00:00Imagine this, you're a business owner who runs a very successful business, but you happen to be a foreigner in the country in which your business operates.
00:09Then, one day, you're told that you have to sell 75% of your business to a local citizen or risk it being shut down.
00:19Well, that is what is happening in Zimbabwe, a country where almost 400 foreign enterprises operate,
00:24some of them owned by people across the border in South Africa or further afield in Europe or China.
00:31Is Zimbabwe gambling with investor confidence? Welcome to the flip side.
00:37The government of Zimbabwe has announced a new rule under the statutory instrument S1215 of 2025,
00:44stating that all foreign-owned businesses and sectors like transportation, retail, wholesale trade, barbershops, salons,
00:52artisanal mining, and many others must transfer 75% of their business to Zimbabwean citizens within the next three years at 25% per year.
01:04What does this rule really mean for business owners?
01:08At the moment, you have small sectors of the economy where you had foreign participation,
01:13where somebody, maybe a foreigner, would just come in, open a business, register maybe a business and start running a business.
01:22And these were considered as probably small to medium enterprises.
01:27So these are the ones that are now being targeted to want to be reserved for locals.
01:36Over the years, Zimbabwe has seen a shift in policy on domestic business ownership.
01:42In 2008, an indigenization policy formalized by the Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act
01:48required that locals acquire at least 51% ownership of foreign-owned companies.
01:55In 2025, indigenization laws were tightened.
02:00But one might wonder what the intended purpose is.
02:04If you're looking at this policy, it's now targeting the areas that have been largely informalized
02:09due to the fact that foreign nationals have been able to come in from an advantage point
02:13of having foreign capital backing these sectors, which the locals could not compete with.
02:19So having that now come into place, it gives us the opportunity for locals to, one,
02:26formalize it into a sector where they could end up having support,
02:28which can be now government-gazetted as well as going into all the tax brackets
02:34that it will be actually now entering into, as well as having a longer-term local capital world
02:39preservation that could be implemented.
02:42However, there is a short-term risk that comes with it from a regulation perspective,
02:47where foreigners now may see Zimbabwe as somewhere where there's policy inconsistency.
02:52Well, the government may intend to limit foreign participation in certain industries
02:57and empower local citizens.
02:59But what do Zimbabweans think of this new policy?
03:02It's a good idea because we Zimbabweans, we must benefit from our own country.
03:09And we must also benefit from the land reform program
03:16so that every child of Zimbabwe can be successful.
03:21Now we have the business.
03:25We have to find a home to find a community, we have to find a home to find a family,
03:31a friends of Brahma, a family, a family shop, to find a family shop,
03:34and all the other families we do.
03:36So when we come here, we have to hire a family business,
03:39we have to hire a family, for one of us to hire a family,
03:43we must build a family, for one of us to hire a family.
03:45Critics argue that while the new policies end at empowering locals and ensuring economic
04:08sovereignty, it has potential to upset investors, ultimately leaving the new rule without significant
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