Business and political analysts have rapped the laws, which stipulate that foreign-owned mining firms operating in the country should cede up to 51 per cent of their ownership to indigenous blacks.
Analysts say that the law, initiated and fully-supported by President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) party, will give the former ruling party a leeway to further squander the country’s mineral resources and entrench its hegemony on the country’s natural wealth.
However, July Ndlovu, an Executive Committee member of Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed Anglo Platinum Ltd, recently said that people should read beyond the political rhetoric and see the law as a way of empowering Zimbabweans.
“We all have to accept that resource nationalization is not a Zimbabwean but a global issue,” said Ndlovu, who is also the chairman of Anglo’s Zimbabwean subsidiary, Unki Mine.
“We have to understand the need to empower the community and as Anglo, it is something that we have done here in South Africa and there is therefore, no reason why we should not do it elsewhere. From what we have seen, the Zimbabwean government is willing to engage and we have been talking with them and we have so far seen no reason not to believe that the law will work itself out in a good manner.”
Ndlovu also called on companies to try and engage with the government, saying that was the only way the two entities would get to know and understand one another’s concerns.
“We have to learn not to act on the basis of rhetoric, but have rational dialogue with the host government.”
Post published in: News