Description
The law will give Zimbabweans the right to take over and control many foreign owned companies in Zimbabwe. Specifically, over 50 percent of all the businesses in the country will be transferred into local black African hands. The bill defines an indigenous Zimbabwean as “any person who before the 18th of April 1980 was disadvantaged by unfair discrimination on the grounds of his or her race, and any descendant of such person.”
The law does not specify whether or not the transfer of ownership would simply apply to mergers and restructurings in the future, or if it applies to all current companies. The minister for indigenization and empowerment would have the power to allow some companies to be exempt of the transfer law for some time. This is not a new idea because there have been proposals for similar transfer actions, but have all come up fruitless. The Zimbabwean government has promised the foreign owned companies that are soon to be taken over that authorities would help the businesses set timetables for the transfer of business shares to local black Zimbabweans. Even before the bill became law, it has had repercussions on investors and foreign companies such as Orascom Telecom, a mobile phone company.
Read more about this topic: Indigenization And Economic Empowerment Bill
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