China and Russia are the two countries that have played a major role in many African countries’ fight for independence. It is a historic fact that most of these African countries have since found that they got rid of one oppressive and exploiting colonial power only to inherit another. For whatever help assistance, mostly guns and other war materials and military training, the two Asian countries gave to each African country; they not only kept a tag but kept a lodger on how the every penny plus interest would be paid.
As each African country attained her independence, China and Russia saw to it that the country fell into its sphere of influence. Where the two countries had supported separate liberation movements, which was very often the case, there was a proxy war as happened in Angola and Mozambique.
Before the newly independent country has had time to sober up from the euphoria of independence and the end of the war; China and Russia would present the new leaders with the IOY and detailed proposals on how the bill can be paid.
Russia’s proxy, Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) led by the late Samora Machel, defeated the colonial rulers and the Chinese proxy to form the governing party in that country. Within weeks a fleet of Russian fishing vessels claimed exclusive fishing right off the coast Mozambique and many, many more such one-sided and exploitative deals were to follow.
In Zimbabwe, it was China’s proxy Zanu PF led by the late Robert Gabriel Mugabe that prevailed over the Russian back PF Zapu. The Chinese presented Mugabe with the IOY and the exploitation of Zimbabwe by China started in earnest.
The exploitative deals were so lucrative, China and Russia would recover every penny of the IOY ten times within the first decade, two decades.
With the exception of one or two countries most African leaders did not want to share power and thus imposed a de jure or de facto one-party dictatorship. Both China and Russia have assisted in this and thus cementing their continued influence in Africa to this day.
There is no such thing as a free lunch, certainly not from the Chinese and Russians. It is therefore surprising that the Chinese Embassy in Harare had the chic to claim otherwise!
“The Standard carried an article on August 23 by Tawanda Majoni. By questioning Anjin's return, the author falsely claims the Chinese government is somehow involved in Anjin's business deals and conflicts in the country, which is a distortion and smearing of the Chinese foreign policy towards Zimbabwe,” reported News Day,
“The piece is full of unfounded accusations, conjectures and sheer lies, proving nothing but an appalling lack of common sense and self-confidence.”
It is no exaggeration to say corruption is the root cause of all Zimbabwe’s political, economic and social problems. And nothing epitomises the sheer extend and depth of the rampant corruption than the wholesale looting of the country’s Marange and Chiadzwa diamonds. The wealth from the sell of diamonds, valued at US$ 2 million plus a month, should have been used in the country’s developed is instead going into the pockets of the few ruling elite. Worst of all, the looted wealth is being used to bankroll the Zanu PF dictatorship and thus keeping it in power against the democratic wishes of the people.
The Chinese company Anjin has been at the very heart of the looting of diamonds in Zimbabwe. It is laughable that the Chinese Embassy should now try to disown Anjin!
China’s foreign policy towards Zimbabwe is premised of the later paying back China for the military and other assistance Mugabe received before independence and thereafter. Anjin is one of the many Chinese companies who have benefited from this policy.
Indeed, Anjin’s diamond mining operations were terminated and the company booted out of Zimbabwe by the late Zanu PF dictator, Robert Mugabe, after he publicly complained of nations that have made promises that they have failed to honour.
The people of Zimbabwe remember, no doubt the Chinese Embassy officials don’t remember and need reminding, of the many “mega deals” Mugabe signed with China. Deals that were never honoured.
Patrick Chinamasa, then Minister of Finance and a member of the high powered delegation accompanying Mugabe to China, admitted that the Chinese had complained of Zimbabwe’s failure to pay its debts.
“Shǒuxiān chánghuán zhàiwù!” (First pay your debts!) the Chinese told Mugabe to his face!
No doubt, Mugabe did not take the demand to pay up seriously; after all he, of all people, knew that ever since the country’s independence whatever the Chinese had given to Zimbabwe with one hand they always took away took back and more with the other hand. Mugabe’s fallout with the West; he has maintained it was over the seizure of white owned farms to give to blacks, but the truth is it was over the failure pay debts; forcing him to adopt the “Look East!” policy. The move left Zimbabwe totally dependent on China and with the greater dependence came greater exploitation!
