RioZim fights gold mine seizure
2013-02-03 16:49
Special Report
Chinese vice premier Wang Yang has urged Zimbabwe to ensure peace and political stability ahead of elections this year.
Harare - Zimbabwe's RioZim Limited has gone to the High
Court to fight off seizure of a gold mine by allies of President Robert Mugabe,
who accuse it of flouting a black empowerment law, the company said on Friday.
RioZim said two lawmakers, including Tourism Minister
Walter Mzembi from Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, took control of its Renco gold mine,
300km south of Harare, two weeks ago.
"Minister Mzembi arrived at the mine... He called a
public meeting and announced that RioZim had not complied with the
indigenisation obligations of the country and hence they were taking over
Renco," RioZim said in a statement.
People not employed by the mine blockaded it, resulting
in daily production losses of $150 000, said RioZim.
It said the minister had appointed a local member of
parliament as general manager and directed all staff to work under him.
The MP was now using threats and intimidation to bar
RioZim directors and management from the mine while denying them access to the
company's gold bullion, the firm added.
Mzembi furiously denied RioZim's accusations, saying he
only became involved with the mine when Renco workers lobbied him as their
local MP to intervene in a pay dispute.
"That's political slander. I'm surprised by their
statement, which seeks to politicise what is a dispute between them and their
workers," he told Reuters.
"I have no interest in the mine's shareholders
except to say they must comply with the laws of this country. I have never
taken an ounce of gold from Renco, nor do I intend to, but my people are crying
for justice."
Renco - formed in 2004 when Rio Tinto Plc sold off most
of its Zimbabwe assets - produced 11 000 ounces of gold in the first half of
2012, when it resumed operations after shutting down at the height of
Zimbabwe's hyperinflation crisis in 2008.
RioZim was saddled with $50m of debt and on the verge of
collapse in 2012 but was saved when New York-based private equity fund Global
Emerging Markets took a 25% stake.
Major mining firms in Zimbabwe, including leading platinum
producers Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum , have been forced to
surrender majority stakes to local investors under the Mugabe-led black
empowerment drive.
Saviour Kasukuwere, the minister in charge of the
process, was not available to comment on the RioZim seizure, but has been
quoted in local media describing the move as "irrational".
"We want law and order in this country and we don't
want indigenisation to be dragged into the mud," he was quoted as saying
in private newspaper NewsDay.
- Reuters
