Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Harare (Agenzia Fides)- Yesterday 26 September Zimbabwe's parliament approved a controversial Bill which says at least 51% of foreign business must be given to local or indigenous citizens. The Indigenisation and Empowerment Bill, discussed for some time, has drawn strong criticism at home and abroad (see Fides 26 June 2007).
For the new norms, an indigenous citizen is “anyone who before 18 April 1980 (Zimbabwe's independence day), was subject to unjust discrimination on the basis of race, and any descendant of this person”. Businesses affected by the Bill include some multinational companies in the sectors of mining, energy, banking, beverages and building.
The Opposition fought the Bill on the grounds that it would inflict the fatal blow on the nation's economy, seriously weakened by the distribution of farms owned by settlers of European origin to African born citizens. The measure, although expected for some time, carried out with favouritism, put on its knees the country, once the 'granary of southern Africa'. In a few years Zimbabwe an exporter of cereals, had become a country dependent on foreign aid. The people are literally starving: more than 75% is unemployed, 80% relies on international food aid, inflation has reached a record level of over 6,500%; the country's healthcare and school systems have collapsed.
Critics of President Robert Mugabe say the new law is a pre-electoral political move to win the consensus of the exhausted population, throwing responsibility for the economic crisis on foreign businesses and interests.
Thanks to an agreement between the party of the President , the Zimbabwe African National Union Party of the Patriotic Front, ZANU-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change, MDC, the Senate approved a constitutional amendment allowing simultaneous legislative and presidential elections in 2008. The agreement was reached thanks to the intervention of South African president, Thabo Mbeki, charged by the Southern African Development Community to mediate Zimbabwe's political crisis. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 27/9/2007 righe 30 parole 357)
