- Zimbabwean main labour union has criticised the new company ownership law in the country as a new recipe to another economic disaster.
The new local ownership law, will require all foreign owned companies to sell 51 percent of their shareholders to locals in the next five years.
The law, which became effective today, will however give companies until mid next month to declare all their ownership information to the government.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions lashed at the new piece of legislation, saying it has been brought prematurely. The union also feared that the new law could turn into a disaster like the seizure of white-owned farms, which only benefitted those closer to the ruling brass and has since left many of the farms inactive.
"Although the principle of the law is good, we fear that this could lead to a creation of new minority blacks who will just replace the minority whites," the union’s spokesperson, Lovemore Matombo, was quoted to have said.
The union was further of the opinion that the law could scare away foreign investors and at a time when Zimbabwe was trying to lure investments into the country for economic recovery.
Zimbabwe has been struggling to rise up from an economic collapse which was fuelled by political uncertainties due to prolonged fight to stay in power by President Robert Mugabe’s party as well as the collapse of the whole state administration.
The new law is said to have been passed by parliament in 2007 but only published last month, reportedly in a split decision between the unity government members.
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