The Zimbabwe Situation

Great Leap Backwards
As times get tougher in Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe gets tougher still, the biggest winner may be China

By SIMON ROBINSON

CRACK DOWN: A whip-wielding guard controls a crowd outside a grocery store in Harare last month

Sunday, May. 29, 2005
Is Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe trying to set an African record for mass arrests? It certainly looks that way.

Two weeks ago, police launched a violent crackdown on illegal traders in Zimbabwe's biggest cities — the government blames them for fueling inflation, now at 129%. Operation Restore Order has so far netted more than 15,000 people for hoarding maize and dealing in foreign currency. Many Zimbabweans believe there are darker reasons for the sweeps, which have included incidents of police brutality and destruction of property. Most of those targeted live in urban areas that overwhelmingly backed the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in parliamentary elections last March. Many believe the arrests are payback for perceived disloyalty and a warning that antigovernment unrest will be met with force.

But the arrests may also be a way for Mugabe to make nice with his new patrons in China. As he tries to cope with the world's fastest-shrinking economy, he has developed a Look East policy designed to curry favor with Asian powers, especially Beijing. China has begun to give arms and planes to Zimbabwe; in return, the MDC charges, Zimbabwe is giving China land. The Chinese government is helping to build Mugabe a new mansion on the outskirts of Harare, the capital. And Chinese traders are flooding the country with cheap shoes and clothes — and immigrants to sell them, too.

The crackdown on Zimbabwean sellers will remove competition in this sector, alleges MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. "The Chinese are not so interested in short-term material gain; they're after long-term influence and power in the region," says Isaac Maposa, director of Zimbabwe Institute, an opposition-aligned think tank. "But Mugabe has to look like he's thinking of them after all the help China's given him."

Dear Editors of ZIMBABWE SITUATION,

I have read Sekuru Venyu Mese’s letter, entitled “Why spare the Chinese?” and published in THE INDEPENDENT of Zimbabwe on 27 May 2005. As someone who has lived and worked in Zimbabwe not all that long ago, I am attaching my reply to this letter.

Sincerely,

Gisela Sonne (Dr.)

3420 Papineau-Couture

Sherbrooke

Canada, QC J1N 2X1.

Dear Editor,

I read with regret the letter by Sekuru Venyu Mese, as published in THE INDEPENDENT of 27 May 2005.

I sympathize with Sekuru Venyu Mese’s complaints about the rough handling of Zimbabwean sellers at various flea-markets and Zimbabwean operators of private commuter omnibuses in recent weeks. I do not however accept the view that the same rough treatment should be meted out by Zimbabwean police and security forces to Chinese shopkeepers in Zimbabwe.

First of all, how many Chinese businessmen are presently in Zimbabwe to fear their competition? Could some of them by any chance be of overseas Chinese descent, the leftovers of exploitative indentured labour schemes by white colonialist masters in the early 20^th century or the weakening apartheid system in southern Africa since the 1980s?

Secondly, regardless who these Chinese traders are, most likely they all have bought legal licenses and paid the various import duties on their goods imposed by the national revenue authorities of Zimbabwe. Thus these shopkeepers perform within a legal structure and should receive protection from the local security forces. In these days of a fast disintegrating Zimbabwean economy hard work and high risk taking are needed by these traders to make a living. In contrast, many Zimbabweans of all educational levels and means have left the country for greener pastures!

Thirdly, Sekuru Venyu Mese’s comments about the possible repatriation of the savings of these Chinese businessmen in various currencies shows the ignorance of this particular writer about the economic development of mainland China as well as of the ongoing restructuring of the global economy. China’s economy is booming, self-sustaining and has the world’s largest currency reserves. It does not have to rely any longer on repatriated personal savings. Rather the Chinese government is heavily re-investing in joint research ventures with the European Union, developing projects in South-America, and Africa, including Zimbabwe.

Fourthly, I do not think that Sekuru Venyu Mese needs “to go for plastic surgery or even change [his] name to be acceptable” but should abstain from these childish racist remarks. Do not repeat the same mistakes of the white colonial masters in the 21^st century. In THE CHRONICLE of the period 1900-1904 the same uncritical and racist comments on possible money repatriation, skin colour and unfair competition were made by Bulawayo’s white traders when the importation of indentured cheap Chinese labour to BSA mines was discussed.

The propagation of this cheap RACISM was a “divide and rule” tactic used by the colonial masters then and should have no place in now free, independent Zimbabwe. Zimbabweans of all shades of colour and creed urgently need to analyse the real causes of their political , economic and social plight. Do not become prisoners of the country’s racist past.

Sincerely,

Gisela Sonne (Dr.)

3420 Papineau-Couture

Sherbrooke

QC J1N 2X1, Canada