Monday, 7 June 2021

"Chinese influential players in Zimbabwe illicit gold trade" - why not, milking their colony to death P Guramatunhu

 

“Chinese Now Influential Players In Illicit Gold Trade: Study!” screamed the headlines in New Zimbabwe.

“The presence and influence of Chinese nationals in the Zimbabwe gold sector has significantly grown since 2010. The presence of Chinese nationals has become a political hot potato. Benefits allegedly include fast-tracking licences and protection from law enforcement. One industry representative reported, ‘The Chinese have the audacity to tell government compliance officers that they are small boys’.” According to Global Initiative Against Transitional Organised Crime (GI-TOC) on; “Illicit Gold Markets in East and Southern Africa” published last month.

“Chinese nationals are also involved in supplying equipment and processing gold ore in Zimbabwe. In most gold mining towns, Chinese owned shops sell ASGM (Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining) equipment, including mercury thought to be sourced from China.”

China helped Zimbabwe in the fight for our independence a blessing that has quickly turned into a curse!

 Zanu PF has granted the Chinese special privileges after independence such as the contract to build the national stadium to repay the debt for all the assistance. We have long repaid the debt a thousand times over in the first decade of our independence!

The Chinese have stay on and increased their indebtedness to Mugabe and Zanu PF by helping the regime establish and maintain the de facto one-party dictatorship, by helping it rig elections and by giving it financial support especially after the IMF, WB and other Western based financial assistance stopped to doing so in the late 1990s.

Zimbabwe’s independence was just an empty gesture in that we got rid of one colonial master only to get another colonial master who ruthless economic exploitation has left us poorer.  We jumped from the frying pan into the fire.

The Chinese have total control over their Zanu PF puppets, they are the ones who decide which puppet is the top dog. Mugabe thought he was his own master and booted the Chinese out of Maranga and Chiadzwa in 2016 and a few months later he was woken up with an AK47 rifle up his backside. The Chinese were back in Maranga and Chiadzwa soon after the November 2017 military coup and they, together with their ZDF puppets, have since reclaimed the best diamond mining plots.

The Chinese have extended their portfolios to other minerals such as platinum, lithium, coal and gold and into other activities such as power generation, farming and lots of other things. The Chinese are calling the shots and Mnangagwa knows better than to dare challenge them.

"We don't need anyone's money (to finance development) as we can do it on our own. Sometimes it's just the mindset and belief to achieve that," Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), Dr John Mangudya, told Business Times in February this year.

"Like what oil is to Nigeria, gold is to Zimbabwe. The precious mineral alone has the potential to turn around the country's fortunes.”

The RBZ Governor revealed that Zimbabwe was losing as much as US1.2 billion per year to gold smugglers alone! And yet the country’s economy has all but collapse sending unemployment soaring to 90% plus, basic services like education and health care have collapsed and 49% of a people are living in heart breaking abject poverty!

41 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF misrule have landed us in this man-made hell-on-earth. We have known for decades the solution to our economic and political mess is for the country to implement the democratic reforms and cure ourselves of the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. We have failed to do so largely because the Chinese have helped Zanu PF to keep the de facto one-part dictatorship.

Over the years China has increased its economical, political and, most important of all, technological influence in Zimbabwe, particularly as regards the command and control of the country’s securocrats. It should be remembered that Zimbabwe is a Police State and whoever controls the security controls the state.

It is no exaggeration to say that Zimbabwe lost her independence and sovereignty to the Chinese a long time ago.

“Chinese are influential players in illicit gold trade!” Zimbabwe is a Chinese colony in all but name and they are milking their colony to death!

2 comments:

Zimbabwe Light said...

The ruling Zanu-PF party and the Communist Party of China are holding a virtual seminar meant to strengthen their ties to uplift the livelihoods of the citizens.

Zanu-PF is represented by its secretary for External Affairs Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, secretary for Information and Publicity Simon Khaya Moyo, secretary for Indeginisation Dr Mike Bimha and the principal of the Chitepo School of Ideology Munyaradzi Machacha.

The Communist Party of China is represented by the Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Guo Shaochun and his deputy Zhao Baogang.

The brain-dead Zanu PF buffoons who have presided over one of the most ruthless exploitation of one nation by another in human history which is what China has done in these last 41 years cannot see what has happened. They are given a packet of noodles for a packet of diamonds and they think it’s a bargain!

No wonder the Chinese will has been pulling all the stops to make sure Zanu PF remains in power at all cost; where else will they ever find another colony governed by such buffoons! Boy are we in trouble!

Zimbabwe Light said...

All Zanu PF ruling elite care about is power, absolute power, and all the wealth and influence it has brought. In the Chinese the Zanu PF buffoons have found their perfect partners, the Chinese are keeping the buffoon in power and are expect at looting the nation blind. What our buffoon have failed to see is that the Chinese are getting away with the lion’s share of the loot.
The buffoons have squandered their share of the loot on luxury and pleasurable company. By building the sprawling US$ 2-4 billion Blue Roof mansion Mugabe set the example all his minions have followed; they all have mansions in the country and outside. They have a fleet of posh cars and VP Chiwenga has 45 gold watches, etc., etc.
Any business investment Zanu PF leaders have made have thrived only because they are heavily subsidies with looted money and do not pay any tax. The minute the subsidies dry up, because the individual has lost their position on the feeding trough – the competition to keep one’s place has been very fierce as one can well imagine, the business empire has collapsed like a house of cards.
The real victims of all this wholesale looting is the ordinary Zimbabweans because the country’s economy has all but completely collapsed. They have failed to remove the corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF from power because the regime, with the expert assistance of the Chinese, have rigged the elections. Having a corrupt and incompetent opposition has only made the bad situation even worse because the opposition are now on Zanu PF’s payroll!
Zimbabwe is a Chinese colony and they are clearly on a mission to loot as much as possible as quickly as possible and as long as possible. In fighting for democratic change we are fighting not just the Zanu PF thugs we see before us but their Chinese handlers hiding in the shadows! Shadow boxing has a completely new meaning, the knock punch will come from the shadow!