BEE law: ‘Failure to comply will lead to sanctions’
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 20 May 2011 10:16
By Nqobile Bhebhe
YOUTH Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment minister Saviour
Kasukuwere said the government would not hesitate to impose punitive
measures against foreign-owned firms which failed to meet the deadline to
comply with the controversial empowerment law.
Kasukuwere revealed that non-compliant firms would be banned from exporting
their produce.
“Firms that fail to comply by deadline day will have sanctions imposed on
them by barring them from exporting their produce,” said Kasukuwere.
He said this while addressing captains of industry in Bulawayo on Wednesday.
To enforce the sanctions, Kasukuwere said an instrument would be gazetted
with names of the affected companies effectively withdrawing their operating
licences.
With foreign-owned mining companies compelled to cede 51% of their stake to
Kasukuwere said focus would now shift to the manufacturing, banking and
tourism sectors.
“We are now coming up with the manufacturing implementation framework which
will be different from the mining framework as it has its own special
characters,” he said.
He said the sector would be given a three-year time lag to comply.
Kasukuwere said the government was not against foreign investment in
Zimbabwe but against “foreign arrogance”.
He said some foreign firms expected him to do “a jambanja” (violent
takeover) so as to attract international press, but I won’t do that as the
law is on our side”.
Most mines have adopted a wait and see attitude and are putting expansion
plans on hold until there was clarity on how the empowerment plan would be
executed.
Although some foreign-owned mining firms have submitted their proposals on
how they planned to sell a majority stake to locals, Kasukuwere did not
reveal government’s position on the proposals.
The proposed empowerment programme has been attacked by several lawyers who
say it is illegal.
Prominent lawyer and former president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe
Sternford Moyo dismissed the Indigenisation Act saying it focused on
directors and company secretaries and required them to put forward
indigenisation plans when in actual effect they were not the owners of the
company.
Moyo said: “Company directors and secretaries do not own the property which
you are saying they should relinquish. The state entities which are set to
be created by the Act will suffer losses like what the parastatals are doing
and the government later decided to privatise them. The state will end up
having accumulation of entities and will run them down just like what they
did in other areas. We need to create new opportunities for business and not
destroy what has already been built. How can you build a house by taking
bricks from another house which has already been built?”
However, Kasukuwere last week laughed off these claims saying government was
determined to pursue the policy to its end while engaging its lawyers.
“We are not nationalising anything but only seeding value. The
Indigenisation Act was not going to be necessary if these companies had
complied with us for the sake of our people, but they did not do anything
and now that we are indigenising, they are saying we are wrong,” said
Kasukuwere.