'Be wary of Mugabe's China deals'

MDC-T has called on Parliament to scrutinise "mega deals" negotiated by President Mugabe and a team of ministers in their recent trip to China.

Party Harare provincial spokesperson Obert Gutu the ZanuPF government continues to incur debt from several Chinese corporations in a very secretive and opaque manner without the involvement of Parliament

"Although Zimbabwe is resource - rich, more than 80% of the population is living in abject poverty essentially meaning that they are living on less than US$2 per day. Under the ZanuPF government, Zimbabweans remain afflicted by poverty, inequality and slow improvement in political and economic good governance," said Gutu.

"Zimbabwe is faced by an unsustainable debt level (presently estimated at just over US$10 billion) as well as the continuing challenge of arresting illicit financial flows (we don't exactly know where all the money from the extraction of alluvial diamonds has gone to).

"Thus, Zimbabwe now has a complex debt composition that is essentially creditor biased. As a country, we have dismally failed to prevent re - accumulation of bad quality debt. As a direct consequence of the ZanuPF government's irresponsible borrowing policy, we have caused serious and unnecessary damage to the social and economic fabric of our beloved country."

Gutu said the majority of the people who suffer from the debt are not institutionally or legally recognised in decision making processes on public debt management.

"Citizens' elected representatives ( ie Parliamentarians) also lack the full capacity to play an effective oversight role due to weak legislation and the dominance of the Executive and creditor institutions in the process," he said.

"In Zimbabwe, just like in most other African countries, we have a scenario that leads to irresponsible borrowing characterised by the lack of strategy, lack of specialised agencies, borrowing for consumption and succumbing to creditors' harmful conditionalities.

"In Zambia, for instance, Sata's government has also borrowed irresponsibly on the international capital markets to such an extent that Zambia's post HIPC debt now stands at over US$14 billion. Hence ; there is an urgent need for the Parliament of Zimbabwe to scrutinise all the nine ( 9 ) or so 'mega' deals that were recently signed in China."