On March 9, 2008, Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, signed the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Bill into law.
[citation needed] The minister for indigenisation and empowerment would have the power to allow some companies to be exempt of the transfer law for some time.
[clarification needed] President Mugabe administration had already redistributed the commercial farms owned by non-black-African farmers to poor native Zimbabweans.
[2] This policy ended up chasing some white farmers out of the country, leading to a lack of any new investment and a huge decline in farm output.
[2][page needed] After details of the law became public: The MDC had claimed that the bill was simply a ploy by Mugabe’s parties to win votes in the elections.