SHURUGWI – President Robert Mugabe yesterday said the indigenisation law is aimed at hitting back on businesses whose governments have called for sanctions against Zimbabwe, particularly the British.
Addressing hundreds of people who gathered at Anglo American Platinum-owned Unki Mine to witness the launch of the Tongogara Community Share Ownership Trust, President Mugabe said the British and Americans were at the forefront of calling for sanctions against Zimbabwe, yet they were the biggest beneficiaries of the country’s natural resources.
“We said they called for sanctions against us because we had taken back our land, so we looked and said you have 400 companies which were British at that time which were mining in Zimbabwe . . . so after we finished the land reform we then moved to those companies where we are demanding a controlling stake of not less than 51%,” he said.
The President accused former British Premier Tony Blair of lying to the international community that there was lawlessness and violence in Zimbabwe, as a way of justifying the call for “illegal” sanctions against Zimbabwe.
“Blair knows the truth why we took our land forcefully from their sons and daughters without compensation and he could not tell the international community the truth, so he lied about the collapse of the rule of law and anarchy in the country so that he could get support for his sanctions.
“The Americans then supported him, this is what has brought us here today,” said President Mugabe. Mines minister Obert Mpofu added:
“They (British and Americans) should support us and call for the removal of sanctions and if they don’t, when we know they are the biggest beneficiaries, we are going to ban them from exporting minerals they extract.”
