Tony Leon, the former leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA) who now speaks for the party on foreign affairs, is writing to the chair of the foreign affairs portfolio committee in Parliament, asking him to summon Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to explain what the government is doing to protect South Africa businesses from being nationalised by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
He said on Monday that he also wants the minister to answer why the government has not signed the bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement (BIPPA), which would have afforded South African interests in that country a greater degree of protection.
“The nationalisation of foreign-owned businesses in Zimbabwe will not only have a negative impact on investment in the ailing Zimbabwean economy, it will also have especially negative consequences for South African companies with substantial mining interests in Zimbabwe, such as Impala Platinum Holdings [Implats, the world’s second biggest platinum producer] and Anglo American,” Leon said.
“The DA has long warned of the dangers of failing to sign BIPPA. As early as 2005 … Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, in a reply to a parliamentary question, gave assurances that the agreement was in place and that it was merely a matter of finding an appropriate time to sign it.
“Given the serious threat to South African commercial interests in Zimbabwe, it behoved the government to fast track the signing of this agreement to ensure that adequate protection was put in place to protect the interests of South African nationals.”
Leon added that the grim reality is that if Harare embarks upon the broad-scale nationalisation of mining and other industries, and South Africa does nothing to stop this, a message will be sent to the world that property rights are not taken seriously in this region. — I-Net Bridge