Standard Chartered denies blacklisting
STANDARD Chartered Bank, one of four foreign companies that Zimbabwe government officials insist have been blacklisted for alleged unwillingness to comply with indigenisation laws, has said it had not yet been informed of the development, although it emerged last night a meeting to discuss the bank’s compliance has now been set for tomorrow.
Zimbabwe has ratcheted up the pressure on foreign companies to speedily give away 51% of their shares to black Zimbabwean groups. The major mining companies have already been forced to comply, while officials have said they are not “unhappy” with a compliance plan submitted by Barclays’ local unit.
Advocate Zweli Lunga, the GM for compliance at the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board (NIEEB), said in an interview yesterday that the Barclays plan would be announced “soon”.
He said the other three foreign banks should now seek to speedily amend their plans and comply with the empowerment law.
Mr Lunga said officials from the NIEEB would meet Standard Chartered Zimbabwe management officials tomorrow to discuss the bank’s compliance. He said the bank had been informed of the government’s intention to shut it down if it failed “to show willingness to comply”.
“We are meeting Standard Chartered on Thursday but we have communicated to the bank officially that if they are not prepared to comply, then they should consider shutting down and moving out of the country. So that communication has been made to them and they know what is at stake,” he told Business Day.
However, Standard Chartered Bank’s head of corporate affairs for southern Africa, Vicki Robinson, yesterday denied a weekend statement by NIEEB that the bank had been blacklisted under section 5 of the indigenisation law.
The NIEEB statement at the weekend also barred com- panies, individuals and government departments from dealing with Standard Chartered Bank, Metallon Gold and Duration Gold.
“Our on-record response is that there is no basis to this and to the story at all. So in essence it’s an untruthful story,” Ms Robinson said. “We haven’t been blacklisted and … there is no threat to us being shut down.”
Standard Chartered said yesterday it would continue to engage with Zimbabwean government officials regarding the bank’s compliance with the empowerment legislation. It said that Standard Chartered remained “committed to the long-term interests” of its “staff and customers” in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwean Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere said yesterday that Standard Chartered was “just being arrogant” and that the bank’s shareholders “must be worried about the behaviour” of their management team.
“We have tried to take along the companies to negotiate but when you see this kind of action warning them, it means they must respond and seek to correct whatever concerns we are having,” Mr Kasukuwere told Business Day. He insisted yesterday that section 5 of the indigenisation law deals with companies that are not willing to comply with the law.
“The minister shall notify the noncompliant business in writing accordingly and publish the notice in such manner as the minister considers appropriate to draw the attention of other persons affected or likely to be affected by it,” reads part of section 5 of the indigenisation law seen by Business Day.
The section describes a “noncompliant business” as a company under which it is alleged “that any transaction was concluded without either or both of the parties to the transaction timeously notifying the minister”.
Analysts and economists warned this week that the statement issued by the NIEEB would exacerbate unease among the blacklisted companies’ stakeholders.
Zimbabwe Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono and Finance Minister Tendai Biti have previously said that forcing banks to give away a 51% shareholding would destabilise the sector.
The foreign-owned banks in Zimbabwe are well-established and the most adequately capitalised, reports say.
The four foreign banks in Zimbabwe — Standard Bank’s Stanbic Bank, Nedbank’s MBCA, Barclays Zimbabwe and Standard Chartered Zimbabwe — have been given a July deadline to cede their majority share to black Zimbabwean groups.