major delays constraining further the revival of the city and commerce in the region.
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