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Zimbabwe (Mugabe) Decries Salt Mining Company - Threatens seizure*** HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - President Robert Mugabe has accused mining giant Anglo-American Corp. of hoarding salt amid Zimbabwe's hunger crisis and threatened to seize the company's local assets, state media reported Sunday. Mugabe said his government "will not tolerate companies bent on causing unnecessary suffering to the people by creating unnecessary shortages," state radio reported. The radio said ruling party officials last week found 2,000 metric tons (2,200 tons) of salt in warehouses belonging to National Foods, a company partially owned by Anglo Zimbabwe, a subsidiary of London-based Anglo American.

A National Foods executive said the salt had not been put on the market because it had been imported from neighboring Botswana at the parallel exchange rate of 300 Zimbabwean dollars to the U.S. dollar. At that rate, nearly six times the government's fixed exchange rate, the company would take a huge loss if it sold the salt at the market price set by the government, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The company had been negotiating with government officials to find a compromise price for the salt.

In a speech to ruling party officials Friday, Mugabe attacked National Foods, which he described as "an Anglo American company of Nicky Oppenheimer," the chairman of the mining giant. "They have been hoarding salt. ... They want people on the streets against our government. What kind of mischief is this?" he said, according to the state-owned Sunday Mail. "We will take over their enterprises."***

In S. Africa, tensions rise over hiring - Whites say rules result in reverse discrimination*** The traditionally white-dominated fields of banking, mining, and insurance are prime targets of the government inspectors, Moatshe said. Companies that do not comply with employment equity guidelines after two written warnings face court action and a possible fine of between $50,000 and $90,000, Moatshe said, adding that there is, in general, a high level of compliance. ''If you don't comply, the possibility of contracting state services or contracts is low,'' Moatshe said.

A recently revised Mineral and Petroleum Development Bill will make black economic empowerment a compulsory requirement when granting mining and prospecting permits to private companies. ''Corporations in this country had an opportunity to institute affirmative action the right way, and it is fair to say they failed dismally,'' Danisa Baloyi, executive director of the National Black Business Caucus, recently told the Sowetan newspaper. ''Now they must be made to change.''

Detractors charge that black empowerment policies have been a useful tool for the ruling elite to appoint unskilled and inexperienced government cronies in the public and private sector, which they argue could potentially have dire consequences for the economy. Critics also insist that compulsory black empowerment has resulted in a brain drain, because white men in particular are leaving companies, often for opportunities overseas, when they realize that they stand little or no chance of being promoted.***