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Herald Reporter
President Mugabe has slammed senior party and Government officials who are being used as fronts by foreign investors, saying this defeats the objectives of indigenisation laws that require foreigners to hold not more than 49 percent in any business valued at more than $500 000.

He said Government would strengthen the relevant law to plug loopholes that bred the mischief.

President Mugabe said this on Tuesday while officially opening the Second Session of the Eighth Parliament, stressing that Zimbabwe enacted indigenisation and economic empowerment laws so indigenous people would not remain on the sidelines of key economic processes.

“However, it is depressing that some of our people have turned themselves into mere fronts for foreign investors, thus defeating the fundamental objectives of the indigenisation and economic empowerment programme. Decisive action shall indeed be taken to address these negative developments and to strengthen the general enforcement of the relevant legislation,” said President Mugabe.

Indigenous people have been fingered for acting as fronts for whites, particularly in farms and companies.

This has seen some farms flourishing with evergreen crops but little going into the pockets of the indigenous farm owners who at most get no more than 10 percent of the proceeds. Most locals are denied loans at banks allegedly for lack of collateral.

Analysts have said Government appears to be losing the battle as more indigenous people have turned into willing tools of foreign investors.

President Mugabe has in the past indicated that some zanu-pf officials have been fronting white businesses in return for nominal stakes.

In an interview with ZBCTV ahead of his 83rd birthday in February 2007, the President said he disapproved of senior zanu-pf members involved in the diamond trade, saying it was an industry where “suspicion could easily be raised.”

“They joined (diamond mining) openly, they said yes, we have shares. But you see, it is the sense of doing it, kuti unozosvika pakuita izvozvo uri member yePolitburo kunobatana nemabhunhu arikutsvaga mari, zvamboita sei (How do you become involved in this sort of thing when you are a Politburo member, partnering white businessmen, why?).”

Fronting is more rampant in the agriculture sector, where some white former commercial farmers have made huge profits by hiding behind new black farmers.