Zimbabwe passes bill to seize foreign-owned firms

Members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) walked out in protest after Mugabe's Zanu PF party, which enjoys a majority in parliament, pushed through the bill.

The Zimbabwean government claims that the bill forms part of its drive to empower the country's poor but critics and analysts says the move would be the final nail in the coffin for the economy – which has been is a spiral of collapse ever since the regime began seizing white-owned farms. The analysts and critics say that the law will drive away any remaining investor. The MDC has also claimed that like the controversial and often violent land grab, the law is designed to enrich only Mugabe's cronies and other powerful Zimbabweans who Mugabe needs if he is to survive in power.

Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Minister Paul Mangwana and ruling Zanu PF legislators defended the bill, accusing its critics of an agenda aimed at perpetuating the economic imbalances bred by colonialism.

In addition, Mugabe has claimed more than once that foreign-owned firms are intent on ousting him and his party from power. He has also accused them of contributing to the current chaotic state of the economy by banking foreign exchange outside of Zimbabwe.

"If we do not dismantle the structure of colonialism that we inherited then we have not given back all the country's resources to its rightful owners, who are our people," Mangwana said. He said that there would not be any blanket seizures of foreign-owned businesses and that the Zimbabwean government would work with each industry on a one-to-one basis to set timetables for the transfer of ownership to locals. However, given the empty promises made previously by the Zimbabwean government, some critics and analysts believe there is a likelihood that there will be less consultation than promised.

The land grab, which has seen more than 10 white farmers murdered, their farms seized and their workers deprived of their livelihoods and homes, has seen food and agricultural production fall dramatically.

Critics of the new law believe its imposition is more than likely to see the industrial sector going the same way the agricultural sector has gone.

The official inflation is over 6,600 percent - the highest in the world - and 80% of adult Zimbabweans are unemployed, and there are constant shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency. Some analysts, however, reckon the actual inflation rate is more than twice the official one.