Last checked at 
* Zhuwao says banks have not shown intention to comply
* Banks, mines seen complying within two weeks
* Finance Minister says will not seize companies
HARARE, March 31 (Reuters) - Most foreign banks and miningcompanies in Zimbabwe have not complied with Thursday's deadlineto transfer majority shares to locals, a government ministersaid, but added that he expected them to start to do so withinthe next two weeks.
Under Zimbabwe's Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Actall foreign companies must sell at least 51 percent of theirholdings by March 31, part of President Robert Mugabe's blackempowerment drive.
Companies that do not meet the deadline will have theiroperating licences cancelled from April 1, Youth and EconomicEmpowerment Minister Patrick Zhuwao said last week.
Foreign banks in the south African country include StandardChartered Plc, Barclays Plc and South Africa'sStandard Bank Ltd while Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum are among big miningcompanies with operations there.
Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa, however, said nocompanies would be seized, dismissing local media reports thatthe government would punish directors of foreign companies thatfail to adhere to the empowerment law by seizing their personalassets.
Zhuwao, a nephew of President Mugabe, told youths from theruling ZANU-PF party that foreign-owned banks were resistingadhering to the law, known locally as indigenisation.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor John Mangudya had beenquoted by the state-owned Herald newspaper on Thursday as sayingthat foreign banks had complied or were in the process ofcomplying with the law, but Zhuwao said Mangudya's comments werenot correct.
"Those companies are not compliant and those companies havenot shown an intention to comply," Zhuwao told reporters, butdeclined to name the banks.
"Its unfortunate that I have to make a correction inpublic," he said, referring to Mangudya's comments.
Foreign investors often point to such contradictions amongZimbabwean authorities as an obstacle to investment.
Mangudya could not be reached for further comment.
Zhuwao said there were "small hurdles" that had to beresolved for mining and financial services firms to comply.
"Once we solve these hurdles, in particular - its smallhurdles within the financial services sector and mining sector -we won't see non-compliance two weeks from today," he said,without elaborating. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Susan Fenton)
