Is China really helping suffering Zimbabweans? Mbofana

Imagine your father has an ‘all-weather friend’, who appears to stand by him in every situation.

He looks away as your father brutally batters your mother and does not appear to give a hoot when his family goes without decent nutritional food.

 

Yet, the ‘dear friend’ never hesitates buying your father liters of alcohol, books him into lodges to enjoy with his secret lover, and dresses him with the latest exquisite attire.

 

In all this, he is not willing to (as he simply does not care) help when you cry out for desperately-needed school fees or money to procure urgent medical attention for your severely sick mother.

 

As a matter of fact, the friend now appears to have some undue unexplained influence over your father – such that, he (father) readily gives him various family expensive assets, leaving his wife and children poorer.

 

What can we say about your father’s friend?

 

Can he be regarded as a true friend or actually an unwanted manipulating crook – who does not genuinely love your father, let alone his family – but merely wants to exploit him?

 

Is this not exactly what we are witnessing with the relationship between Zimbabwe and China?

 

Our supposed ‘all-weather friends’ seem always too ready to ‘assist’ the country.

 

Just yesterday, they donated some military hardware, in the form of armored fighting vehicles, personnel carriers, ambulances, motorized water purifiers, patrol boats, minibuses, sniper rifles, machine guns, and hand pistols.

 

As I am writing this list, my mind cannot help thinking of the Rudd Concession of 1888 – signed between Cecil John Rhodes and Ndebele King Lobengula – in which the latter was promised a gunboat, and Martini-Henry rifles with their ammunition in exchange for our gold!

 

Why wouldn’t I, since the Chinese are pretty much doing the same?

 

In the midst of donating a humongous parliament building in Mount Hampden and assisting in the massive expansion of the RGM International Airport – Zimbabwe has, in the process, lost its natural resources to the Chinese.

 

The East Asians have seemingly been granted ‘complete and exclusive charge over all metals and minerals situated and contained’ in Zimbabwe, in typical Rudd Concession fashion.

 

Whilst the Chinese are pillaging our diamonds, platinum, gold, and now lithium, local communities continue to wallow in extreme poverty.

 

According to a recent ZELA (Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association) report, Chinese-owned companies have acquired the biggest portfolio of lithium mining projects in Zimbabwe.

 

Nonetheless, while Zimbabwe needs these Chinese investments, it turns a blind eye to some of the governance factors that hinder Zimbabwe’s economic growth and benefits to communities.

 

These are, but are not limited to, poor safety standards, unsafe working conditions, unfair displacement measures, environmental damage, and low wages for workers.

 

Surely, what benefit have the people of Marange derived from the discovery and exploitation of diamonds in their area for the past 18 years?

 

Are they actually not worse off and poorer today – having even been forcibly displaced from their ancestral lands and moved to areas without any meaningful infrastructure or services?

 

The same apples to the people of Hwange, Binga, Mutoko, Mutorashanga, and many others – who were dispossessed of their lands, with the responsible Chinese companies even accused of the desecrating of sacred graves, shrines, and heritage sites.

 

All in all, though, there has not been significant compensation for these removals, much less any development to write home about – not only in these communities but also across the country.

 

If these communities are ‘lucky’, they may have some ‘token benefits’, such as one or two classroom blocks and a road and bridge constructed, as well as poorly-paid unsafe menial jobs offered to local youths.

 

This, in addition to, the wanton destruction of local environments through widespread land degradation.

 

This means that, upon the completion of these mining activities, the affected communities will be left with useless land, on top of being poverty-stricken.

 

With Zimbabwe being home to the largest lithium reserves in Africa, the seventh largest diamond producer in the world, and a leader in gold production, should we, by now, not be the UAE (United Arab Emirates) or Saudi Arabia of Africa?

 

Yet, we continue hogging the headlines for all the wrong reasons – since we are only identified for our poverty, where nearly half the population are classified as ‘extremely poor’.

 

In spite of these ‘investments’, which appear awesome on paper, the Chinese have focused more on taking as much as they can from the country whilst ploughing back as little as possible.

 

This sad story does not end here.

 

Zimbabwe is clearly sinking into a deep, inescapable ‘debt trap’ crafty set up by our very own ‘all-weather friends’.

 

When it comes to real development in the country – which has the potential of genuinely improving the livelihoods of the ordinary citizenry – the Chinese have absolutely nothing to donate.

 

They will easily give military equipment and a grandiose parliament building – which have no significance to poor Zimbabweans.

 

However, what matters the most will always come at a cost.

 

Let it be stated that most, if not all, of these ‘investments’ and loans from China have been shrouded in secrecy – since the terms of their agreements are never made public.

 

This, of course, raises more questions than answers.

 

What are the Chinese truly receiving in return for their ‘investments’, or donations, or loans?

 

Are these companies even paying taxes?

 

Yet, the President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa government is more than happy taxing ordinary suffering Zimbabweans more and more each time.