Riot police save Chanakira from dismissal

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Riot police have prevented shareholders of one of Zimbabwe’s largest companies from gathering after a judge issued an order postponing the meeting for two weeks.

Dozens of executives in business suits had to disperse Thursday from the planned Kingdom Meikles meeting. Meikles executives are demanding the ouster of chief executive Chanakira, who has refused to quit.

An ally of President Robert Mugabe, Chanakira was given the job to comply with a 2005 law that white-owned businesses have 51 percent black shareholders.

Meikles has banking, investment, supermarket, agricultural and retail interests, and a leading Harare hotel.

At a shareholders’ meeting earlier this year, 90 percent of stockholders voted to split from Chanakira’s Kingdom Bank. Source: AP