Mugabe issues ultimatum to businesses
http://www.theafricareport.com/South...usinesses.html
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Africa Report
Zimbabwe has given foreigners with businesses in sectors reserved for locals up to end of December to stop their operations or face arrest.
According to the country's controversial indigenisation laws, foreigners are no allowed to run business in the wholesale and retail businesses, transportation, hairdressing and production of primary agricultural products among others as the sector is reserved for locals.
The government first issued the directive in May and gave the affected businesspeople up to the end of the year to comply.
Secretary for Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment George Magosvongwe told parliament on Thursday that government was in the process of identifying locals to take over ownership the businesses seized from foreigners.
"I confirm that some non-indigenous entities are still operating in the reserved sectors and there is a deadline for January 1 for them to comply with the requirement to relinquish their holdings in that sector," he said.
Magosvongwe said enforcement agents will be deployed countrywide once the deadline given to foreigners lapses.
"And we will bring in the enforcement agencies from right across the government departments and the local authorities to ensure that enforcement happens," he said.
The law will mainly affect Chinese and Nigerian traders who have flooded the southern African country after taking advantage of its weak currency before it was scrapped in 2009.
President Robert Mugabe has vowed to intensify the seizure of foreign owned companies after he won a controversial re-election in July.
The country's indeginisation laws seek to force big foreign owned companies to cede 51 percent of their ownership to locals.
However, economists have warned that the programme would trigger another economic downturn, similar to the Zimbabwe suffered after Mugabe's government seized white-owned farms in 2000.
I literally didn't think that this clown could do anymore to ruin the former country of Rhodesia - which under white-rule was one of the most prosperous in Africa and actually exported food to other African countries - but it looks like he's going to manage it. I remember watching a programme a few years back when the white farms were seized and 'handed back' to the black population - it showed a farmhouse with a black family living in it and the crops had long gone, only to be replaced by weeds. They didn't have a clue how to farm because they were not farmers. It's utterly crazy and it speaks volumes that this man is 89 years old while the average lifespan of his country is ridiculously low.
The ironic thing is, I am sure South Africa has implemented something similar.
Thoughts?
