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(NEW ZIMBABWE) Zimbabwe could bar Western investors over sanctions

Zimbabwe could bar Western investors over sanctions
by Cris Chinaka
18/12/2010 00:00:00

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe on Saturday threatened to act against companies from Western countries that have imposed sanctions on his party over suspected election fraud and rights abuses.

The 86-year-old leader repeated threats to nationalise foreign firms, threatening to retaliate against firms such as Rio Tinto and Anglo American, which operate in Zimbabwe.

"We ask them, think again, think now. Is it sanctions or no sanctions. We will be very, very strict to the extent of refusing investment from those countries (that have imposed sanctions)," Mugabe told ZANU-PF supporters at the end of the party's annual conference.

"If you have companies here, organisations here, we will work against them also."

He told reporters after the conference that the companies "have to get their mother countries to remove sanctions or there will be sanctions against them".

Anglo American and Rio Tinto together with financial services firms Barclays Plc and Standard Chartered and food group Nestle are some of the large foreign-owned companies with investments in Zimbabwe.

The government early this year published rules forcing foreign-owned companies worth over $500,000 to sell at least 51 percent of their shares to local blacks.

"Why should Anglo American continue to take our gold out? Why should Rio Tinto continue to take our gold out? If the sanctions remain and continue, those processes will have to stop," Mugabe said.

"Don't expect your banks here will remain what they are. We are not fools."

Anglo American has in the past ten years sold its mines and sugar estates in Zimbabwe but Anglo Platinum is developing a platinum mine in central Zimbabwe while Rio Tinto owns a diamond mine in the south-west of the country.

Analysts say the empowerment rules have created uncertainty and deterred the billions of dollars of foreign investment required to rebuild the economy after a decade of mismanagement under Mugabe's ZANU-PF administration.

The veteran leader says the country has suffered from sanctions imposed by the European Union, United States and Australia and says this is punishment for seizing white-owned farms for landless blacks.

Labels: NATIONALISATION, ROBERT MUGABE, SANCTIONS, ZDERA

posted by MrK @ 3:11 PM