Thursday 30 April 2015

Mugabe celebrate $4 b Kariba Dam project Chinese loan, it was a unsigned decoy!


 

“The China Export and Import Bank has withheld funds for the Kariba South Hydro Power expansion until the government clears its previous loan obligations,” reported Bulawayo 24 Staff Reporter.

“The decision is likely to delay completion of the mega electricity project expected to generate an additional 300 megawatts.”

 

When Mugabe announced the $4 billion project finance deal following his begging mission to China in August 2014, he gave the story as positive a spin as he could. This was the first bit of money into his ZimAsset begging bowl and he wanted celebrate after over a year of being mocked by the empty bowl. Now the truth of that $4 billion from the Chinese is coming out.

 

First of all what Mugabe had been looking for out of the $27 billion ZimAsset plan was hard cash in the form of budgetary support. The Chinese had told Mugabe to his face that they would never consider it because he “was a bad debtor”.

 

Second the Chinese made sure it was understood the $4 billion project finance was subject to satisfactory feasibility studies and now it turns out that was not the only condition; Zimbabwe has to clear all its outstanding debts too!

 

Pay all its outstanding debts with China! Pay with what; spit! Here is a regime that is failing to pay its civil servants; every month Finance Minister Chinamasa has to borrow money, shift money from one account to another, read the political wind careful to decide which group of civil servants are least likely to strike if he fails to pay them, etc. The only civil servant whose expenses have been paid on time are Mugabe’s expenses, he is the only who seems to think the country is enjoying an economic boom instead of the economic meltdown.

 

The Chinese must have known that $4 billion would never be drawn out because Zimbabwe will never repay its outstanding debt.

 

A month after celebrating the Chinese $4 billion projects deal Mugabe announce a Platinum Mining deal with Russia worth $3 to 4 billion. The Russian economy has not been doing well ever since and so the start of that project is in doubt.

 

If Mugabe thought the signing of Chinese and Russian deals would open the flood gates of other nations wanting in on the act; he was wrong. No one has done so. A number of Europeans, notably the British, the French and Germanys have all sent high powered trade delegations and they all expressed interest in investing in Zimbabwe but – the all too familiar word in Zimbabwe – not until the country’s parasitic indigenisation law has been scrapped and there is rule of law.

 

So Mugabe had made a big song and dance over the only two cheques he had managed to get for his ZimAsset economic recovery plan and now it turns out that the Chinese cheque was not even signed – otherwise Zimbabwe would be servicing that loan when it was clear it will never draw on it. The Russian cheque is possibly post-dated and unsigned too! In short Mugabe really has nothing in the ZimAsset begging bowl!

 

In the economy, Mugabe has met the toughest advisory of his 35 years in office. Mugabe was able to cheat or bamboozle the likes of Tsvangirai and Mrs Mujuru with relative ease. He was sure he would rig economic recovery with his ZimAsset plan by throwing the $27 billion at the gross mismanagement and rampant corruption and thus achieve the recovery without having to deal with these cancers. It is clear that, other than the two “for display purposes only” cheques Mugabe has failed to get any funding for his ZimAsset plan. ZimAsset plan is dead in the waste. The economic meltdown is squeezing harder than ever!

 
Mugabe has failed to rigged economic recovery and now he must allow the implementation of the democratic reforms, a necessary prerequisite to electing the competent government that will carry out the required economic reforms to end the economic meltdown. 

7 comments:

Zimbabwe Light said...

Poor Chinamasa first he said there were no alluvial diamonds left in Marange and now he has changed the story. There are diamonds but he is not collecting any tax on diamond sales! Did he really think the IMF would buy such a cock-and-bull story?

They know the regime is not able to collect any revenue because those involved in the wholesale looting and plunder include those at the very to of the regime. They want the Marange diamonds all to themselves!

Zimbabwe Light said...

It is time to take an unorthodox political approach in order to achieve different results. The on-going by-elections are a clear reflection that Zanu-PF will never change. As long as we retain the current voting structures and people, we will keep getting the same results.

I have heard some saying that Tsvangirai should contest elections; this is regardless of the fact that they remain a flawed system that is susceptible to manipulation and control of outcomes by the ruling party. I therefore fully support him for staying out of a game that is really never fair.
Yes what you are proposing, a Tsvangirai and Mujuru ticket, is indeed “unorthodox” in so far as it will never solve the problem of bad governance which is the root cause of our all economic and political problems.
Vince, we cannot run-away from the historic fact that we had the golden opportunity to end the Zanu PF dictatorship during the GNU years but wasted it because Tsvangirai is incompetent and he sold-out. Selling-out is exactly what Mai Mujuru has been doing these last 34 years when she sat there like a cabbage and said or did nothing to stop the corruption and tyranny of Mugabe. She joined in the looting which is why she is filthy rich.
Recycling failed leaders is something Zimbabweans has become expects in but recycling sell-outs too takes the biscuit!
We have been stuck in this hell-hole for the last 35 years because we have taken leave of our senses and unless we start thinking like human being again and not going round and round in circle then we will remain in this hell-hole! A Tsvangirai and Mujuru ticket is the politics of hopelessness and despair, the nation had learnt to expect from the brain-dead MDC supporters but not you too, Vince!

