Zimbabwe Seeks ‘Indigenous’ Control of Companies

[AngryAmish]

Source: ny times

JOHANNESBURG, June 26 — Zimbabwe’s government has put forward legislation that would require virtually all publicly traded companies to cede controlling interests to “indigenous” citizens, raising the possibility of a sizable redistribution of the country’s remaining wealth at a time when its economy is collapsing.

The draft legislation, which was published Monday, would mandate that a 51 percent stake in the companies be transferred to Zimbabweans who were “disadvantaged by unfair discrimination on the grounds of his or her race” before April 1980, when the nation won independence from white rule.

The government calls it a plan for black empowerment, while critics label it a bid to shore up crumbling political support for Zimbabwe’s president, Robert G. Mugabe. Given that Mr. Mugabe’s party dominates Parliament, the measure will almost certainly pass.

The legislation would establish a government fund to help citizens buy stock in public companies, and would allow the government to reject any corporate mergers, acquisitions, investments and other transactions in which so-called indigenous Zimbabweans did not hold a 51 percent stake. It was unclear, however, how Zimbabwe’s bankrupt government, beset by hyperinflation and a currency crisis, would finance the transfe


Read more:

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I'm sure this will end well.

[jwirr]

1. I think this is the only way to go for emerging countries to go. We

here in the US are trying to fight the corporations and getting no where. Imagine what those same corporations are doing to weaker nations.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

13. uhh... no,

Mugabe has decimated the entire professional class of the country, black and white and has decimated the entire farming industry, black and white to turn the spoils over to his illiterate roaming thugs who are incapable of anything but looting.

The "veterans" who have received the land seized from the white and black farmers aren't doing shit with it, and the country is starving.

Zimbabwe would kill to be Rhodesia again,

[smiley_glad_hands]

2. This guy is a murderous despot.

He is no hero to the people.

[LostinVA]

5. Agreed -- and all this will do is result in more bloodshed and a worse economy

[classysassy]

6. Ian Smith

left the country in shambles,now you blame the black guy.Nice try,but thats BS.

[Lance_Boyle]

7. you have got to be kidding me

He's a couple tasty human livers short of Idi Amin, but this thug is no hero. More akin to Mobuto. Yeah - Mugabe has really stood for progress (and progressive values) in Zimbabwe... :eyes:

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

14. When Ian Smith returned in 2000 he was welcomed quite warmly,

and when Mugabe's thugs showed up at the Smith farm they were run off by other blacks, nobody really has a problem with him anymore.

[Vogon_Glory]

17. Mugabe in Power Over 20 Years

Robert Mugabe inherited Zimbabwe from the Ian Smith regime. At the time of independence, Zimbabwe had a healthy agricultural sector than could and did export grain, cattle, and coffee. Despite the Mugabe regime's brutal repression of Matabele dissension, the Zimbabwean economy continued to grow and thrive for a time. Blaming Ian Smith and the former regime for Zimbabwe's current troubles doesn't cut it.

Since then, Mugabe and his party decimated Zimbabwe's agricultural sector to maintain his own political power. Zimbabwe no longer exports grain, and half of the population is in danger of starvation. Zimbabwe no longer exports coffee. Zimbabwe's famed heat-resistant cattle breeds are in danger of extinction, if they aren't dead already.

Sure, Zimbabwean whites are still privileged, even in persecution. They can at least flee Zimbabwe with life and limbs intact. If they were ethnic Matabeles or dissident Zimbabwean Africans, they could be beaten, jailed, tortured, and worse.

I think that Mugabe should be held responsible for what happened in Zimbabwe since then, just as I think that lilly-white dictators like Chile's Pinochet, Argentina's Videla, Serbia's Milosevic ought to be held accountable for their actions.

[LostinVA]

21. Oh brother

[Turbineguy]

3. Sounds like they read

Atlas Shrugged and decided to do what made the economy collapse there.

[pampango]

4. Hey, it worked with agriculture (well, there is a slight problem with refugees)

so why not use the same logic on the commercial sector.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/23/world/africa/23zimbabwe.html?_r=1&ref=africa&oref=slogin

"Many more Zimbabweans slip into the country undetected, although estimates vary wildly. In a nation of 46 million, most experts say, undocumented Zimbabweans could number several hundred thousand to two million."

"Unquestionably, the Zimbabweans are victims first. A rising number claim to be refugees from persecution by President Robert G. Mugabe’s police and by supporters of his ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. Just six Zimbabweans sought political asylum in South Africa in 2001; last year, the total was nearly 19,000, more than a third of all asylum applications in South Africa.

But most are fleeing privation, not persecution. Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate was officially 4,530 percent in May; economists say it is at least twice that. Industries are operating at barely 30 percent of capacity, unemployment exceeds 80 percent and a disastrous harvest is likely to leave up to four million in need of food aid this year.

A memorandum prepared by 34 international aid agencies, including the United Nations and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, predicted this month that the country’s economy would cease to function by the end of this year."

[David__77]

8. A possibly good idea from a not-so-good government.

Domestic economic control is a basic democratic demand of developing countries. Let the developed country multinationals make a profit, but make sure they know who's boss on the final analysis.

[Odin2005]

9. Translation: Mugabe wants his cronies to control the companies.

[Nihil]

10. Makes sense ...

... the cronies have wasted the stolen farms so they might as well waste
some stolen companies too and f*ck up what's left of the country even more.

:think:
Maybe they can get some business advice from little Bush? That would help ...

[1932]

12. If it's a choice of cronies, I'd rather have a Zimbabwean's cronies controlling

Zimbabwean companies than the cronies of a Goldman Sachs partner or of a Carlyle Group partner.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

15. yeah, they have done a fucking great job with the "bread basket of Africa"

[1932]

16. I think it was the bread basket for Tescos, but, whatever.

They used to export almost everything they made while Zimbabweans got little of the food or profits.

[davidinalameda]

11. never fails

why is it that you always have posters on here defending dictators?

[robcon]

18. One more source of graft for Mugabe.

The guy is a monster.

[1932]

19. What is an example of graft in Zimbabwe for which Mugabe is responsible?

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

20. oh other than his thugs taking over every farm in the country?

The gangs who are occupying farms are common criminals, who loot the farms and sell the equipment to scrap dealers in South Africa. These are not black farm workers turning on their white bosses and running the farm themselves. The black farmers are usually killed by Mugabe's gangs as they try to protect the farm from the looters.

Those defending Mugabe got a little too much post-colonial bullshit in university and are the same people who think their Che hoodie is making some sort of statement on human rights.

[LostinVA]

22. Your last paragraph almost ruined my keyboard, dammit

Irish Breakfast tea all over the place.

[1932]

23. Links?

Just to be clear. I'm not defending him. I just want to make sure I have my facts straight.

[otherlander]

25. Support Capitalism!

Buy pictures of Communists!
:crazy:

[classysassy]

24. Lies,lies and more lies

by the western media,don't let facts get in the way of racist lies.