Published: 15 August 2013

ABOUT 1 000 foreign owned firms have submitted plans to comply with indigenisation thresholds, but less than half have so far been approved, an official said.

A total of 1 119 plans have been processed with 496 having been approved, outgoing Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere told an empowerment conference at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare today.

The approved plans are mainly from the manufacturing (155) and mining (135) sectors.

He said Government would ensure foreign companies complied with the law.

Under the broad based empowerment programme, foreign companies are supposed to turnover over their majority stakes to indigenous black Zimbabweans.

Black economic empowerment was the major campaigning tool for the Zanu-PF, which saw the revolutionary party winning the July 31 harmonised elections convincingly.

"It has been labeled as a plan to empower the elite, but if the communities (that have benefited from the Community Share Ownership Trust) are described as elites, then that kind of group (of people) should be supported," said Minister Kasukuwere.

He said people would have not voted for Zanu-PF is indigenisation was meant to empower a few.
- herald

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