Zimbabwe says worst is over as it courts S African investors

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 22 (AFP): Zimbabwe's economy is on the mend as the worst is over, the country's finance minister said Friday in a bid to assure investors in South Africa that its neighbour was "not a basket case".
"We are a giant waking up," Zimbabwean Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa told investors. "We are out of the trenches. We are not a basket case."
Chinamasa was leading a high profile delegation of Zimbabwean government ministers to drum up foreign investment from neighbouring South Africa, the continent's most developed economy.
The panel said the economy - which six years ago suffered a world record hyperinflation - was on the mend and that its controversial black empowerment laws were being clarified to show they were flexible.
The "worst is over", Chinamasa said, adding that work was being done to improve the ease of doing business in the country.
The new central bank governor John Mangudya, who has been in office for just six months, sounded an upbeat note claiming the country was heading in the right direction.
"Don't judge us by the way we fell. We fell apart in 2008 when the Zimbabwe dollar was destroyed and confidence levels went down," the bank chief told AFP. "We are starting afresh."
Chinamasa said Zimbabwe is now "open for investment and the opportunities are enormous," telling AFP that already there has been a "stampede of investments into power generation."
Most investors in the energy sector have been Chinese.
The Zimbabwe team also spoke about the country's controversial indigenisation law, first implemented in 2010, which forced foreign companies to cede 51 per cent of shares to Zimbabwean partners, spooking investors.
But they said the problem was that they had failed to communicate the law clearly and the government was now working at making it a "clear, consistent and predictable policy".
"It's no one-size-fits-all policy," said Chinamasa. Mangudya also told AFP Zimbabwe owed investors clarification of the indigenisation law.
"It's a very feasible policy, but the way it was being marketed scared away investors, maybe we over-politicised it," said the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe chief.
In urging investment by South African firms, the Zimbabwean officials said it was in the interest of South Africa to help grow its neighbour's economy to stop the tide of economic refugees.
"I believe South African investors have a moral and business obligation to invest in Zimbabwe, or we will continue bothering you," said Chinamasa. "It's in your interest."