via Asians, Ali Babas reaping us off: Mugabe 13/12/2013 NewZimbabwe
Mugabe has voiced his frustration with Asian investors and sly dealers from the Middle East, accusing them of abusing his Look East policy to loot the country’s mineral wealth.
Mugabe warned his government to be wary in its dealings with investors from Asia and the Middle East during a televised keynote address to Zanu PF’s annual conference underway in Chinhoyi on Friday.
All but admitting that the country’s desperation for foreign partners had left Zimbabwe vulnerable to the greedy and the crooked, Mugabe said: “Yes we cannot do it alone. We will need friends; true, we can get friends.
“We have been looking East – our friends cannot just come to us for nothing. Fine, we can discuss terms with them; get loans from them to get us started.
“But we must be careful and not go into agreements we shall regret tomorrow because they disadvantage us. We would have given away too much.”
Once feted by the West in the 1980s as a leader the developing world could emulate, Mugabe has since fallen out with his erstwhile backers in London and Washington.
Relations between Harare and the West soured over the Zanu PF leader’s land reforms as well as alleged human rights abuses and electoral fraud which Mugabe denies.
When he was hit with debilitating economic sanctions, Mugabe responded with a much-vaunted Look East policy, actively courting support from China which has now gained a significant hold on the country’s economy.
Zanu PF confernce … National Chairman Simon Khaya Moyo addresses delegates
But observers expressed concern over some of the deals, many of them notoriously opaque, and Mugabe’s remarks Friday suggest uneasy in the top echelons of the regime.
Meanwhile, the discovery of diamond riches at Marange in the eastern Manicaland province and their subsequent ban from European markets also saw the government pawn the gems in the Middle East, earning amounts well below their market value.
Mugabe admitted Friday that nothing significant had come from the “Ali Babas”.
“Let’s be careful about vana Ali Baba ava. They will cheat us and make us run and run and expect and expect, nothing, nothing, nothing will come our way,” he said.
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Decked out in full party regalia, the bullish Zanu PF leader thanked supporters for handing his party an emphatic victory in the July 31 general elections.
“Zviye zvamakandiita mu 2008 ndakakanganwa, sengikhohliwe, ngoba ngiyajabula kathesi. Thank you for giving this party this high level of honour,” he said.
He also poured scorn on the Monday tea sessions at State House with former premier Morgan Tsvangirai saying while the MDC-T leader swore by the useless get togethers, he was in fact busy preparing for the new elections.
“2008 yakauya tikati ah toshanda nana Tsvangirai vamwe vakati ah President atengesa, atengesa ndikati ah regai nditengese zvangu,” he said.
“Ndikati haiwa ngatishande pamwechete. Vana Tsvangirai nana Arthur Mutambara taiita meet every week in State House tichinwa tea tese zvakanakanaka asika takanga tichishanda kuparty yedu tichiziva zvatirikuita,” he said.
The fractious coalition government, put together after the violent 2008 elections, is credited with helping stabilise the economy and ease political tensions, but Mugabe said, for his party, it had been the earthly incarnation of hell.
“We went through a tortuous world, a five year humiliation period,” he said.
“But takangozvidukupisa over those five years tichiziva kuti the people will get to know who this other side are and we are happy you now know.
“If you want to go back again hameno zvenyu munotswa ikoko. Kugehenaka uko. You know now the difference between heaven and hell. Kana manga musingazive kuna satan, ndikoko.”
COMMENTS
Reaping or ripping? Any event shows desperate confusion. Ask any medical doctor. Madness is a symptom of syphillis. Muggersboy bumbling in the dark as usual
Tsvangirai might be a dim wit to his detractors but sometimes he comes with little gems. Not from Marange! A few days ago he stated that Zimbabweans should pray for Mugabe but no one paid any attention. He is onto something. Even a broken watch or clock is right twice a day. Mugabe is losing the plot. Talk of desperation! How many friends has he got left now because he is lashing out in every direction? The West, South African companies, the opposition and now the Asians. Is it the ghost of Mandela now playing on his conscious? But he has not been buried yet! And how come everyone in Zanu is transfixed as if under a spell? No body dare cough or breath heavily in his presence. They have a huge majority and like Macbeth they don’t know what to do with the crown which they were desperate for. Tsvangirai was right again, ‘you can rig the elections but you cannot rig the economy’. Man They Have Problems! And it is always sweet to watch from the side lines. Please let’s have some more!
Simon M Tozvireva.
p/s I am more convinced that the Zim dollar will soon be back and so please be careful with what you have deposited in the banks because the waffle is reaching a new crescendo.
Well said bruv. He doesnt know what to do with the economy.Tsvangirai must be laughing his lungs out achinzwa this trash. Ordinary people applauded him for stabilising the economy but mugabe keeps rumbling for nothing. Heyoka nyika! Gadzira tione. Its zanu digging its grave not the MDC.
Generally speaking, when a political leader wins resoundingly over his opponents in an election, the foundation of genuine national support gives him/her the confidence to be magnanimous, conciliatory, positive and forward looking. This is what we saw, for example, in 1980. What we are seeing in 2013 is a man for whom victory is a sugar-coated but bitter pill. Everytime he sucks on his victory, the underlying bitterness soon extrudes, and out it is spewed.