So when China insisted on Zimbabwe paying its outstanding debts before it would spend one more Yuan on the “mega deals”; Mugabe’s knee jerk reaction was to booted out Anjin!
A few moon after Anjin was booted out of Zimbabwe, Mugabe was himself booted out of office in the November 2017 military coup; history will reveal what role China played in this. Emmerson Mnangagwa, who succeeded Mugabe, signed an impressive list of “mega deals” forming the skeleton Zanu PF’s 2018 election manifesto.
Mnangagwa disregarded his own earlier promise to hold free, fair and credible elections and, instead, blatant rigged the July 2018 elections. What further role, beside the mega deals promise, the Chinese played in the rigged elections, time will tell. Anjin was back in Marange and Chiadzwa soon after the July 2018 elections; no doubt Mnangagwa thanking the Chinese for their help in getting him into State House.
Needless to say, most of the “mega deals” Mnangagwa signed with China have not materialised nor are they likely to ever materialise. And we all know why. “Shǒuxiān chánghuán zhàiwù!” That’s right!
It is not likely that Mnangagwa will dare vent his frustration with the Chinese’s refusal to bankroll at least one of the mega deals and give him something to boast about. The western nation is dismissal of the July 2018 elections as a farce and his government as an illegitimate and pariah state has left Mnangagwa high and dry.
The country’s worsening economic situation has made the ordinary people more restless and desperate for real change. To hang on to power, Mnangagwa has resorted to brute force. The pressure for meaningful change is mounting and it is as clear as day, that change is coming. It would be unwise to boot out Anjin out of Zimbabwe and earn the wrath of the Chinese.
“Chinese government is NOT involved in Anjin's business deals or Zimbabwe’s internal affairs. To suggest otherwise is a distortion and smearing of the Chinese foreign policy towards Zimbabwe!” Nonsense, China is but Zimbabwe’s new colonial master and corrupt one-side business deals and meddling in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs to keep Zanu PF in power at all cost are core pillars of China’s foreign policy towards Zimbabwe!
7 comments:
Zimbabwe had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms during the 2008 to 2013 GNU and thus end the Zanu PF dictatorship once and once for all. It was MDC that failed to implement even one reform in 5 years.
The 2018 elections should not have gone ahead without first implementing the democratic reforms. "MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging elections," you Chamisa insisted.
Zimbabwe needs a complete overhaul of its rotten political system; we need to appoint an independent body to finally implement the reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections. Both Zanu PF and MDC cannot be part of the independent body because the two are part of of the rot.
Nqobizitha Mlilo, a Human Rights Lawyer and MDC NEC questioned MDC's response to the arrest of Job Sikhala.
"Cdes, our movement's response to the arrest of Job Sikhala will, at least for me, finally resolve two irreconcilable explanatory propositions I have held which explain the ineptitude of our movement. Either our leadership, at the top, is incompetent or compromised. One of the two.
Kutungana kwembudzi! MDC has already proven to be breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent by failing to implement even one democratic change in 20 years of the party's history. Why some people continue to follow the party blindly like sheep is because they are sheep!
When both Zanu PF and PF Zapu were founded most of the leaders at least still believed in "One man! One vote!" and a multi-party democratic Zimbabwe. There is no doubt that both China and Russia made it an unspoken condition of their giving military assistance that the two parties embrace a one-party state system. Not that our leaders needed to coerced given their love for power and incompetence.
I totally agree Zimbabwe ditched one colonial master, the British, only to inherit another the Chinese. Zanu PF is nothing but a puppet regime of the Chinese. When Mugabe picked his phony fight with the West (to hide his failure to repay the mountain of debt) no one was more pleased about it than the Chinese.
They stepped in and gave him a few more loans to make sure they had him hooked. After that they had him on drip feed, ask him to sign away one one-sided deal after another in return for each drip, drip, drip. Poor Mugabe he booted out Anjin in sheer exasperation!
