[miningmx] — ZIMBABWE’S Minister of Youth Development, Indigenisation and
Empowerment, Saviour Kasukuwere, has now ruled out any compensation being paid
to Implats’ Zimbabwe unit, Zimplats.
The majority-South African owned company ceded a 51% indigenisation stake last
month.
The Zimplats 51% stake has been set at an estimated value of $678m (R5.3bn), with
employees set to own 10%, community share trusts another 10% and the National
Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board receiving the remaining 31%.
In an interview with the state broadcaster, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation,
Kasukuwere ruled out compensation, saying, “We will not pay for what belongs to
us. We are ascribing a value for our resources vis-a-vis the investment made. We
will then determine the ownership structure.
“What should be made clear is that this is what we call the intrinsic value of our
subsoil assets, where the minerals are,’ he added.
“Where these resources are there is a value and, yes, the value increases when you
mine them, so we have taken that into account.’
Speaking to City Press at the start of preparations to roll out the
indigenisation programme to the Matabeleland South province, Kasukuwere
underpinned the refusal to pay compensation to Zimplats as linked to the “unfair
value’ that the government had continued to receive “for a long time’ from foreign-
owned mines.
“Last year, mining companies in Zimbabwe – most of which are foreign-owned –
exported over $1bn worth of minerals. Only 15% of this amount was paid to
government, meaning that the resources have not been beneficial to the people of
Zimbabwe.
“Hence we ask, why must we be forced to pay for what belongs to us? The
resources are ours,’ said Kasukuwere.
Meanwhile, the indigenisation programme is gathering steam, with Kasukuwere set to
roll out community share ownership trusts from 18 mines in the gold-rich mining town
of Gwanda in the Matabeleland South province this month.
Some of the foreign-owned mines set to cede a 10% stake and $10 million under the
community share ownership trust include Blanket Mine, owned by Canada’s Caledonia
Corporation, and South Africa’s cement manufacturer, Pretoria Portland Cement.
Economic observers warned that Kasukuwere’s refusal to compensate Zimplats could
set off investor flight and turn the indigenisation programme into a grab policy that
has the hallmarks of the country’s farm invasions in 2000.
John Robertson, a Harare-based economic commentator, said: “If they won’t pay for
the shares, they won’t get them. Money is needed to run the mines at some point or
other. Kasukuwere just has to start paying up or this will be a repeat of the farm
invasions.’
In 2000, Zimbabwe refused to pay compensation to the 4,500 white commercial
farmers forcibly evicted from their farms by war veterans, a militant-styled group
loyal to President Robert Mugabe.
– City Press
