Indigenisation Bill gazetted. Long Overdue!

Black empowerment is THE ONLY WAY to extricate Africans from poverty and exploitation.

Indigenisation Bill gazetted

Herald Reporter

GOVERNMENT has gazetted the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Bill which seeks to create an enabling environment for greater participation in the economy by indigenous people.

The proposed law provides for the establishment of an Indigenisation and Empowerment Fund to finance the acquisition of shares, working capital and other forms of finance.

The National Investment Trust of Zimbabwe will be constituted as a special account of the envisaged empowerment fund.

This will not affect the interests of the unit holders and deed of trust.

The overall goal is to achieve at least a 51 percent shareholding by indigenous people in the majority of businesses in all sectors of the economy.

The Minister of Indigenisation and Empowerment will be mandated to review and approve the indigenisation arrangements.

The minister will be empowered to order a licensing authority of any business that fails to notify his office of a transaction affecting its ownership to cancel the licence or registration.

Sufficient time will be given to businesses concerned to rectify anomalies in the ownership structure, failing which the licence or registration will be cancelled.

Any person aggrieved by the minister’s decision will have the right to appeal to the Administrative Court.

However, the person is obliged to comply with the minister’s order or directive pending finalisation of the appeal.

A 15-member National Indigenisation and Empowerment Board will be appointed by the minister in consultation with the President.

The board will, among other duties, advise the minister on appropriate measures to adopt in the implementation of the objectives and policies on indigenisation.

It will be vested with powers to administer the proposed empowerment fund.