* Mine ownership drive seen filling ZANU-PF coffers
* Mugabe party was struggling to raise funds, dispense
patronage
* Policy polishes ZANU-PF Africanist, liberation narrative
By MacDonald Dzirutwe and Ed Stoddard
HARARE/JOHANNESBURG, March 14 (Reuters) – A platinum
miner’s surrender to Zimbabwean demands for it to hand a
majority stake in its local unit to black investors will
embolden President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party to pressure
other foreign companies before elections expected this year.
Other miners are likely be targeted to help fund the
campaign of ZANU-PF, which controls the mines ministry in the
uneasy coalition government, although analysts say the policy
will portrayed as a blow to the remnants of white colonial rule.
South African-based Impala Platinum, the world’s
second largest platinum producer and the biggest foreign
investor in the country, bowed on Tuesday to Zimbabwe’s pressure
to surrender a 51 percent stake in its Zimplats unit
following months of argument.
Platinum’s spot price has been soaring and shot past
gold on Tuesday.
Mugabe, who has held power since Zimbabwe won independence
from Britain in 1980, has been hit along with top ZANU-PF
officials by international sanctions after being accused of
using political violence to stay in power.
Continued…
