Zimbabwe suspends majority local-ownership rules
Reuters April 14, 2010, 6:33 am

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's unity government has suspended and will review rules forcing foreign-owned firms to sell a majority stake to local people, a spokesman for Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Tuesday.
Under the regulations, which came into effect on March 1, foreign-owned companies, including banks and mines, had 45 days to submit proposals on how they planned to sell 51 percent of their shares to black Zimbabweans within five years.
The deadline for submitting proposals was Thursday April 15.
"The cabinet has today declared those regulations null and void, and they are being suspended to allow for broad-based consultations on the best way to proceed," spokesman James Maridadi told Reuters.
"Nothing is going to happen until the regulations have been reviewed to get a consensus on the way forward," he said.
There was no immediate comment from President Robert Mugabe's officials, who have been leading the empowerment drive despite warnings that this would discourage foreign investment at a time when the new administration is trying to attract funds to revive an economy that has suffered from a decade of decline.
Key foreign players in Zimbabwe's mining industry include Anglo Platinum and Impala Platinum Holdings, and Rio Tinto has gold and diamond mines in the country.
Britain's Standard Chartered Plc, Barclays Bank Plc and a unit of South Africa's Standard Bank are foreign-owned banks with operations in Zimbabwe.
(Reporting by Cris Chinaka; editing by Tim Pearce)

quote:

Zimbabwe's unity government has suspended and will review rules forcing foreign-owned firms to sell a majority stake to local people

I suspect that no black Zimbabweans could afford to buy the 51% stake and the foreign firms refused to just give it away.

They'll find another way to plunder them....

quote:

"The cabinet has today declared those regulations null and void, and they are being suspended to allow for broad-based consultations on the best way to proceed," spokesman James Maridadi told Reuters.

"Nothing is going to happen until the regulations have been reviewed to get a consensus on the way forward,"

Maybe I'm reading too much into things, but it seems the dissagreement is with Mugabes methods, not his end goal.

Kleptocracy in action...


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quote:

quote:
Zimbabwe's unity government has suspended and will review rules forcing foreign-owned firms to sell a majority stake to local people


I suspect that no black Zimbabweans could afford to buy the 51% stake and the foreign firms refused to just give it away.

Yes the can wit ZIM $$$

Finally some good news for Zim.
May not last long but anyway for now.

Finally, a bit of good news and some needed relief for our friends in Zim.

Hmm... Look at this in the context of Moja's post. Maybe there's something to it after all?

sdirks: Agreed. We need to stay positive for all of our Zimbabwean friends.

quote:

Originally posted by sdirks:
Hmm... Look at this in the context of Moja's post. Maybe there's something to it after all?

Right! This is a good first step.

Zim's company grab law to stay
2010-04-14 22:13


Harare - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday rejected claims by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's office that the government had reversed a law forcing foreign firms to cede a majority stake to locals.

Mugabe said that the remarks that the indigenisation and empowerment regulations had been scrapped were not true but cabinet was working on improving the rules.

"They (the remarks) are completely false," Mugabe told reporters after touring tobacco auction floors.

"There is no nullification of the indigenisation and economic empowerment law, no nullification of the regulations which have been made," he said.

"What there is, is that the regulations are being studied by a committee of cabinet just to improve them."

The law, which came into force on March 1, would have affected foreign-owned firms valued at $500 000 or more.

They had been given 45 days to report their efforts at complying.

Indigenisation Minister going ahead


Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's office said on Tuesday the government had declared the indigenisation law "null and void".

The biggest targets included local subsidiaries of British banks Barclays and Standard Chartered, as well as mining companies such as Impala Platinum, Anglo Platinum and Rio Tinto.

Indigenisation Minister Saviour Kasukuwere confirmed that the law would not be scraped.

"We are still going ahead with the law," he told AFP.

"Yes, cabinet said we still need to give business more time, but we are going ahead with the law," said Kasukuwere.

Mugabe had defended the regulations as a measure to correct the economic imbalances created by Zimbabwe's colonial past.


- AFP

Damn...

Same rule applies in many Gulf States, or it did when I lived there in the 90s.

quote:

this would discourage foreign investment

Gee, really?

quote:

Originally posted by Kathi:
Zim's company grab law to stay
2010-04-14 22:13


Harare - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday rejected claims by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's office that the government had reversed a law forcing foreign firms to cede a majority stake to locals.

Mugabe said that the remarks that the indigenisation and empowerment regulations had been scrapped were not true but cabinet was working on improving the rules...

...Mugabe had defended the regulations as a measure to correct the economic imbalances created by Zimbabwe's colonial past.


- AFP

Klep•toc•ra•cy
[klep-tok-ruh-see]
–noun, plural -cies.

1.
Government by rapine; A form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the current dictator, and exercised directly by him, or by his selected minions under a rigged electoral system.

2.
A state having such a form of government: The republic of Zimbabwe is a Kleptocracy.

3.
A state of society characterized by formal removal of rights and property from those not part of the current Kleptocratic regime. Or white.

4.
Political and social inequality; kleptocratic spirit.

5.
The people of a community as distinguished from any common class; the elite with respect to their political power.


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TwoZero:+1 That's a better word than the daily one that I learned today!

quote:

this would discourage foreign investment

It certainly discouraged me ... together with the shakedown I got at the airport when departing.