THE level at which we are mortgaging our mineral resources is quite worrying.
Even business has come out to voice their concerns about the situation obtaining on the ground.
“If you look at China, they are doing big infrastructural projects like major roads and airports, among other developments,” said opposition Zimbabwe Coalition for Peace and Development leader, businessman and economist Trust Chikohora.
“But at times, you find that the Chinese transactions are opaque and can favour some African governments and leaders who might benefit from such kind of arrangements.
“You would find that when conducting business, the Chinese do not worry about such issues as democracy and human rights, among others and they will just go on to extract resources and mind their own business.”
He added: “Although Zimbabwe is set to benefit from such big infrastructural development as roads, dams, airports, among others, at times, such projects come at a cost.
“The funding for such projects is sometimes exchanged for extraction of resources in lieu of payment of the projects.
“So basically, the cost of those transactions becomes so large for the host country and may be tilted in favour of the Chinese.”
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This speaks volumes about the wrongs our leadership is doing.
It would seem the country’s leaders do not give a hoot about the cost of doing business with some of the people we call our friends.
Yes, they supported us during the liberation struggle, but there should come a time when we should call each other out in the event of maladroit.
China might have some huge amounts of money in foreign direct investment into Zimbabwe in the past few years, with further projects valued at more than US$10 billion lined up, but during the government of national unity between 2009 and 2013, Labour Minister Paurina Mupariwa branded Chinese business operations in Zimbabwe “the darkest side of capitalism”.
“The government (of Zimbabwe) should bring the matter to the attention of the Chinese government to encourage its nationals to abide by the laws of this country. Should they continue, the MDC-T calls upon every law-abiding citizen to boycott Chinese products until they learn to treat workers with respect and dignity,” Mupariwa said back then.
Already, she had sensed that something was getting out of hand.
Instead of overly relying on subjugative foreign investors, as the population is growing and urbanisation is taking place, there is also need for growth in manufacturing employment to absorb those displaced from other spheres of the economy such as agriculture.
The influx of low quality and cheap products from China is destroying the manufacturing sector.
Today, we are exporting minerals that have not been value-added to our friends from the East, which does not benefit our nation at all.
We would not be off the mark when we say China is not doing anything to promote value addition in Zimbabwe.
Not that we do not want Chinese investments, but memorandums of agreement must be done with a win-win outlook.
