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South Africa, Zimbabwe sign bilateral investment protection bill
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 27 - 11 - 2009

Zimbabwe and neighbouring South Africa, Africa"s
most powerful economy, together signed an agreement in Harare to
protect investments in each other"s country, in a bid to open the
stricken Zimbabwean economy to desperately needed foreign business, according to dpa.
The agreement was signed by South African Trade Minister Rob
Davies, and Zimbabwean Economic Planning Minister Elton Mangoma. Over
80 senior businesspeople from South Africa, mostly in the mining and
minerals sector, attended the function.
The Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement
(BIPPA) guarantees investors freedom from expropriation in the
other"s country, as well as the right to seek redress in
international tribunals.
"Everybody now seems to appreciate that this is a positive
agreement which provides a level of investor confidence that did not
exist before," said Davies. "There will be recourse to a whole range
of mechanisms in the event of a dispute."
Observers say however that major uncertainties prevail over the
sincerity of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe in honouring the
agreement after a decade of Zimbabwe"s flouting domestic and
international agreements, which has seen an almost total capital
flight.
The agreement also faces severe difficulties over the rights of
South African citizens, who - while attempting to run farms in
Zimbabwe - have been and continue to be driven violently off their
farms due to Mugabe"s revolutionary land reform programme.
The agreement is seen as a major advance for the nine-month power-
sharing government between Mugabe, and pro-democracy Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai, whose economic policies immediately after the
inauguration of the new government ended astronomical inflation and
stabilized the monetary system by introducing US dollars as the
national currency.
"Zimbabwe was departing from the past, and (we) do not want to be
judged by what previous governments have done," Mangoma said. "There
have been arguments that Zimbabwe cannot be trusted because it cannot
even sign an agreement with its neighbour. That argument falls away.
This BIPPA is signifying to the world that Zimbabwe is open and ready
for trade."
Observers warn however that approaches by South African investors
are likely to be highly tentative because of Mugabe"s record.
At a United Nations conference on Monday last week, Mugabe told
businessmen that they would be forced by a new law to ensure that a
51-per-cent controlling interest of any new foreign investment over
500,000 US dollars would have to be taken up by black Zimbabweans.
Five days later, government ministers in Harare tried to soften
Mugabe"s threat by saying that the government would be flexible in
its application of the law.
As the BIPPA deal was being signed Friday, the Commercial Farmers
Union reported that four white farming families were being driven off
their farms by mobs in the Chegutu area 100 kilometres west of
Harare.
The CFU says not one farmer has been fully compensated for being
dispossessed since the seizure of farms began in 2000, despite legal
obligations to do so.
The tribunal of the 15-nation regional bloc Southern African
Development Community (SADC) declared a year ago that Mugabe"s
seizure of 4,000 white-owned farms was racist, illegal and violated
constitutional property rights.
Zimbabwe is a signatory to the agreement establishing the SADC
tribunal but the government declared it would not be bound by it.


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