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But the employees are arguing that the continuance of the transaction is in violation of the indigenisation laws.
The High Court application was filed by Mr Don Nyamande, and cites Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere as the first respondent and FMI Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd, as the second respondent. The application concerns FMI’s non-compliance with requirements of the indigenisation law.
Others cited in the application are Kingstone Donga, Sharon Otoo and Emanuel Masendeke as second, third and fourth respondents, respectively.
Reads part of the document:
“To date, FMI Zimbabwe has not set up the 10 percent employee share ownership scheme in terms of Section 14 of the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment (General) Regulations of 2010 as amended.
“This is despite the fact that this was a condition of the approval of the sale of Shell Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd and BP Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd to FMI Zimbabwe by the Minister of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment in terms of Section 4 (1) (b) of the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act (Chapter 14:33).”
The workers maintain that they have been compelled to approach the High Court due to the fact that prior efforts to push for the setting up of the employee share ownership scheme have been fruitless.
“All efforts by employees to implore FMI Zimbabwe to comply with the condition listed above through the Ministry of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment and the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare have not yielded any results to date.”
Masawara has remained largely quiet on the indigenisation of the petroleum business. In its six months interims to June 30, 2012 the group describes Zuva Petroleum (Pvt) Ltd as a “wholly-owned subsidiary” of Masawara Energy (Mauritius) Limited.
The workers last year petitioned the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board, which carried out investigations and discovered several irregularities in how the transaction was handled.
But after the investigations, NIEEB called for the revocation of the FMI deal, citing “misrepresentation and fraudulent non-disclosure of information” during the application for approval.
“The transaction approval was procured through misrepresentation and fraudulent non-disclosure of information . . . The legal implication will be that the two parties will not be legally able to conclude their agreement.
“Both parties will revert to status quo ante. The company will continue to operate under BP and Shell through local management until properly indigenised,” said NIEEB in a supplementary report on its investigations on the FMI deal.
There has been no movement on FMI’s part in respect of the complaints by the workers and recommendations by NIEEB. NIEEB’s investigations on the FMI deal were instructed by Minister Kasukuwere, after several complaints by stakeholders in the transaction, including the employees and dealers of the former BP and Shell.
Online Reporter