Business
Zimbabwe: Gov’t takes over majority stake in foreign-owned mines
“It may be bullying to scare companies into handing over shares,” he said.
He said many firms let the September 25 deadline pass because the government, reeling under debt after a decade of economic turmoil, didn’t offer payment for shares as required under the empowerment laws.
“The money isn’t here to pay or to develop the mines if they are nationalized in the same way commercial farms were deemed state land. Only foreigners have the money and they won’t bring it to have half of it taken from them,” he said.
The agriculture-based economy went into meltdown after Mugabe ordered seizures of thousands of white-owned farms in 2000. Many seizures turned violent.
Robertson described the empowerment drive in its present form as “dishonest” and said it will likely lead to mines being left to stagnate, with worsening poverty for all but an elite minority gaining foreign assets.
“Tens of thousands of our young people will be disempowered by being denied skills training and jobs,” he said.
Last month, Zimbabwe’s biggest platinum producer said it had reached an “acceptable” agreement with the government to yield 51 percent ownership to blacks.
