Harare - Zimbabwe is set to announce on Wednesday the fate
of Impala Platinum Holdings [JSE:IMP] shareholding in its local unit after
latest talks on black ownership ended in deadlock, the state-controlled Herald
newspaper said.
The government wants Implats, the world’s second-largest
platinum producer, to hand a majority stake in its local operation Zimplats to
Zimbabweans and transfer 29.5% shares to a state-run fund.
The Herald said on Tuesday the government had met Zimplats
officials last week but the meeting ended without an agreement.
“It (meeting) ended in a deadlock. The Zimplats issue will
be tackled, there are no two ways about it,” the paper quoted an unnamed source
as saying.
Mines Minister Obert Mpofu and Youth and Empowerment
minister Saviour Kasukuwere, all members from President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF,
would now meet on Wednesday and announce a decision on Zimplats, the Herald
said.
Implats has offered 5% to workers and 6.5% to the state-run
fund, in addition to the 10% it handed to local communities last year. It plans
to make up the balance through empowerment credits from giving up some of its
claims in 2006.
Kasukuwere has rejected parts of the proposal and told
Reuters last week he would not talk to Implats unless the company fully
complied with the empowerment law.