CZI quizzes minister over threat of seizures
July 29, 2008
By Our Correspondent
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s troubled business leaders recently summoned Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Paul Mangwana to seek clarification over renewed government threats to seize foreign-owned enterprises.
Informed sources told this reporter that representatives of the country’s bruised business community on Monday sought Mangwana and his permanent secretary Ozias Hove’s explanations following reports that President Robert Mugabe’s administration had compiled a list of close to 500 foreign owned companies targeted for a hostile takeover.
The sources said the meeting took place at the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) offices in the capital city. Mangwana and Hove reportedly reassured the business leaders that any takeover of companies would be carried out in an orderly manner.
CZI President Callisto Jokonya confirmed the meeting took place.
“We were seeking clarification and Mangwana told us that in no uncertain terms that the implementation of the takeover will be done professionally. As CZI we are not opposed to indigenisation,” Jokonya said.
Zimbabwe’s Parliament recently passed a controversial law which compels all foreign owned enterprises operating in the country to surrender more than half their shares to local citizens in a programme aimed at empowering the country’s marginalised citizens.
President Mugabe recently renewed threats to seize the foreign owned companies, particularly British owned ones after London refused to recognise his victory in last month’s single candidate presidential election which he won after Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out citing political violence against his sympathisers.
Meanwhile, the business leaders hailed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Mugabe, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, the leader of a breakaway faction of the MDC. They said such negotiations would help end the country’s agonising economic crisis.
“This is indeed a historic event which should augur well for our nation and everyone who has the best interests of Zimbabwe at heart applauds this calibre of statesmanship,” said Jokonya.
Print This Article
Email This Article
Comments
7 Responses to “CZI quizzes minister over threat of seizures”Advertisement
-
Zimbabwe News Sites
OPINION POLL
-
Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.
OPINION POLL
-
Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.
I cannot doubt my memory that it was the British government which started putting pressure on British companies to pull out of Zimbabwe. They specifically criticised Anglo American and Barclays for continuing to do business in Zimbabwe. How come the reportage on this matter is now being turned around to suggest that it was the Zimbabwe Government which made the threat against foreign firms. I do not doubt my memory that the so called government ‘threat’ only came as a direct response to the Bbritish Threat. As it is the US government took measures that saw Heinz pull out of Zimbabwe.
I can’ help feel that the writers on this e-news journal think readers are daft!
George you are confused. This indigenisation is meaningless, just like every other Zanu reform. The reason these companies(heinz) etc are pulling out is because the royalties and taxes they pay the government are misused e.g. to abduct citizens. You should also know that the British gov’t is not the same as a British company so the gov’t can say one thing and the company is entitled to do the opposite. Why isn’t the Mugabe administration taking over the Chinese firms that we all hate?? It’s because the man is a racist and does not care about the people of Zimbabwe. If these companies get taken over you can expect life to get worse in our country that is already a wreck.
I do not believe that Zimbabwe’s mostly timid business people would have it in their guts to summon a Zanu PF minister to a meeting. They may have asked for a meeting but summon I doubt.
I`m more than happy Mr George Bachinche is not daft. I hail the concept of black empowerment but I hate the ensuing outcome. We have all seen, particularly from the land redistribution, that the concept is then hijacked by some elements who believe they are more Zimbabwean than others resulting in unbelievable suffering to the otherwise intended beneficiaries. A few questions should be raised to Mr George then; to whose demise is the withdrawal or seizure of foreign companies? Does the question lie in who started threatening who with pulling out or seizing or in the disaster caused thereby? Who in your imediate family ever benefited from these black empowerment programmes Mr George?
Indigenisation and Empowerment is not the taking up of up and running companies which have built their own name over many years and give them to a black person. That only will reduce the job creation already we have companies which have closed down due to shortage of foreign currency and government interference, why cann’t the Mangwana indigenise those companies first. Grain Marketing Board a gvt parastatal have failed to produced / mill any products as per their promise so why target the private companies. Please empower people to start their own companies which will compete with these big companies and reduce unemployment, prices, poverty and that is what I will call indigenisation and empowerment by introducing new products on the market under your own brand name.
George, if you support the behaviour of this tragically truant government, I sincerely pity you Can you not see that all this indeginization talk and action is a ruse by incompetent and envious ZanuPF loafers who have not done a day’s honest work to create real wealth since 1980, to reap where they did not sow? Look at what is happening on the remaining farms, now! This Deputy Minister is moving from farm to farm , confisticating the crop ready for harverst. What kind of Africanisation is that! And why take from the so-called Imperialists with one hand and hand everything over to the slant-eyed little devils who despise you and bombard you with low-quality Zhing-zhongs? Tell me why?
It is time all you ZanuPF apologists and fake Pan-Africans shed your hypocrisy! You LOVE the British and their ways, period! Live with it and accept it without guilt, after all they are preferable to these Eastern Races!
This is a WHITE World, learn to live in it, otherwise you will end up as a footnote , like Mugabe and his kleptomanic Cabal.
Is there something really amiss with you guys? You are attributing comment and statement to me which I never raise in my comments. I implore you to read it again. At no time did I mention the word empowerment so where is it coming from.
What I am querying is the selective amnesia that I come across in this news site.
Now tell me learned colleagues, is it not a fact that the British Government has been calling on British companies to withdraw from Zimbabwe.? Have you not read of the British Government criticising Anglo American, Barclays Bank and Old Mutual for continuing operating in Zimbabwe? I am sorry if I am assuming that since you have access to the internet to you have also seen these stories. What I am querying is the suggestion that it is the Zimbabwe government which is seeking to oust the foreign owned companies when in fact it is the British Government which is doing so. I pointed out the issue of Heinz as an example.
So you cannot really accept that it is the British Government which is calling for the withdrawal of British firms from Zimbabwe and instead choose to blame the government of Zimbabwe? This is bizarre logic by any standard of thinking.
MODERATOR: Voluntarily closing a foreign-owned company which has ceased to be viable because of government policies or intervention is quite different from the government seizing a viable foreign-owned company, assuming there are still many like that around, and allocating it to a few chosen Zanu-PF functionaries. Since you seem to be always prowling on the Internet you must have come across stories of viable concerns that were seized by the same party big-wigs and have since become totally unproductive.