Posted on 05/26/2007 7:46:02 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe plans to seize majority stakes in all the country's foreign-owned businesses in what economists warn could be a repeat of the regime's disastrous land reform policy.
Under legislation approved by the cabinet two weeks ago, all companies will be required to give up at least 51 per cent of their shares for allocation to economically disadvantaged, "indigenous" Zimbabweans.
There are signs that the government intends to use the laws to attack the commercial interests of countries such as Britain, the former colonial ruler, which Mugabe accuses of plotting to remove him from power. However, companies linked with friendly regimes, such as China and Malaysia, will be protected.
The hit list might include British banks such as Standard Chartered and Barclays. A minister told The Sunday Telegraph that the banks were seen as having "sabotaged" Mugabe's land reform programme by refusing to extend financial support to black farmers.
"The president made it clear, when cabinet approved the Bill to be tabled before parliament, that the time had come to empower our people.
"He said the indigenisation exercise must be undertaken in the same fashion as the land reform programme."
The minister added that Mugabe had vowed that "imperialist companies" would be targeted as they had been operating with what the president described as a "sinister, regime-change agenda."
Standard Chartered, which has 26 offices employing 900 people in Zimbabwe, declined to comment. A spokesman for Barclays, which has 29 branches and more than 1,000 staff in the country, said: "We are currently assessing the potential impact of the proposed legislation on our business in Zimbabwe. It is early days and the proposed Bill may not become law."
Other British companies likely to be targeted are BP, which has 37 service stations in Zimbabwe, British American Tobacco and Unilever - which is listed in both the UK and Holland.
The proposed new law would give black -Zimbabweans controlling stakes in foreign companies and allow them to appoint their own managers. They would also be able to set pricing policy - a sensitive issue in a country battling with the highest inflation in the world, currently exceeding 3,700 per cent.
Paul Mangwana, the minister for "indigenisation and empowerment", said the legislation, which is now before parliament, would affect all sectors of the economy from banking to manufacturing. He added that companies would be "free to look for partners who are black", but that government would "make suggestions" if they could not find any. "The objective is to ensure that black Zimbabweans take control of the economy and the resources of their country," he said. Mr Mangwana said a special fund would be created to help "indigenous" investors pay for their stakes.
However, with the economy in free fall and the government desperately short of foreign currency, there is little prospect that the companies will ever receive the money.
As with the land reform programme, many in business suspect the real beneficiaries of the asset grab will be Mugabe's cronies and officials of the ruling Zanu PF party, who will take control of the companies under the guise of business consortiums.
"Mugabe operates on patronage, and to try to bolster his position he will hand over these companies to people who support him. He's been threatening it for a long time," said an executive with a major British firm.
While many British interests are threatened, people close to the businessman Nicholas Van Hoogstraten, who is an ally of Mugabe, said that they believed that he would be spared. The British tycoon, whose farm in Zimbabwe was exempted from seizure in recognition of his financial support for Zanu PF, has stakes in NMB Bank, the Hwange Colliery and hotel company Rainbow Tourism Group.
With the country in crisis following the government's seizure of white-owned farms and the resulting collapse of commercial agriculture, economists warn that the new asset grab could be the final straw. One independent Harare economist, John Robertson, said the legislation would be a major blow to the country's manufacturing industry, which once accounted for 25 per cent of GDP but has shrunk to 15 per cent. "Nearly all the big commercial firms are already owned by Zimbabweans, but a number of the manufacturing operations are still owned by foreigners - some of them by the big multinationals like Unilever and Nestlé," he said. "I imagine some of these would close down, rather than relinquish control."
Mr Mangwana said he was not concerned that foreign companies might pull out.
He denied that British or American firms would be specifically targeted, saying the government was "not that petty".
Guess he hasn’t seen what our A-10 Thunderbolts can do yet.
What are these firms still doing there anyway?
Some people need killin’. This guy is one of them.
If this guy was white, he would be dead by now. He gets a pass because of political correctness. Mugabe is the ebony Hitler
“Snipers Wanted”
**Some people need killin’. This guy is one of them.***
Remember, you are talking about the darling of the leftist media here. At least he was the darling 25 years ago!
White farmers should have put sugar in their tractors right after using them to sow salt, then driven them inside the barns before burning those, while exiting, laughing.
Business need to do the same. Get out with what they can, and arrange a fire, flood, tornado or earthquake to take care of the rest.
He wants a nice little “indigenous” country, people should accommodate him, and leave him with what was there 200-250 years ago.
If you’re going to lose it anyway, you may as well break it first.
Good: Anybody still doing business in Zimbabwe should be ripped off.
Teach me how to shoot and I’ll do it for cheap.
Good for him.
Any "foreign-owned business" that still has a stake in that foul toilet called "Zimbabwe" deserves exactly what it gets.
It workes soooo well when he stole the farmers’ land.
The sooner that Mugabe is gone, the better the world will be for it! Also, if the United Nations wasn’t such a joke of an entity during its entire duration of existence and always functioned to the best of human abilities, then the United Nations would definitely of been able to successfully help to resolve the continuing problems in Zimbabwe, Somalia, Sudan, Haiti, Bolivia, Iran, Iraq, Belarus, Lebanon, Israel, “Palestine”, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, Chad, Leos, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Cambodia, Nepal, Tibet, Myanmar, Vietnam, and in every other troubled world nation to the best of human abilities! I and many others are still waiting for the United Nations to actually and to finally reform itself (not that I actually believe that the United Nations really will eventually reform itself to the best of abilities)!
Exactly! A white person still in country should leave.
Very true. Since most major corporations believe in diversity and affirmative action in hiring, it is time they are made to practice what they preach on a business level. Confiscate their corporate assets and turn them over to needy Africans - gotta love affirmative action, African style!
I’m sure “Honest Al” Sharpton would be more than happy to partner up with some of his black comrades.
I’d be willing to teach you.Do you want to just learn sniper skills or do you want the full course?
Let all of these outsourcing companies ponder this reality as they ship jobs and factories wholesale out of america and britain.
What a country.
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