HARARE, March 6 (Reuters) – Zimbabwe is set to
announce on Wednesday the fate of Impala Platinum’s
shareholding in its local unit after latest talks on black
ownership ended in deadlock, the state-controlled Herald
newspaper said.
The government wants Implats, the world’s second-largest
platinum producer, to hand a majority stake in its local
operation Zimplats to Zimbabweans and transfer 29.5
percent shares to a state-run fund.
The Herald said on Tuesday the government had met Zimplats
officials last week but the meeting ended without an agreement.
“It (meeting) ended in a deadlock. The Zimplats issue will
be tackled, there are no two ways about it,” the paper quoted an
unnamed source as saying.
Mines Minister Obert Mpofu and Youth and Empowerment
minister Saviour Kasukuwere, all members from President Robert
Mugabe’s ZANU-PF, would now meet on Wednesday and announce a
decision on Zimplats, the Herald said.
Implats has offered five percent to workers and 6.5 percent
to the state-run fund, in addition to the 10 percent it handed
to local communities last year. It plans to make up the balance
through empowerment credits from giving up some of its claims in
2006.
Kasukuwere has rejected parts of the proposal and told
Reuters last week he would not talk to Implats unless the
company fully complied with the empowerment law.
(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; editing by David Dolan)
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