Zimbabwe PM says local ownership rule too stringent

Mon Oct 17, 2011

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's local ownership rules for foreign mining companies are too stringent, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Monday.

Under the controversial law, the Zimbabwean units of international firms are required eventually to become majority-owned by local blacks.

The change in ownership will take years, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said, with even a minimum of 30 percent as an initial threshold being too high.

"I think 30 percent is too high," Tsvangirai told reporters in Johannesburg on the sidelines of an agricultural conference.

(sourced Reuters)

Zimbabwe PM says not set on foreign firm ownership

Thu Mar 10, 2011 9:54am GMT

HARARE, March 10 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's cabinet has not yet decided minimum ownership thresholds for foreign companies that are ultimately supposed to surrender a 51 percent stake to local blacks, the prime minister said on Thursday.

Morgan Tsvangirai also told a meeting of business leaders the government had not yet drawn up detailed plans on a proposed sovereign wealth fund to buy majority stakes in foreign mining firms. (Reporting by by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Jon Herskovitz,sourced:Thomson Reuters)