adminshareholding in the next 12 months and expected to fully indigenise after four years.
Under the empowerment laws, foreign companies are required to turn over at least 51 percent equity to indigenous Zimbabweans.
To fully comply, non-indigenous manufacturers will be required to release 10 percent to indigenous Zimbabweans during the second year, another 10 percent in the third year and five percent during the final year, according to an extraordinary Government Gazette published last week.
The Section 5 (6) of the regulations provides that all foreign-controlled companies should, from October 28, submit proposals on how they intend to meet stipulated thresholds within 45 days.
“We have widely consulted and as Government, we believe these regulations will be widely accepted,” said a senior official in the Ministry of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment
Some senior officials with foreign companies said they would study the regulations before making presentations to company shareholders.
Manufacturing companies include those in food processing, confectionery and textiles.
The regulations for the manufacturing sector are different from those of the mining industry gazetted on March 24 this year. These required that mining firms with net asset value of US$1million dispose of 51 percent of the shares to indigenous Zimbabweans by September 30.
However, about 140 mining companies failed to submit acceptable plans, with most of them asking for more time to work on new plans.
Last month, Impala Platinum agreed to turn over a 10 percent stake in its Zimbabwe units, Zimplats, after Government threatened to cancel its operating licence because its plan fell short of expectations.
Implats, the world’s second-largest platinum producer, said a Government threat to remove Zimplats licence had “fallen away” after reaching an agreement on a revised plan to comply with a law requiring foreign mining firms to turn over a 51 percent stake to indigenous Zimbabweans.
The 10 percent stake is the first tranche of what Zimplats is expected to sell to indigenous Zimbabweans.
Old Mutual, the country’s largest insurer, is another big foreign company that submitted an acceptable broad-based plan to meet the thresholds.
But some firms are understood to be delaying their submission in anticipation that indigenisation would cease to be on the national agenda.
Before some amendments to the legislation, companies with a net asset value of less than US$500 000 were exempted from the indigenisation laws.
Online Reporter