Chinese and Indians have destroyed our economy

From a developmental perspective point of view regarding divergence of views pertaining to our economy foreign nationals and the so called purported investors have cause harm on our beloved economy. I have been studying carefully how most of these foreign nationals honestly we have remained poorer because these people. Most of them they come to Zimbabwe with small bags and satchels only to leave this country with millions of dollars. Why can't we also take advantage of our own resources and build ourselves from there. We have natural resources, wealthy mineral findings and we are gifted with high levels of literacy in our country but we have remained poorer probably by failing to provide good balance and checks. I want to make a very strong critical analysis regarding the foreign nationals and investors in our country and make good findings for recommendation to the cabinet of Zimbabwe as an academic and analyst in Zimbabwe. Our role as analysts is not only to criticise but also to appreciate were development has taken place and make good recommendations to enhance development in our country.

Black empowerment

Our president made a right thing by championing black empowerment policies spearheaded by organizations such as Affirmative Action Group (AAG) led by Phillip Chiyangwa and Peter Pamire. These were good programmes which saw the likes of Chiyangwas and Chanakiras and Masiyiwas rising to prominence. This is what should continue in our country so that at the end the rest of us will benefit economically to contribute positively towards our economy and development. Black empowerment is good for our country because it promotes development and self-reliance amongst our citizens. If you look at the land question, the idea was very good but the way it was implemented it was wrong because it had some loopholes economically and politically at the same time. Whilst the idea was good for our black majority but it has negative impact towards our economy. Previously land was owned by majority of the whites whilst the minority which are blacks were squatters in most parts of the country. These is happening already in our economy that the major space of our economy has been occupied by Chinese and indian nationals. The Chinese and Indians bring their own resources, labour, materials and resources and they do not even bank money which makes it very difficult for the locals to benefit.

Foreign nationals are fuelling corruption

If you look at major deals which involve foreign nationals especially Chinese it's all about corruption, they do not follow proper procedures and rules of investments they evade taxes and avoid paying royalties at the same. This is a serious challenge towards our economy. They keep large sums of money in their homes and they get away with minerals and most of our resources through leakages in different sectors of the economy. Our major challenge is these foreign nationals use locals to do their corruption and majority of them do not even follow immigration laws which makes it difficult to account for national resources. If you look at Chiadzwa diamonds you can even bemoan lack of transparency evolving foreign nationals and senior officials. We had diamonds that were worth 60 billion and up to now no one knows what exactly happened to these diamonds and major companies that were purporting to be investors looted almost everything leaving the country poorer with a lot of debts.

Tex evasions and avoidance

Everyone knows that for every economy to function and perform very well, we survive on revenue from taxes and royalties. Most of these Indians and Chinese do not pay tax because probably they are fronting senior people which makes it difficult to have full tax compliance. If all tax procedures were followed very well I tell you this country can have more than 280 million United States Dollar revenue collections on monthly basis. We are having mining and tax leakages because of the Chinese and Indians in our country and this must come to an end.

Labour and employment factors

We have seen most of the locals being abused physically and emotionally and the law failing to take its course because they are politically connected. Labour laws should be repealed to protect locals from any kind of abuse from these foreign thugs who have plundered our natural resources. Most of our locals have been under paid and some to an extend of going for months without salaries and proper accommodation whilst they loot everything and siphoning our resources to their mother destinations. If you look at china today it's one of the economies that has grown so big because of taking advantages of sub Saharan nations using manipulation to bleed their economies. China bring their own labour, resources, capital they do not even use local banking sector which makes it very difficult for our economy to perform very well what the Government of Zimbabwe should consider is to repeal laws to protect our resources and our own people. They are several mega deals that were signed by the Government and China and nobody knows the nature of deals and what the country will benefit from those deals. Who exactly will benefit from these deals? Who is involved? Most of the deals were done in a rush without having balance and checks interms of legal consultations and procedures and this will find the country losing billions of dollars and actually we have mortgaged our country to Chinese and Indians.

Indian community

Indian community has literally caused harm to our economy. There is widespread information regarding how they operate their businesses in Zimbabwe and Africa at large. They have taken advantage of the locals and manipulate them using their wealthy which is not a good idea. They keep large sums of money in their homes, majority of buildings in Zimbabwe especially Harare they are owned by Indians and what do we benefit from that. I think the Government needs to do something before it is too late for our economy. They employ locals and under pay them and most of the locals employed by Indians cannot even afford to have a decent meal yet they are in our own country. Empowerment laws should be revised and they should cede a greater percentage to the locals for community development and economic growth through tax compliance. Currently we have a serious cash crisis and these are the people who are keeping large sums of money in their homes and trunks and this is total sabotage to our Government. Majority of locals are suffering whilst they occupy 87% of our land and buildings in major cities which makes it difficult for black empowerment championed by our head of state.

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Tinashe Eric Muzamhindo heads Mentorship Institute of National Development and Sustainability (MINDS) which deals with policy research and development. He is a development consultant and analyst. He can be contacted at greatorminds@gmail.com