Zimbabwean MPs this week declared a law seeking to force local, black shareholding of foreign-owned companies "unconstitutional, unreasonable and absurd," and called for it to be repealed or revised.

The law, which would require all foreign-owned companies to cede their majority stake to black Zimbabweans, was proposed by Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere.

"We now expect the minister to come to parliament and tell us what he (plans) to do," said Shepherd Mushonga, an opposition MP and head of a cross-party parliamentary legal committee, on Friday.

Kasukuwere was unavailable for comment.

President Robert Mugabe and Kasukuwere have said the move was necessary to ensure black Zimbabweans benefited from the country's mineral resources. The country is rich in minerals including diamonds, uranium, chrome, platinum and gold. The empowerment drive is targeting major companies, including Anglo American, Rio Tinto, Implats and Nestlé.

Most companies have adopted a wait-and-see attitude, putting expansion and retooling plans on hold until there was clarity on how the empowerment plan would be executed.

Firms that fail to disclose how they plan to transfer shares within the stipulated period face prosecution, according to the empowerment regulations.

"The unanimous finding of the committee is that this statutory instrument is both unconstitutional and ultra vires (beyond legal authority)," reads a report by the committee.

They said the hefty penalties imposed by the law were "grossly disproportionate" to the offences, and therefore "inhumane and degrading". The imposition of prison terms for offenders was "unreasonable and absurd", the committee wrote, adding that this was unconstitutional, as it neglected the right to the protection of the law.

Mushonga said in an interview that the regulations gave the minister of indigenisation "too much" power, as they allowed him to impose a penalty on businesses, something that is supposed to be administered by parliament.

Veritas, a legal monitoring organisation, said that the regulations could be challenged in the Zimbabwe Supreme Court if Mugabe did not repeal them.