June 26, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 10, 1428

HARARE, June 25: President Robert Mugabe's government is seeking to transfer majority control of “public companies and any other business” to black Zimbabweans, a move critics say could deepen the country's economic crisis.

A bill the government made public on Monday will be presented to parliament proposing indigenous black Zimbabweans will get at least a 51 per cent share of those companies.

It is not clear how private companies will be affected.

Foreign investors control several firms operating in Zimbabwe, especially in the mining sector, where the government is considering a separate empowerment framework.

Critics blame Zimbabwe's economic meltdown on Mugabe's economic policies, such as the seizing of white-owned farms to resettle blacks, which they say devastated the crucial agriculture sector and triggered an economic recession.

Mugabe denies he has mismanaged Zimbabwe's economy and blames the crisis on sanctions imposed by Western nations. —Reuters