The irony is Anjin exports back to China enough diamonds to pay off all Zimbabwe's debts to China and the rest of the world in one year alone. Of course, China is in the business of exploiting its African colonies and the more corrupt the regime happens to be the more China will exploit the nation.
What did Deng Xiaoping mean when he said, "It doesn't matter whether a cat is white or black, as long as it catches mice?”
“That phrase sums up the governing philosophy of Chairman Deng,” answered William Mansfield, who has worked in China.
“He was not concerned with making sure that government actions fit within a predetermined definition of “Communism” or “Socialism”. He was far more concerned with the question of “does it work”.
“Does the solution solve the problem for which it was developed? That is what matters. A solution that meets certain definitional qualifications, but fails to solve the problem is meaningless. Deng didn’t worry about ideological purity - he worried about results!
“So your house is full of mice and you get a cat to catch them. You don’t care if the cat is black or white in colour, you only care that it catches the mice.
“You could argue that this governing philosophy - let’s call it practicalism - explains why China is still governed by the Communist Party while the U.S.S.R. no longer exists.”
The same “practicalism” is at the heart of China’s foreign policy in Africa. China realised that to develop it needed resources and one source of these resources was Africa. By helping Africa to end colonialism China was positioning itself to replacing the West in exploiting Africa for her resources.
China did not care about freedom, human rights, justice and the development of Africa. Never did! Whilst the West has had qualms, not only for they too have pitched their noses when push came to shove, about doing business with corrupt and murderous regime; China has actively sort the despots. Despots sold China the resources she needed for her development for a song and that was all that mattered!
Of course, China has interfered in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs. The one country that has done the uttermost to keep Zanu PF in power these last 40 years is China. Whilst China has kept all the IOY for all the loans given to Zimbabwe for building schools, hospitals, etc.
China has never bothered to keep an account of the millions of dollars it has given to Zanu PF for party regalia, vote rigging, weapons and anything to keep Zanu PF in power. China did not count these as loans but strategic investments. The longer Zanu PF has stayed in power the more China has reaped the rewards on its investment.
Of course, China is doing its best to maintain the the appearance that it respects Zimbabwe's independence and sovereignty. China knows just how pompous Zanu PF leaders are, they are rat catchers that like to be called tigers - so why not call them tigers!
China this week launched an unusual attack on a senior Zimbabwean journalist, Tawanda Majoni, accusing him of corruption and harbouring political ambitions over a recent article he wrote on the return of Anjin Investments Ltd to mine diamonds in Marange.
But the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ), in a statement on Thursday, came out guns blazing and described the response by the Chinese embassy as “ominous”, “unwarranted” and capable to “inflame the persecution” of Majoni who runs a free weekly column on corruption in one of the local newspapers.
In his latest article last Sunday, Majoni queried the secretive readmission of Anjin, which was booted out of the diamond fields by the late ex-president Robert Mugabe in 2016 together with six other companies for allegedly looting gems worth billions of dollars.
The journalist, who is also the national coordinator at Information for Development Trust (IDT), a non-profit media advocacy institution currently supporting reporters to investigate corruption, questioned government’s decision to readmit Anjin without availing the audit it promised in 2016.
He argued that the Chinese government pressured Zimbabwe to take Anjin back, following a visit to Beijing by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in 2018.
Polite Kambamura, Zimbabwe’s Mines deputy minister, in an interview with the Bloomberg early last year, insinuated that Chinese pressure led to the readmission of Anjin.
“Anjin was brought back because of an agreement with the Chinese government. We had to bring them back for public relations reasons,” Kambamura was quoted by Bloomberg as saying.
Anjin made a silent comeback as early as the first quarter of 2019, but resumed ground operations towards the end of the year.
Mnangagwa recently officially commissioned the Anjin project, which is running alongside a merger, the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) that was set up when the licences of the previous seven miners were revoked.
Anjin is a joint venture between Matt Bronze, which is linked to the Zimbabwean army, and Anhui Foreign Economic Construction, a Chinese firm suspected to be linked to the Asian country’s military.