Exactly Blackhammer.He talks about friends,what friends?Mugabe is so naive.Where are all his African brothers that endorsed his “victory”?The world we live in is one big jungle.Whats the first rule of the jungle?Take care of your own and to hell with the rest!Mugabe and Zanupf are now learning a hard lesson.There are no free lunches,just as there are no friends in the real world.Zanupf suffer from what is known as head in ass syndrome!
The sad thing is…..the people of Zimbabwe are the ones paying.
In all honesty Robert is stuck between two rocks crushing him to oblivion. The egotistical nature he has created about himself has even nauseated his friends. He has none left. A complimentary note from him would truly go a long way in relations but this gesture is simply not his style. He is the hard core man of the political arena. The CLINT EASTWOOD OF HARD KNOCKS. While pride is one thing ,a realisation that one cannot go it alone is another. Robert as the old man he is must truly begin to realise and through away his hatred or else he will be remembered in passing not as a hero but the villian of the 21st century.
You deserve to be ripped off by your “friends” Mugarbage, you’ve been ripping off the citizens of Zimbabwe for 33 years stealing money, property , hopes and dreams , now it’s your turn to be screwed .
Greedy Zimbabwe ministers have been ripped off by con artists since 1980. As an investigations officer i had to protect them from con artists of all nationalities, not just Asian. An American persuaded a minister to become involved and assist in a plot to rob a shipment of Reserve Bank gold from Harare Airport. He was very angry when the plot was thwarted.
this is rich!!!he has ripped this country off for 34 years…. high risk, high profit demanded old chap…and you bob must be about the highest risk in the world at the moment!!!
Chinese are also Asians. Look East you old FOOL!
Like he did with blaming western sanctions for his failure to deliver on the economy, Mugabe is beginning to craft a new platform for excusing his failure to deliver on the promises he made to the pple during campaigns. For him to admit that his over-exaggerated Look East Policy has failed is perplexing. So where to now Mr Mugabe
Methinks that as mugabe approaches his last day that his demons of hatred, corruption, murder torture, rape and the evil he has scourged the people of Zimbabwe with are haunting him and he is now a babbling fool not knowing how to dodge the coming judgement as he has dodged everything else in his pathetic life. He is a coward of the very worst kind, a bully to anyone smaller than himself that has not cow tailed to his obnoxious demands. He is a mass murderer and a man who has allowed his demoic forces to torture rape and steal with impunity, and now this poor man has no idea how to sweep it all under the carpet like he has in this life and he is losing controll as his life fades and he pannicks and froths in fear of Gods judgement and the coming eternity. Poor man!
Something is going wrong really. A country is not led by rhetoric but by the consolidation of all potentials for the good of all. It looks like everybody is becoming a problem in the country. This is not healthy at all. However genuine the claims are, I am afraid that’s not the way to go.
Examples are plenty; for one, Iddi Amin went that way and earned the distinction for having brought the economy to its knees. I just hope that’s not the agenda with our grand old man.
Grand old man? Are you nuts? He is a thief, liar and murderer!
Its a long history about who our friends are, the death of Tongogara dealt a blow to zimbabwean politics, some whould take this in bad taste ,in 1980 people voted according to which tribe they belonged[ BAD POLITICS AND HATE FOR ONE ANOTHER]The death of Zvobgo was the last nail in the coffin of zimbabwe democracy and Nkomo forced to sign a unity accord which to me was a demoan accord ,because up to today no one from zanu will apologise for gukurahundi ,you cant have permanent friends with that kind of attitude.
“When he was hit with debilitating economic sanctions,”
Mugabe and his close cronies were hit with sanctions, but the rest of Zimbabwe was not.
Whether not being allowed to go shopping in Bond Street is “debilitating”, I don’t know.
What makes a man take twelve hours to issue a statement on the passing away of a neighbour. The guy is in shock right now, what kind of a legacy is he going to leave? What kind of a send off does this man deserve, we are all going to die some day and the man with clenched fists is a very worried man, but he has too much pride!!
Mugabe is totaly confused.yes.u can not rig the economy bob.u days numbered
What is this rediculous rhetoric about “the grand old man”. Fools this man is an insane murdering genocidal freak that is demonically possesed and has never been less than that, and any one calling him that grand old man needs to go for deliverance .he is nothing but a pimp of satan!
Why the “f…” did he get applauded at Mandela’s funeral?!! Are these South Africans fools / insane / just plain dumb?!
YOU THINK CHINA IS HERE IN YOUR INTEREST…HA? YOU IDIOTIC LUNATIC. ICHICHIMWANA CHA BON’A CHIMBWA MUPENGO CHAICHO. A 90YEAR OLD TELLING US HE WILL DO EVERYTHING HE HAS NOT DONE IN 34YEARS OF RULE…NXAAA
Talking about the devil.
Considering how Zanupf has joyously put so called Zimbabweans through hell, if I was present when this man was ranting about Gehenna, perhaps I would have been given a chance to ask him about the other Gehenna which he mistakenly thinks is found on the outside of a Zanupf led man-made Country.
It is Fear that drives not only Mugabe but the entire ZANUPF faction they cannot do anything without shouting abusing and pointing fingers.
they forget when you point a finger 3 are pointing back at you. try it and see
He plundered what he could from the whites, is it now the Asians turn? Is see another Idi Amin in the making.