Zimbabwe: Foreign mining companies to be forced to sell majority shares

The government has announced that laws requiring foreign mining companies to sell a majority of their shares to locals will be gazetted by the end of February. In a statement published in the state-run Herald newspaper on Wednesday, the Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, said consultations were at an ‘advanced stage’ and new regulations would be gazetted no later than the end of February. A controversial Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act, requiring all businesses to give 51 per cent of their shares to locals was signed into law in 2008, but the government has not yet acted on it.