Zimbabwe to replace empowerment law

HARARE – Zimbabwe will repeal its indigenisation and economic empowerment legislation dealing with ownership of foreign-controlled companies and replace it with a new empowerment law, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said on Thursday.

Addressing parliament, Ncube also said foreign investors can now take majority stakes in the platinum and diamond sectors.

The empowerment law adopted in 2008 under Robert Mugabe forced foreign-owned businesses including mines to cede at least 51% shares of their local operations to black Zimbabweans.

In a bid to attract investment, President Emmerson Mnangagwa last year removed these requirements for other minerals except diamonds and platinum, which his government said were strategically important.