Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation

The Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, President Robert Mugabe says the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act should enable indigenous people to fully benefit from their resources.

From a background where the country’s vast natural resources and minerals have never benefitted the majority of Zimbabweans, Cde Mugabe told ZBC News at his 88th birthday interview that he hopes the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act will adequately address that anomaly and channel a mechanism where the majority indigenous people benefit.

"Platinum also must be managed. I hope the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act will now enable us to get greater benefit from all this mining exercise which has been taking place in the past by doing so at our expense, national expense that is.

"Now that we must go into all these companies with at least 51 percent, that is least, it can be more than that. Fifty-one percent shareholding in a company! The reward to Zimbabwe must be greater but what is required is revamping, improving the performance and greater productivity taking place in the mining sector," he said.

President Mugabe also hoped the country's mines, some of which have been nationalised, would help rebuild Zimbabwe's economy.

He said: "But other areas of the mining sector are also important. We have platinum, but there is very little contribution being made by platinum to our development.

"If anything really, our platinum is developing other countries much more than it is developing Zimbabwe. Then there is gold, gold is the main, I would want to believe, the main mineral and you get it practically in every province in the country.

"And you have small miners, makorokoza, vanamai nanababa, along the rivers, digging everywhere. We have nothing against them but we want them to be better organized, taught how to do their gold mining."

Seeking to redress past economic imbalances, the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act has been hailed as an important piece of legislation which will adequately give advantage to the formerly marginalised black Zimbabweans. 

With a minimum 51% going to locals, the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act has been hailed as the final step to economic democratisation and the much needed legal framework to give indigenous Zimbabweans a role in the destiny of their economy.

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