via Mugabe selling Zimbabwe for a piece of calico cloth Nehanda Radio May 13, 2014 By Wilbert Mukori
Mugabe is selling off the nation’s treasures for a song to buy his stay in power. The Chinese and Indians know the tyrant is desperate for money to finance his dubious ZimAsset plan.
I say dubious because there can be no doubt that the money will be wasted because the regime has done nothing to end the rampant corruption and mismanagement, the root causes of the economic collapse that landed us in this mess in the first.
As long as nothing is done to end corruption and mismanagement, economic recovery will remain a pipe dream. Any money thrown in the ZimAsset begging bowl will be a signal the regime has been waiting for that it is business as usual.
The Chinese and Indians know the regime is desperate for cash, there will be no competition as everyone else has been scared away by the regime’s indigenisation laws and other misguided policies and so they can name whatever price they want. And this is exactly what is happening here.
Zimbabweans will have the right to reopen the ZISCO deal Mugabe signed with the Indian Steel company, Essar, and all deals he signs with the Chinese on the grounds that the deals were not in the public interest and that the regime, having rigged the July 2013 elections, is illegitimate and therefore has no authority to enter into these contracts.
The Chinese are promising Mugabe $10 billion for his ZimAsset begging bowl, this will double the national debt and we will still have little to show for it. Indeed the debt burden would weigh so heavily on the nation making it impossible for it to recover. The Chinese and Indians are not exactly renowned for their generosity in cancelling debt!
It is ironic that Mugabe is the one who has been preaching to no end about how black Zimbabweans should own the country’s resources and yet he is the one who is busy selling the nation’s resources for the traditional calico cloth and a handful of beads, slaves were sold for!
COMMENTS
History repeats itself- Desperate Lobengula traded for his power with Cecil Rhodes and Desperate Mugabe trades his power with the Chinese. Unfortunately for Zimbabwe the Chinese tsunami will be far more intense than the British one ever was.
The Australian Ambassador to Zimbabwe likened doing business in Zimbabwe to swimming in the croc infested Zambezi River, which explains why there have been no investors in Zimbabwe for years. None that is except the Indians and Chinese and it is not that they have balls of steel.
They have been swimming safely because they only reasons they have the crocs’ eggs secured between their legs. The crocs will not attach them because they will otherwise eat their own.
What these Chinese and Indians must now understand is that Zimbabweans are determined to get rid of these crocs and if shooting those incubating the eggs is the only way to wiped these killers out then so be it. We are not going to tolerate this absurd situation where China and India solve their poverty problem by creating poverty in Zimbabwe.
We are not going to honour the dodgy deals China and India sign with Mugabe.
Lobengula’s true inheritor
Total enslavement . We have been sold out.
The THIEVING SCROUNGING THUG IS SELLING OFF THE COUNTRY FOR A SONG because he BLEW HIS VUVUZELA DECLARING ZIMBABWE IS HIS
Well the Chinese and Indians will soon learn that Zimbabwe is not Mugabe’s personal property to sell to whom he please at whatever price he chooses.
And black Zimbabweans thought they were being liberated?
If the true cost of ZimAsset is $27b, then the actual cost should be put at over $50b. The reason why projects are never completed in a corrupt environment is that people calculate the cost as if they are in a normal society.
Well it is his Zimbabwe do he can do what he likes with it. As for the contracts being illegitimate due to the rigged elections,I’m afraid you’re loving in la la land if you think it’ll be ready to rescind them. Any government that takes over and tries to annul them will find out just how legally binding they are
@ Zen
The Chinese and Indians signing these deals are doing so not on the strength that the contracts are water tight; they know these are slave and master contracts. They are signing these contracts on the strength that the new regime will be so incompe-tent it will go along with the contracts.
Who would have believed Tsvangirai and his MDC friends could have been so breathtakingly incompetent not to implement the reforms; they were.
Who would have believed the Zimbabwean electorate would be so incompetent not to see how Tsvangirai had let them down and yet even with the benefit of hindsight they still have failed to see.
So as far as the Chinese and Indians are concerned there is a good chance that the next government in Harare will be breathtakingly incompetent – it may even be led by Tsvangirai! To hedge their bets; these Chinese and Indians are probably looking at ways to help finance MDC political activities.
Someone once said NEVER in a 1000 YEARS…..
yes he is selling the country for that. ZPF need to wake up quickly. I find Mutasa’s remarks about RGM entrenching his hold abominable. ZPF must tell him to retire and renew their leadership with the best they can for the sake of a nation. RGM is bad news for this nation and a very negative and destructive presence. Let him go home peaceful bow out graciously if that is at all possible with a megalomaniac. He has had his time and now only drags us down steeply.
Those who think Mugabe will give power are naïve. Mugabe and his Zanu PF cohorts will have to be forced out of office.
Mugabe has sold out everything he can and now he is selling mineral deposits, to be mined in the future, for ready cash to spend on luxuries and salary for civil servants!
As said by another commentator previously ” All we do is complain & do absolutely nothing” At least the generation of the 50’s & 60’s were willing to lay down their lives to free themselves from the yoke of oppression unlike the current generation. Children of the ones who rather left the country should be very grateful for their parents foresight.
