(NEWZIMBABWE) Biti, MDC-T aiding Kasukuwere extortion

COMMENT - Tony Reeler is a fool and a piece of slime. He thinks western corporations can just extract any amount of value out of Zimbabwe, no matter what the state of the Zimbabwean people. He says that companis don't own their own shares and therefore can't disburse their shares. This is nonsense. Companies are free to issue as many shares as they want. If a company has a million shares, they can issue another million shares and hand them over, resulting in a 50% ownership by Zimbabwean institutions. I remember that the RAU is associated with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

Biti, MDC-T aiding Kasukuwere extortion
29/01/2013 00:00:00
by Tony Reeler

A JANUARY 28 statement by the MDC-T quoting Tendai Biti’s criticism of the indigenisationprogramme is likely to draw snorts of derision from the companies affected by Indigenisation and Empowerment MinisterSaviourKasukuwere’s policies.

Kasukuwere demands that non-indigenous companies dispose of 51% of “their shares” to blackZimbabweans. This demand immediately appears to be nonsense to lawyers and those with anyaccounting or business skills. Companies do not own the shares – shareholders do.

One cannot legally compel companies to dispose of that which they do not own and over which they have no control. This is recognised by the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act which is only intended to apply to share transactions and provides that where shares change hands on account of mergers,demergers, and unbundling, the result transaction must leave 51% of the shares in the hands ofIndigenous Zimbabweans.

The Regulations are only in conformity with the Act where they provide for this. The remaining 80% of the Regulations are not permitted by the Act and invalid.

Yet, rather than stating as much, Biti picks on merely one of many invalid provisions of the Regulations – the Community Share Ownership Schemes – and points to the fact that these are not provided for in the Act. In so doing, Biti follows in the footsteps of the MDC-dominated Parliamentary Legal Committee, which, despite having been provided with cogent legal opinions on the matter to the contrary, has approved the broad tenor of Regulations as constitutional and in conformity with the Act, rather than rejecting them as they ought.

Even more astonishingly, Biti expresses wonderment that companies are parting with cash in order to deal with the stream of unlawful directives that emanate from Kasukuwere and the NIEEB. Yet the MDC-T is an active participant in this extortion.

[Extortion, no less. How would he describe the stealing of Zimbabwe's natural resources without compensation? Good business? - MrK]

Several government departments now demand compliance with these directives, and the invalid Regulations, before they will process paperwork for foreign and investor companies – for example, the Zimbabwe Investment Authority and the Immigration Department, to name but the first two which come to mind.

Companies wishing to renew their Investment Licences through the Zimbabwe Investment Authority are told by the Board to get clearance from Kasukuwere first.There is no law which requires this. This Board falls under an Act administered by the MDC-T Minister of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion. Yet it continues to enforce Kasukuwere’s unlawful directive in this regard without a murmur, let alone any action, from the MDC-T Minister Elton Mangoma.

Similarly, those seeking investor residence permits are required to gain clearance from Kasukuwere. The permits fall under the Immigration Act, co-administered by an MDC-T Minister, Theresa Makone, who likewise has done nothing to counteract this unlawful requirement.

So why is Biti surprised when companies find that the only way out is to make a donation which will assist Zanu PF in dispensing largesse prior to the elections?

What surprises the affected companies is that the MDC-T chooses to whinge about the indigenisation policies while simultaneously aiding and abetting the extortion, rather than doing that which is well within its power to bring it to an end.

Reeler is the director of the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU)


COMMENTS

Mai Jukwa

Tell them baas. Tell these MDC boys that they should do as they are told. Are they quickly forgetting where their bread gets its Rhodesian butter?

Tweeta @AmaiJukwa



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Batanai

So now you want us to look to the BRICs, even as your party has been in the lead trying to chase the Chinese out of the country?!!
Your political positions are very nebulous, one time you are cheerleading western punishment on the country, the next you are blaming the nationalists for not distancing themselves enough from the West!
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Elma Sabudo

I we Verenga unyatsonzwisisa manhi .Bugg@@ers who doesn't think get to my ti@@ts big time .
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Elma Sabundo

Forgive this @ZuuluShaka aka Elma Sabudo buffoon.Haachaziva zvaanoda nekuReporter kuImmigration hehehekkkkkk
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Batanai

Finally, we get to know who is behind this world quoted "Research and Advocacy Unit" that the western press always quotes on negative statistics about Zimbabwe's Indegenization program!
No wonder Zimbabwe's negative image persists, The Financial Times uses Tony Hawkins, who in turn quotes Reseach and advocacy Unit (Tony Reeler) or Eric Block and Robertson! Our whole economic image to the outside world is in the hands of Rhodies!
Not suprising that Biti worships to these "massers" rather than the average Zimbabwean whose vote he claims to represent!
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Shayanewako

So ... Elton Mangoma, Tapuwa Mashakada and Tendai Mbiti are failing to safeguard the interests of the Shareholders of MDC-Theresa. This after having been provided with legal opinions by learned Rhodies, and the story appearing on the same day MDC-Theresa wishes to rejoin the Commonwealth - literally wealth in the same pot, the Shareholders'. Nxaaah!!!
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Vitzdare

Vote for me President in 10 years time ini ndinobva ndabvisa 51% to 70%. kwete zveMD-Shi izvi.