Zimbabwe Light said...

Telling the people that Tsvangirai is incompetent, corrupt and sold out during the GNU is not "indoctrinating" anyone but simply making sure the people are informed.

For once people need to understand why the democratic changes they have been voting for the last 15 years have not happened and even more significantly the must understand why they will never happen as long as they keep electing incompetent, corrupt and sell-out leaders like Tsvangirai.

You are one of those MDC supporters who are hard wired to follow and would follow a village idiot like Tsvangirai "till death do us part"! You will never ever understand the arguments above. But others are seeing the light, even Luke Tamborenyoka has changed, he has admitted publicly of MDC "folly"!

Zimbabwe Light said...

“Khama was really upset, he was fuming. He pounced on Mugabe’s rule as hav-ing created the immigration crisis which he said was endangering Botswana’s security and stretching its resources to the limit. He also said the same situation was prevailing in South Africa,” one source said.
Another source said it had been very evident early on in the heated discussion that there was bad blood between Khama and Mugabe.

It is comforting to know that there are still some leaders out there with balls and not the useless one like Jacob Zuma!

Zimbabwe Light said...

"We have to have credible elections," said Tsvangirai. "We should have a non-partisan Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and the voters' roll should be made available to all contestants without any difficulty. If this is done then I am sure I will win the 2018 elections," said Tsvangirai.

Any one can say I will win elections but we all know that their wish does not always come true!

Of course we want credible elections the big question is how are you going to make sure we have credible elections? By asking Zanu PF to implement the reforms? How naive!

Zimbabweans have to take the issue of credible elections very serious and ask three questions:

1) What were the 2013 elections not free, fair and credible? Tsvangirai and his MDC friends promised the elections will be free and fair. Until people really understand why the 2013 elections were not free and fair they will never understand what must now be done to ensure the next elections are free and fair.

2) What reforms do we need to ensure the next elections are free and fair? The list of reforms is a lot more comprehensive than the eight reform listed in MDC-T's demands.

3) Can Zimbabwe really trust a failed leader like Tsvangirai to lead the nation out of this mess. The answers to the two questions above will show that it was because Tsvangirai was corrupt, incompetent and a down right sell-out that not even one reform was implemented during the GNU. The answer to the second question will show that Tsvangirai's list of reforms is not enough to ensure the next elections are free and fair.

Zimbabwe must commit themselves to ensuring the reforms are comprehensive and are implemented fully and not waste time and money on another mediocre job! We must deal with this issue of free and fair elections and settle it for all times! That will only happen if the electorate pay understand what the reforms are and elect competent people to get the job done!

Zimbabwe Light said...

History is a tough and unforgiving master, those who will not learn from the past will be forced to repeat the same lesson over and over again until they learn. The lesson Zimbabweans must learn of that if you want quality leaders then you have to understand the issues at stake and vote accordingly and never to vote blindly. If people choice the same village idiot again then surely they are incapable of learning!

Zimbabwe Light said...

This is a wonderful and interesting article; revealing a lot but concealing the essential. MDC's support remained strong; forget the deliberately contrived drop in their support by the Freedom House, paid to falsify the reality.



However MDC's popular support did not translate into electoral victory because Zanu PF blatantly rigged the elections. It was MDC's fault that the elections were rigged.



The GPA had identified a raft of democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging future elections which MDC was called upon to implement. For the next five years MDC failed to get even one reform implemented allowing Zanu PF to rig the July 2013 elections.



Of course MDC had sold-out. Mugabe bribed them to do nothing about the reforms and they took the bribes and did nothing. MDC did not just lose the elections but they also lost their credibility and support from SADC and donors. They have been losing popular
support in Zimbabwe as more and more Zimbabweans have begun to understand what
happened during the GNU!

People should not be unduly concerned about the total demise of MDC and the opposition; in this case it is surely better to be rid of sell-out than to hang on to them and be callously
betrayed by the same lot again tomorrow!

Whatever political parties will emerge out of the total demise of MDC and the Zanu PF fragmentation, there are some already in the formative stages already, they will find a Zimbabwe electorate that is a lot wiser, not as naïve and gullible as that of the past. Of all the democratic changes the nation could have wished for a thinking electorate is the most valuable of them all!