By Nelson Banya
HARARE (Reuters) – Plans by a powerful Zimbabwe minister to force foreign-owned banks to turn over majority stakes to locals are “illogical,” the head of the country’s central bank said, offering hope to the banks but exposing policy rifts that could worry investors.
“We regard the regulations … as devoid of detail and rationality as they are contradictory in many respects with the laws in the country,” central bank chief Gideon Gono, an ally of President Robert Mugabe, wrote in an email obtained by Reuters on Thursday.
Empowerment minister Saviour Kasukuwere, a rising star in Mugabe’s ZANU-PF, issued a notice last week giving all foreign-owned banks a year to cut their shareholding to 49 percent.
Standard Chartered Bank Plc, Barclays Bank Plc and South Africa’s Standard Bank and Nebank all have operations in Zimbabwe and would be affected by the regulation.
The impoverished southern African state, battling to support a fragile economic recovery, has already forced mining companies such as Rio Tinto and Impala Platinum, the world’s second-largest platinum miner, to turn over majority stakes in their local units to black Zimbabweans.
Analysts see the pressure on foreign firms as a way for ZANU-PF to replenish its coffers as it heads into elections expected for next year against the main opposition MDC party.
The groups were forced into a power-sharing government after a disputed poll in 2008.
