THE government has blasted foreign mining firms resisting the country’s empowerment laws and said those unhappy with programme should shut-up shop and leave.
Singling out, platinum miner Zimplats, Indigenisation Minister Saviour Kasukuwere said some companies were dragging their feet and resisting the programme under which they must localise control of at least 51 percent of their shareholding.
“Foreign-owned companies are very arrogant, especially mining firms. If they don’t want to give us 51 percent shareholding under the black empowerment regulations, they should quit now and go back to their countries.
“Zimplats and other foreign-owned companies and mining firms should go back to Australia and their countries,” Kasukuwere told a Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) meeting in Bulawayo.
South Africa-based Impala Platinum – the World’s second largest producer of the metal -- owns 87 percent of Zimplats. The Zimbabwe unit accounts for about 9 percent of Impala’s overall production.
Implats chief executive, David Brown, recently said although his company was not opposed to the programme in principle, he felt the empowerment threshold was too high.
“What we are opposed to is the 51 percent. We just don't believe a 51 percent equity stake adequately reflects the risk/reward equation and quite clearly will impact significantly on future expansions," Brown said last week.
Mining firms have submitted their plans for complying with the law but most warn that the programme could adversely impact their activities in the country.
However Kasukuwere said the government had a fall-back position if any of the miners chose to pull out adding a legal challenge of the programme was also not an option.
“The Chinese and the Indians are waiting to come in. We are capable of running our businesses and the whites should never think that we will fail to run the businesses that we take over,” he said.
“You can take us to court but you will never win.”
The government insists the programme is aimed at empowering the country’s previously disadvantaged black majority and give them greater control over the country’s economy.
But the claim was recently challenged by central bank governor Gideon Gono.
“It has to be realised that not everybody can fit or benefit from the equity-ownership model we are pursuing. Only a few will and that's a fact,” the central bank chief said in a recent interview with state media.
Critics also warn that the programme could scare-away investors from the country, undermining economic recovery efforts after a decade-long recession.