A FEW days ago, we woke up to a video of a local Zimbabwean rowdily driving a crane around at a mining site operated by Chinese miner Ming Changa Sino Africa Mining Investments in Lower Gweru, the Midlands province.
The incident reportedly occurred on January 21.
On the other side was a panicky Chinese national, fearful of being crushed by the bucket of the yellow machine yet at the same time his rushing adrenaline wanting to pull the trigger of his pistol.
What triggered the incident was non-payment of salaries by the company.
Cases of labour disputes should be resolved amicably and if the situation gets to the worst, engage the Labour ministry to intercede.
According to national police spokesperson Commissioner Paul Nyathi, the local national, Kholwani Dube (38), an excavator operator at the mine, stabbed one of the Chinese superiors during the fracas.
Now, both the employee and the employer are facing criminal charges, the former for stabbing one of his superiors, and the latter for pointing a firearm at the protesting employee.
Elsewhere in Filabusi, according to Nyathi, Mthahandazo Sibanda (20) was shot with a 9mm Derya pistol by a Chinese national while allegedly stealing gold ore at Binyup Mine 5 in Filabusi on January 20.
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Such cases of violence or use of dangerous weapons are not isolated in Zimbabwe.
Last year, the Centre for Natural Resources Governance (CNRG) reported the shooting of Emmanuel Geje in Shurugwi by a Chinese national for allegedly trespassing at a gold mine.
“The shooting of Zimbabweans by Chinese nationals has become a national security threat that cannot be ignored anymore . . . There is a growing public anger regarding the ill treatment of Zimbabweans by Chinese nationals,” according to CNRG.
The resources watchdog believes that as the government sets the tone of how investors ought to behave and treat Zimbabwean citizens, improving the ease of doing business is not the same as tolerating aggression against citizens and suspension of the rule of law, a sentiment that every right-thinking Zimbabwean shares.
We cannot be enslaved in our own country by the so-called investors who are only here to spirit away our natural resources.
Many of them do not pay taxes and neither do they use the formal banking channels.
Government needs to be vocal in reading the rules to investors and abandon the affirmative action toward China whereby Chinese nationals enjoy special treatment from authorities while they are brutalising citizens, the CNRG asserts.
There must be severe consequences for “investors” who wantonly disregard the country’s laws and take advantage of Zimbabwe’s hospitable environment to brutalise her citizens.
Last June, a Chinese national allegedly shot two of his workers in Gweru after they demanded their wages.
A month earlier, another Chinese miner, Cai Yulong, shot and killed a man from Chief Njelele in Gokwe and injured his colleague after they encroached into his mine in Zhombe, also in the Midlands province.
Cai shot Goni Goni once in the left thigh and he died on the spot.
He also allegedly shot John Muchawaya thrice: once on the left knee, once on the right ankle and once on the left thigh.
What is more disconcerting is the number of Chinese nationals who are now in possession of guns here in Zimbabwe.
Just out of curiosity: Where are they getting these guns?