China is the one country whose clandestine and nefarious activities have helped to keep Zanu PF in power. China gave Zanu PF military and other assistance during the war of independence and has exploited the country ever since, payback time.
In our fight for a democratic change in Zimbabwe we not only fighting Zanu PF but the Chinese in the shadows! It has never been a fair fight because China is determined to keep Zimbabwe in its sphere of influence!
Part 2 of 3 above
Anjin is a joint venture between Matt Bronze, which is linked to the Zimbabwean army, and Anhui Foreign Economic Construction, a Chinese firm suspected to be linked to the Asian country’s military.
The Chinese statement that was attributed to a nameless embassy spokesperson refuted the claim that Beijing had demanded Anjin’s return and launched a personal attack on Majoni over his opinion article.
“The piece (article) is full of unfounded accusations, conjectures and sheer lies, proving nothing but an appalling lack of common-sense and self-confidence.
“The only motive for cooking up these absurdly far-stretched claims is to attract attention, sow discord in China-Zimbabwe bilateral friendly relations, and drag China into Zimbabwe’s internal affairs, all serving the author’s (Majoni’s) own hidden political agenda.
Majoni said he was still consulting on how to engage the embassy regarding the statement.
“We do understand this as an easy way for him to make money and gain political capital, even to live a better life. For this reason, sympathy is due,” read the three-page statement by the embassy.
The embassy claimed it was involved in “dedicated and selfless help” to Zimbabwe, having availed grants and financial support and built hospitals, schools, power stations, boreholes and airports across the country.
It also claimed it was helping rebuild shelter and infrastructure destroyed by Cyclone Idai last year, but recent media reports show that the Chinese have hardly done any work in the affected areas as promised.
The ZUJ expressed concern at the Chinese statement, describing it as an “undiplomatic and unusual personal attack” on Majoni.
“As ZUJ, we acknowledge that the Chinese embassy must be given the right of reply on issues that pertain to it and China. That right was availed when it issued the response to Majoni’s article through the local media.
“However, the tone and attitude of the response are extremely disturbing and uncharacteristic of a foreign embassy. The Embassy launched a personal and defamatory attack on the author of the article.
“More disturbingly, it accused Majoni of harbouring a “hidden political agenda” and seeking “an easy way to make money”. This insinuates that Majoni is a corrupt political activist “writing for bread”, rather than a bona fide journalist who has been running a free weekly column on corruption for the last four years,” wrote ZUJ.
The union added: “The Zimbabwean Constitution provides that the country’s citizens must be treated with dignity, which must always be protected. Majoni, as a Zimbabwean citizen, must also enjoy the freedom of conscience as provided under Section 60 of the Constitution. This freedom entails that he has the right to freedom of thought, opinion or belief”.
ZUJ said Majoni also had the constitutional right to practice, propagate, and give expression to those thoughts, opinions and beliefs.
Part 3 of 3
“In addition, Zimbabwean citizens, journalists included, have the freedom to seek, receive and communicate their ideas and information, just as the media also has the right to operate freely. This is also enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as well as the African Union and SADC principles,” added the union.
It said accusing Majoni of having a political agenda and insinuating that he is corrupt militated against his constitutional rights as a person and journalist and the “potential of instilling fear in him— considering prevailing persecutions on journalists, civil society and human rights defenders in many countries—and can inflame his persecution”.
ZUJ urged the Zimbabwean government to engage the Chinese embassy “over its unsettling and unprecedented statement because we fill that the foreign mission overstepped its mandate.”
“Zimbabwean citizens are entitled to the State’s protection as provided under Section 35 of our Constitution. Failure to censure the embassy may set a wrong precedent as its statement amounts to harassment of a Zimbabwean citizen by a foreign mission,” concluded ZUJ.
China has been accused of lending intelligence and military help to Zimbabwe to rig elections and is widely seen as holding the country to ransom for loans worth billions of dollars that the southern African country is failing to repay.
Responding to the Chinese embassy statement, a Zimbabwean columnist based in the UK, Wilbert Mukori, on Wednesday dismissed Beijing’s claim that it was a selfless friend of the country and described China as Zimbabwe’s new colonial master.
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