@ Saddened
It is not the human suffering and lost lives that is called for here to end this criminal waste of human and material resources in Zimbabwe. Those 50 and 60 heroes you are praising, what exactly did they achieve other than replace a colonial regime with the corrupt and murderous regime we have today?
What is required here is for the people to open up their minds and pay attention. It is our willingness to follow leaders like sheep that has landed us into this mess. We had the chance to end this Mugabe dictatorship, for example, if MDC had implemented the reforms. No reforms were implemented because of Tsvangirai and his MDC friends’ breath-taking incompetence. And yet even with the benefit of hindsight people continue to follow this village idiot like sheep!
@Wilbert Mukori the people of the 50’s & 60’s were well intentioned and had the courage to do something about their plight unlike today where all we do is talk, talk, talk…..
Agree with you on people blindly following leaders being the crux of our problems.
Well I agree with you that the 50s and 60s took up arms and fought for independence I would also want you to accept that they are the ones who spawned Mugabe and the thugs who have been ruling this nation these last 34 years. So they had the courage “to do something about their plight (colonial oppression)” but only to create another regime that has turned out not only to be equally oppressive but add corrupt and incompetent to boot! What is there to be admired in that?
The 50s and 60s acted yes but they failed to think through what they were doing because if they had then they would have realised that ending colonial rule using the gun would throw into leadership position men and women who would use the same gun to impose their will on the defenceless majority.
The struggle to end white colonial exploitation and oppression was not just about ending white rule but about freedom, justice and human dignity to all. All we did in 1980 was end white rule and left the people to continue to suffer under the yoke of oppression denied of all human rights and dignity and hope!
The 50s and 60s do not point to the solution of our current political and economic problems but point to the Genesis of our problems. Taking action like civil disobedience will easily led to rioting and worse if not care-fully thought out and will end with the tyrants, riff-raff and/or village idiots (no need to name names) in State House. What will that have accomplished?
We need to break this vicious circle in which whatever we; we end up making things worse not better than they were before we acted.
If you wanted a pithy definition of one incapable of self-governing then it is one incapable of acting to improve one’s lot.
Does anyone remember Idi Amin and the Indians? I hear they were given 48hrs to leave Uganda alive or else. History has a tendency to repeat its self.
The heading for this article should read:
“Mugabe Selling Zimbabwe for a packet of CHINESE NOODLES AND A PAIR OF CHOP STICKS”
Chances are he has also sold his soul for something that is only temporary. Repent!
Does Mugabe have true opposition even in underground. I mean if someona is trying to change something? I would like to apologize for maybe a funny question, but I am not from Zimbabwe.
Yes Mugabe has MDC led by Tsvangirai as opposition. The latter has turned out to be the most incompetent leader in modern history.
Can you tell me a little bit about tax rate, income tax, how much money people must give back to government?
Sorry, I can not help you there but you may find the answers on Ministry of Finance website page.
What I can say is that many of the millionaires like Philip Chiyangwa, Chombo, Mpofu, Mujuru, Mugabes, etc. have been paying very little tax if at all! They have made their huge fortunes from taking off the scream without ever putting anything back that is what is called corruption and looting!
Mugabe and Zanu Pf destroyed this country but to them it has to be someone else.Mr Mugabe we gave you the mandate to rule this country in 1980, the mandate was for you to protect the country and the citizens from any threat be it economic threat or otherwise. Now baba Chatunga you want us to believe that the economic demise of the country is not your fault.I thought when you set up your CIO was for the purpose of gathering intelligence to protect the country from the above mentioned threats and take corrective action but no it was to gather intelligence on the perceived threat to your family.TAKE RESPONSIBILITY MR PRESIDENT.
Well Mugabe is a tyrant; he has destroyed the nation economically, politically, socially and every other way you can think of and, yes, he will blame everyone else and admit to nothing. Even now with the nation tittering on the edge of the abyss, having frog-marched us there after 34 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption under his tyrannical rule, he would rather drive the nation over the edge than admit he has failed and give up power.
After 34 years of absolute power, let us just say Mugabe is super-glued to the State House like a binnacle to a rock!
For the first 15 to 20 years the people were naïve to bend over backwards and refuse to see Mugabe for the corrupt and murderous tyrant he had been all along. They people hoped against reason that he would change. By 1995 and 2000 the tyrant had corrupted every state institution and all cowed downed to him; it was not going to be easy to force him out of office. By electing a village idiot like Tsvangirai to carry out this important task the nation shot itself in the leg!
Mugabe is never going to give up power because it is not in the nature of tyrants to give up power; we will have to force him to give up power!
The country is tittering on the edge of the abyss and all you want is an apology from Mugabe! What good would that apology be to the nation if he goes on to drag the nation over the edge and turn the country into another Egypt, Libya or Syria!?
Never mind the apology; let us get this tyrant out of State House now before he destroys absolutely everything!!
the PEOPLE and OPPOSITION ARE POOP SCARED OF A 90 YEAR OLD!??
This place needs something likened to the French Revolution
Maybe someone in Hollywood should make a film about a country where its people AND Opposition were POOP SCARED of A 90 YEAR OLD SENILE RULER?? One should remember at this age one can NEVER AND WILL NEVER CHANGE
As a Zimbabwean I must admit I am filled with nothing other than shame that the country has gone to the dogs!
THE TITLE OF THE FILM SHOULD BE
“ZIMBABWE IS MINE”