HARARE - Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is stepping up efforts to reverse a Zanu PF looting project presented as black empowerment law.

The law came into effect on Monday. It compels foreign and white-owned firms to hand over 51 percent of their shares to blacks.Tsvangirai convened an extraordinary meeting of the council of ministers on Thursday.

He will try to convince Zanu-PF the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act was bad for Zimbabwe’s economy as it needs foreign investment.

Already the effects of the law are being felt on the Zimbabwe stock exchange.

Volumes traded have plummeted from around $2m a day, to just 500 000.

Officials said what the prime minister wanted to see another government gazette published, ideally this Friday, repealing the law.

Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere told the business community in Bulawayo the regulations needed to be made stricter.

Tsvangirai may find himself confronted yet again by his own powerlessness.

Meanwhile, Industry and Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube said Zimbabwe's unity government was going to review rules forcing foreign-owned firms to sell a majority stake to locals. Ncube said on Wednesday, the regulations were published prematurely last month.

The regulations came into effect on Monday and give foreign-owned companies, including banks and mines, 45 days to submit proposals on how they plan to sell 51 percent of their shares to black Zimbabweans within the next five years.

Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Professor Arthur Mutambara said only Youth, Indiginisation and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere was qualified to give public statements about the Zanu PF rogue foreign assets looting scheme.

"Those regulations were published prematurely," Welshman Ncube, Industry and Commerce Minister told business executives.

He said the rules had not been submitted to a cabinet committee for debate on their legality and whether they were consistent with government policy. The committee would then make recommendations to the government.

"That did not take place. It is now taking place and all the ministers will be asked to make contributions," Ncube said

By The Zimbabwe Mail