ZIMBABWE: President Robert Mugabe reiterates his push for the nationalisation of mines and foreign-owned companies

Record ID: 785179

  • Title: ZIMBABWE: President Robert Mugabe reiterates his push for the nationalisation of mines and foreign-owned companies
  • Date: 9th August 2011
  • Summary: HARARE, ZIMBABWE (AUGUST 8, 2011) (REUTERS) ZANU PF SUPPORTERS SINGING AND DANCING SOLDIER MONITORING THE CROWD ZIMBABWE SERVICE CHIEFS ARRIVING ZIMBABWE'S PRESIDENT ROBERT MUGABE AND HIS WIFE, GRACE MUGABE VARIOUS OF MUGABE STANDING WHILE NATIONAL ANTHEM PLAYS
  • Embargoed: 24th August 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe
  • Country: Zimbabwe
  • Topics: Business,Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVA3VSW41YRCP3ODLVHQBKSZT9GJ
  • Story Text: President Robert Mugabe said on Monday (August 08) Zimbabwe would punish firms from Western states who have slapped sanctions on senior officials in his ZANU-PF party, warning that global mining companies could be hit.
    "We cannot continue to receive the battering of sanctions without hitting back, we are going to have to hit back and let them heed this warning, " Mugabe told thousands of people attending a ceremony to commemorate heroes of Zimbabwe's 1970s independence war.
    Mugabe, 87, and ZANU-PF members have had trouble tapping into international finance due to the sanctions imposed by Western countries for suspected human rights abuses and electoral fraud under the political veteran's watch.
    "We will have to discriminate against countries that have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe, why should...for example, a company that belongs to Britain be allowed to continue to mine our gold," Mugabe said.
    "If they are to continue to operate here then the sanctions must go, otherwise they have no role, they should have no role at all," he added.
    Mugabe has previously called for a boycott of products from foreign countries backing the sanctions he says have hurt the country's stalling economy.
    The United States and Europe blame Mugabe for gross mismanagement that caused the economy to collapse under hyperinflation about three years ago.
    Mugabe has given several large foreign-owned mining companies to the end of September to dispose of at least 51 percent of their shares to locals as part of an empowerment drive that has worried foreign investors.
    Zimbabwe's youth and empowerment minister told a conference last month the government had rejected all 175 local ownership proposals it received from foreign mining companies, adding firms that do not meet the September deadline would be kicked out.
    Impoverished Zimbabwe does not have the money to buy controlling stakes in mines. But it is likely to use the threat to force global mining giants to the bargaining table so that Zimbabwe, with the world's second-largest platinum reserves, can receive more money from its mineral riches.
    Mugabe has also increasingly turned to China for help after being shunned by the West.
    Political analysts say that as Zimbabwe prepares for elections likely to be held in 2012, Mugabe will increase pressure on foreign companies but is unlikely to repeat the wholesale seizure a decade ago of white-owned farms, a move blamed for the destruction of Zimbabwe's agriculture sector.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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