High commodity prices over the past decade have generated healthy profits for many companies and governments worldwide are keen to increase their cut. Zimbabwe is no exception. Tony Hawkins sounds a cautionary note on the country’s “indigenisation” approach. Two articles in the Financial Times at the end of June 2012 set nerves jangling in African finance ministries and central banks. The first, about the end of the commodity supercycle, coincided with reports of oversupply, falling prices and mine closures in markets as diverse as oil, diamonds, platinum and ferrochrome. The second focussed on sharply rising grain prices in the United…
