Predatory Politics and the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Policy in Zimbabwe’s Mining Sector

Abstract

This paper explores the unfolding of Zimbabwe’s indigenisation policy in the country’s mining sector from the early 1990s to 2018. Informed by interviews, government reports, newspaper articles and online material, the article examines the attempts to indigenise some of the country’s biggest mining concerns, like the platinum giants Mimosa, Zimplats and Unki platinum, which are all owned by multinationals. It also delves deeper into the indigenisation efforts by other mining giants, like Metallon Gold, Duration Gold, Freda Rebecca and RioZim. In the chrome sector it recounts the experiences of ZimAlloys and Zimasco. An examination of the indigenisation process in these mining concerns revealed how the policy was turned into a political elite accumulation spree. The ruling party heavyweights, members of the military and politically connected individuals frequently turned up as part of various indigenous consortia assembled to acquire shares in the mining companies as part of the indigenisation policy.