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Mudenge orders youths to grab foreign-owned mines and banks
25 Aug 2011 at 10:38hrs | Views
Higher and Tertiary Education Minister, Stan Mudenge on Wednesday in Masvingo ordered Zanu-PF youths to forcibly grab foreign-owned mines and banks in
the province in line with the government's controversial empowerment
law, Daily News reported.
Mudenge instructed the youths in the province to take over foreign-owned firms in support of the Minister of Youth, Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment, Saviour Kasukuwere who is championing the law.
Mudenge who struggled to deliver his speech due to a grumpy voice, accused the youths of being cowards because they do not want to back Kasukuwere by grabbing the foreign-owned firms in the province specifically mines and banks.
"You should stop being cowards and move into the mines and grab them. The indigenisation policy is meant to benefit you youths because our generation benefited from the land reform programme.
"Why can't you claim ownership of the mines in the province they should be yours, we support Kasukuwere so do the same," said Mudenge.
He said his Zanu PF party fought the liberation war to take away everything from the whites.
"That is the reason we went to war to free you and take everything from the former colonialists.
Their companies should be taken from them by indigenous people and I know that we can run this economy alone," said Mudenge.
His call for the seizure of the companies comes at a time when
Kasukuwere and the Reserve Bank governor, Gedion Gono, have been at loggerheads over the implementation of the law.
Kasukuwere has given foreign- owned companies including foreign banks and mines two weeks to table acceptable empowerment plans or risk having their operating licences revoked while Gono has insisted that such a move will spell disaster for the country.
Mudenge accused the private media of misleading the youths by reporting that the haphazard implementation of the empowerment law will result in the destruction of the local economy.
This is despite the fact that many locally-owned companies are struggling to stay afloat while others have gone under over the past few years when the country was gripped by a debilitating economic and political meltdown.
"I know that you have been told a lot of lies by some sections of the media that if you take the companies the economy will collapse.
Don't listen to them they lie and are liars who are puppets of our former colonisers.
Take the firms and I know we can run them and our economy why should we continue working for the white men who grabbed our resources," he added.
Mudenge's calls are likely to add panic among foreign-owned businesses in the province, where Zanu PF supporters have in the past invaded wildlife ranches and mines.
Two months ago, Zanu PF youths in the province formed a shadowy organisation called Masvingo Young People in Business which they planned to use to take over foreign companies in the vast province.
The youth group a copycat of Zanu PF-aligned Upfumi Kuvadiki based in Harare, has since listed several mines among them the country's biggest gold producers, Renco Mine owned by Rio Tinto, Bikita Minerals the country's biggest lithium producers, Standard Chartered Bank and Barclays Bank.
Mudenge instructed the youths in the province to take over foreign-owned firms in support of the Minister of Youth, Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment, Saviour Kasukuwere who is championing the law.
Mudenge who struggled to deliver his speech due to a grumpy voice, accused the youths of being cowards because they do not want to back Kasukuwere by grabbing the foreign-owned firms in the province specifically mines and banks.
"You should stop being cowards and move into the mines and grab them. The indigenisation policy is meant to benefit you youths because our generation benefited from the land reform programme.
"Why can't you claim ownership of the mines in the province they should be yours, we support Kasukuwere so do the same," said Mudenge.
He said his Zanu PF party fought the liberation war to take away everything from the whites.
"That is the reason we went to war to free you and take everything from the former colonialists.
Their companies should be taken from them by indigenous people and I know that we can run this economy alone," said Mudenge.
His call for the seizure of the companies comes at a time when
Kasukuwere and the Reserve Bank governor, Gedion Gono, have been at loggerheads over the implementation of the law.
Mudenge accused the private media of misleading the youths by reporting that the haphazard implementation of the empowerment law will result in the destruction of the local economy.
This is despite the fact that many locally-owned companies are struggling to stay afloat while others have gone under over the past few years when the country was gripped by a debilitating economic and political meltdown.
"I know that you have been told a lot of lies by some sections of the media that if you take the companies the economy will collapse.
Don't listen to them they lie and are liars who are puppets of our former colonisers.
Take the firms and I know we can run them and our economy why should we continue working for the white men who grabbed our resources," he added.
Mudenge's calls are likely to add panic among foreign-owned businesses in the province, where Zanu PF supporters have in the past invaded wildlife ranches and mines.
Two months ago, Zanu PF youths in the province formed a shadowy organisation called Masvingo Young People in Business which they planned to use to take over foreign companies in the vast province.
The youth group a copycat of Zanu PF-aligned Upfumi Kuvadiki based in Harare, has since listed several mines among them the country's biggest gold producers, Renco Mine owned by Rio Tinto, Bikita Minerals the country's biggest lithium producers, Standard Chartered Bank and Barclays Bank.
Source - DailyNews
