A senior official of Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has warned that business deals struck with President Robert Mugabe’s government during the last few years will be “scrutinised and dealt with accordingly” if the party comes to power.

Several South African companies, including platinum-miners Anglo Platinum, Impala Platinum, Aquarius Platinum South Africa and Mzi Khumalo’s Metallon Gold, have invested heavily in Zimbabwe since 2000, when the Harare administration started to become increasingly repressive, in the face of mounting political opposition.

The labour-backed MDC, together with a smaller faction led by former rocket scientist Arthur Mutambara, now have a slender majority in Parliament, following elections on March 29.

Although MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in the March 29 poll, he did not garner enough votes to avoid a run-off, which has been scheduled for June 27 but from which he has withdrawn, citing violence against his supporters, more than 80 of whom have been killed in the last three months.

Speaking to Mining Weekly Online on Wednesday, exiled MDC treasurer-general Roy Bennett insisted that the increased international attention on Zimbabwe – with the Southern African Development Community, the African Union and the United Nations speaking out more loudly against Harare – would lead to a quick resolution of the political crisis in the country.

Bennett, a third-generation Zimbabwean who was an MDC Parliamentarian from 2000 to 2006, said that the scrutiny that the party envisaged, should it come to power, would be aimed at identifying those companies that would have “aided and abetted” the Mugabe government before deciding on the appropriate action.

“But those companies that would have followed good business ethics would be left alone,” he said, adding that the MDC had started engaging with foreign companies operating in the country.

“In some cases, the response has been very good – they agree totally with our view,” he said, but declined to mention the companies the party had approached.

“In some cases, the response has been negative, and those companies will be noted.”

He stated that, given the prevailing economic situation – with annual inflation of more 1000 000% and crippling foreign currency shortages – “hardly any company is able to survive unless it is delivering patronage”.

Bennett was adamant that an MDC government would not shy away from taking on the big foreign companies that are pouring money into Zimbabwe, thus “sustaining the Zanu-PF government”.

“These companies have shareholders, and the shareholders would be made aware of the aiding and abetting,” he said.

Meanwhile, the MDC treasurer-general, whose farm in eastern Zimbabwe was repossessed a few years ago as part of government’s land redistribution programme, said the country would be a favourable investment destination once the current economic and political crises ended.

He singled out the country’s mining industry as offering significant opportunities.

The country produces a range of minerals, including gold, chromite, platinum-group metals, coal, nickel and iron-ore.

The Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company, now a pale shadow of its former self, would also require an injection of capital, as would the country’s roads, railways and electricity sectors.

“If we come to power, the first thing we will do will be to stabilise the currency and introduce an environment that is conducive to confidence in us by potential investors. That can be done very quickly.”

While acknowledging that scores of Zimbabwean professionals had left the country in search of a better life elsewhere, he was optimistic that these people would return home once normalcy was restored, ensuring that the skills needed by the new investors would be available.