Monsters and Critics
written by Staff
Thursday October 13, 2011
Selous, Zimbabwe - President Robert Mugabe part-nationalised a South African-owned mine in Zimbabwe on Thursday, under a controversial law requiring foreign firms to give over 51 per cent of equity to Zimbabwean blacks.
The event, at the Zimplants mine around 100 kilometres south-west of Harare, was attended by Mugabe, who said it netted Zimbabwe around 10 million dollars.
In September, the government threatened to revoke the license of the Impala Platinum-owned mine, after it had failed to comply with the new indigenisation law.
Mugabe said the law was meant to 'fight poverty'.
'Mr Brown, go and tell your shareholders that we don't intend to take over (Zimplats). We don't want to steal or rob that which does not belong to us, but we don't want to be robbed as well,' Mugabe said to Zimplats Chairman David Brown.
The 87-year-old president added: 'Mugabe is not very much of a saint in South Africa. He is quite devil in Europe and America. But all he is saying is that: what is in Zimbabwe is ours. That is what Mugabe says.'
The controversial law has divided Zimbabwe's coalition government with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai condemning it as 'warped' as it scares away investors. Tsvangirai did not attend the Thursday event.
Investors have raised concern the new indigenisation law which required foreign companies worth more than 500,000 dollars must sell a majority of their equity to Zimbabwean blacks by 2015.
The law was passed in 2007, before Mugabe's Zanu-PF party formed a coalition with MDC party.
No comments:
Post a Comment