via Zimbabwe signals step back over black ownership law – City Press 23 April 2014
Zimbabwe won’t force all foreign-owned companies to sell or cede 51% of their shares to black Zimbabweans, and will work on a new model to ensure locals have a stake in the economy, the finance minister has said.
“We’re not taking 51% of anyone’s money,” Patrick Chinamasa told reporters in the capital, Harare, yesterday. “There’s no one-size-fits-all [solution].”
Zimbabwe will decide how much of foreign companies local blacks should own “sector by sector”, he said, and the government is “quite comfortable” with the injection of foreign capital in the banking industry because it “will increase the volume of credit to the productive sector”.
Chinamasa said Zimbabwe’s indigenisation minister, Francis Nhema, will put proposals to the country’s cabinet soon.
Zimbabwe’s Parliament passed the 51% ownership law in 2008, and three years later the government began enforcing it, compelling foreign and white-owned companies with assets of more than $500 000 to shift majority ownership to black Zimbabweans.
Miners were in the front line, and companies such as Impala Platinum, Anglo Platinum and Aquarius Platinum have already complied with the law.
The easing of the indigenisation requirements comes as Zimbabwe’s economy shows signs of deflation caused by a fall in consumer spending since elections last year.
Chinamasa said that time frames for allocating shares to Zimbabweans will be decided separately for each industry. Banks operating in the country that could potentially be affected include Barclays, Standard Chartered and South Africa’s Standard Bank.
“What we have said is that we want to encourage local participation,” Chinamasa said. “They will do it on the basis of a given framework, and also they pick their partner and they decide the price.”
– Bloomberg
COMMENTS
When they actually invest and the concern is up and lucratively running,Chinamasa will reawaken the ghost of 51%.Especially towards election.
Spot on scar face-and it will be more than 51% and it will be grabbed by a zanu comrade. Seriously, can anyone ever trust these creatures?
I personally cannot wait to see the back of these clowns. Why do they not remove the word Black and just say Zimbabweans? This is vindictiveness of the worst kind. As fo Chinamassa he won’t forgive any White person for the deserved beating he got from Bennett. How does the country go forward with such people at the helm? Joshua Nkomo is turning in his grave. He once said ” We are not fighting the white man. We are fighting the system” These people are fighting anyone that does not worship them.
Doc do little; my sentiments exactly. I am sure one day when they are gone those of us that are left or still alive will smell a different aroma in Zimbabwe’ atmosphere
Chinamasa, its too late, nobody in the civilized world trusts you nobody, so even if you tell them we will give you land for free they will not come if it is from you because they know kuti muri nyoka shato inoyevedza yokusunga yokumedza they will not come. If you have Zimbabwe at heart just tell the world guys we have failed we are going to set up an interim government which will oversee proper conduct of elections, but I know that is asking too much from these corrupt people because they are safeguarding their interest. Makandiwa was a bit economic with the truth about his prophecy because many zanupf so-called big wigs where there he wanted to say ” God has seen how ZanuPF has abused his people, he is going to destroy them and then industry will reopen, the economy will pick up and Harare will be like New York.” Ask him in secret that is exactly the vision he got.
Having stolen 51% of the mines. They are now backtracking! Bet the mines are kicking themselves, if they had just held out a bit longer they might have got away with it!
It does not really matter what they get up to in future, nobody in right minds would put half a cent into the country whilst these thieves are in the driving seat. YOU JUST CANNOT TRUST THEM. Zanu trash
Thats why they have been giving false signals that they are fighting corruption, so the money can be lured in.
Has anyone been prosecuted?
They have the big election fraud on their shoulders, now this big lie about fighting corruption.
Zanu must just go.
Believe anything they say at your peril.
Who is Chinamasa in the Zanu scheme of things?
He is nothing , no power at all.
Him and Moyo a just condoms that Zanu can use and discard at will.
Treasonous malcontents.
More ambiguity is not what investors want to hear. When “Chinamasa said that time frames for allocating shares to Zimbabweans will be decided separately for each industry,” he was essentually saying that they would decide in the future on a case by case basis how much they were going to choke off business activity for their own benefit. That leaves a LOT of uncertainty for investors.
Until ZANU-PF passes laws spelling out explicitly what the requirements are, how they will be implemented, and how they will benefit the people, not the chefs, in a transparent manner; and the country proves that it actually respects those same laws and will enforce them in a fair and non-partisan manner; only then investors will begin to trickle in. For now because of Mugabe and ZANU-PF Zimbabwe is not trusted as an investment destination, and you need to have patience and integrity to build trust – a foreign concept for this corrupt regime (and we all know how much Mugabe abhores foreign concepts).
These ZANU’s are becoming desperate. The predicament they have put themselves in is starting to dawn on them. The cloud of lies can no longer hide the fact that they are bankrupt.
Having no skills to call upon they are now starting to beg. They are very proud fellows so at first it may not be easy to see that begging is what they are doing, but bearing in mind all the big talk and harsh actions that have gone before this is already a big climbdown.
It will become tougher. They have not stored up any goodwill anywhere. Their only friends on the world stage are deadbeats who cannot help. The Chinese will screw them for anything they can.
The only thing that will help is for everything they have ever stood for to be reversed. If they manage to stay in power step by step they will be reversed. If they go out of power the same thing will happen.
We have already seen in another article today that they are starting to offer free land to foreign investors. Even this is not enough to make an investor commit themselves.
BALDERDASH. THIS POLICY WAS A SHAM FROM THE START. HOW CAN SOMEONE WANT SHARES IN COMPANY HE NEVER FORMED. THEY SHOULD GO AND REGISTER THEIR OWN COMPANIES. AFTER ALL THE REGISTRAR OC COMPANIES IS A ZANU PF ALSO. THERE WAS NEVER A 51% INDEGINIZATION AND THERE SHALL NEVER EVER BE BECAUSE THERE WILL BE NOTHING TO INDIGINISE AS COMPANIES CLOSE AND CHOOSE WHERE TO GO.
Did zanu think companies were just going to give in easy just like that
Cannot indigenise or colonize heart
and brain. Which is what builds companies and institutions