By Polly Johnson
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

HARARE, Zimbabwe – President Robert Mugabe said Thursday that the country will forge ahead with the takeover of foreign-owned firms, a plan laid out in a 2008 law.

During a speech Thursday at the burial of the deputy director of Zimbabwe’s intelligence organization, Mugabe addressed mourners, telling them, “We proceed with our indigenization and empowerment policy, and programs must be worked out to ensure that our resources are managed by us, they are controlled and exploited by us, and that they benefit the majority of our people.”

The Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Bill was signed into law in 2008, and permits local business owners to take fifty-one percent shareholder control of foreign mining companies that have a net asset value of one million dollars or more.

The Zimbabwe government defended the bill as a way of addressing past racial and historical imbalances and allowing local Zimbabweans to benefit from the country’s rich mineral resources.

However, upon its passage, the bill was met with heavy criticism. Opponents have argued that the law has simply been a way for Mugabe to buy and curry support among his party, ZANU-PF.

Mugabe’s opposition party, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has opposed the law. However, he has not been so vocal about his opposition, which some critics have attributed to his not wanting to be labeled as “pro-white” or “pro-West.”

Last month, Mugabe took the initial steps towards enforcing the bill when he gave foreign mining companies forty-five days to transfer the majority stakes to local investors.

Mugabe’s goal is to take power away from the European and American corporations that dominate Zimbabwe’s economy. He has accused the foreign-owned companies of aligning with the West in an effort to remove him from power. “If our economy is controlled by outsiders, similarly the politics will be controlled by outsiders,” Mugabe said.

Western countries imposed sanctions on Mugabe and ZANU-PF in 2002 on charges of human rights abuses and rigged elections. As recently as 2010, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that ZANU-PF continued to engage in human rights abuses, and that there had been no meaningful progress in instituting human rights reforms. HRW has uncovered rampant abuses by Zimbabwe’s armed forces, including forced labor, child labor, killings, beatings, smuggling and corruption.

Mugabe, who is 87 and has run the country since 1980, does not appear to be slowing down. “We must demonstrate that we are ready to defend our country and sacrifice our lives. The enemy will try by all means to destroy us, but if we are united, we are strong,” he said. The MDC has warned that upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections could bring about a “bloodbath” in Zimbabwe.

For more information, please see:

ZimOnline – Firm takeovers to go ahead: Mugabe – 15 April 2011

CNN – Government takeover of companies in Zimbabwe to proceed, Mugabe says – 14 April 2011

Zimbabwe Mail – Mugabe says to proceed with foreign firm takeovers – April 14, 2011

CNN – Is ‘indigenization’ bad for business? – 7 April 2011

Zimbabwe Guardian – Shape up or ship out, Mugabe warns companies – 28 March 2011

Human Rights Watch – EU: Keep Sanctions on Mugabe’s Inner Circle – 29 January 2010