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Zim eyes grabbing foreign firms
20/07/2008 21:00 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe is auditing hundreds of Western business interests as possible targets for takeover, the government said Sunday, in a reported backlash against foreign pressure on President Robert Mugabe.
"We will identify the potential partners and the companies that could be taken over," Paul Mangwana, the minister in charge of "economic empowerment," told AFP, citing a recent economic reform.
He said British investors held stakes in at least 499 Zimbabwean companies while 353 firms have shareholders from other European countries. A recent act came into force aimed at "indigenisation" - boosting local ownership of companies.
State media reported meanwhile that companies heeding a call by world powers for United Nations sanctions against President Robert Mugabe's government would be seized.
The Sunday News reported that the government was auditing companies owned or partly held by Western shareholders, with a view to inviting other foreign investors from "friendly" countries to take a share in them.
This move aimed to prevent investors from pulling out of these companies after foreign powers called for tougher sanctions against Mugabe's government, the newspaper said, in the wake of a disputed national election.
"In the context of growing Western hostility, the government is planning to invite companies from friendly countries to move in and take over those companies that will close down," the newspaper quoted a government source as saying.
"Gone are the days of political or generalised invitations to foreigners. We need to move a gear up and approach friendly countries with sector-specific or even enterprise-specific proposals," said the source.
Will take time
Investors from countries considered friendly, particularly from the Far East, would be lined up in a bid to boost the economic stabilisation process in the country, the report said.
The indigenisation law aims to give native Zimbabweans at least 51% ownership of the shares of public companies and other businesses, the Sunday Mail state newspaper reported in March.
"The indigenisation and empowerment act became operational as of March 2008. The process of indigenisation is not going to happen overnight. It's a process which will take a bit of time," Mangwana said.
A renewed call for sanctions against Mugabe and his allies came after the veteran leader was re-elected in a run-off last month after the main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out, complaining of violence against his supporters.
However a draft resolution to impose an assets freeze and travel ban on Mugabe and 13 allies failed to make it through the United Nations Security Council after it was vetoed by Russia and China.
South African President Thabo Mbeki, mediator in the Zimbabwe crisis, opposed sanctions which he argued would impede negotiation efforts.
While Mbeki's drawn-out mediation efforts have been criticised as a failure, Zimbabwe's rival parties have reportedly moved closer to holding peace talks, and it is expected a memorandum of understanding outlining the talks' agenda will be signed in the coming week.
- AFP
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Zimbabwe Special Report
