The Sunday Mail
Chief Reporter
Several top companies have complied with Government’s requirement to submit indigenisation plans in keeping with the law.
Information from the Zimbabwe Investment Authority showed that about 50 major firms had moved to respect the law.
Metallon Gold head of corporate communications Ambassador Senzo Nsimbi said: “We have an approved plan which we have started working on. The Act says the plan can be implemented in five years, so that is what we are doing.
“We started with community share ownership trusts in all the areas we are operating. And so, we have now started paying money into all these trusts so that they carry out their purpose of helping communities.”
He added: “We are expecting to unveil our Employee Share Ownership Scheme by the end of this month, or at the beginning of April. We are going to increase our corporate social responsibility.
“What is important is that although we are a group and are going to unbundle each of our mines so that they stand as independent entities to ensure we implement the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act in a manner that benefits as many people as possible.”
In January 2016, then BAT Zimbabwe MD Mr Lovemore Manatsa told The Sunday Mail that the company’s implementation matrix was premised on setting up a vibrant employee share ownership Scheme and the BAT Zimbabwe Tobacco Empowerment Trust.
“The company has already attained full indigenisation compliance and has been certified as such by the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board and the ministry.
“Indigenous Zimbabweans now constitute more than 51 percent of the company’s share register. The compliance was achieved through two phases namely issuance, allotment and transfer of ordinary shares to empowerment trusts — the BAT Zimbabwe Employee Share Ownership Trust (10 percent) and the BAT Zimbabwe Tobacco Empowerment Trust (10.76 percent). There were also pre-existing indigenous Zimbabwean shareholders on the company’s share register.”
