'Look East and grovel at China,' group tells Chinamasa

A UK-BASED activist group has told finance minister Patrick Chinamasa to "look East and grovel at China" instead of appealing for help from the same countries routinely vilified by his Zanu PF party and its leader.

With barely disguised sarcasm, Zimbabwe Vigil said in a statement Sunday: "The Vigil suggests that Chinamasa looks East and grovels to China for a hand-out.

"After all, the Chinese economic powerhouse has munificently given £1 million to help the neighbouring Philippines devastated by a massive typhoon.

"By contrast, the miserly UK government gave only £50 million and the UK public donated another £30 million in three days to help suffering people on the other side of the world (who had never even been oppressed by British colonialism!).

"As Chinamasa no doubt thought: what a pity illegal sanctions stop us having typhoons in Zimbabwe."

The group's remarks come after Chinamasa recently urged Western countries to invest in Zimbabwe despite frosty relations and a threat by President Robert Mugabe to seize UK and US companies if sanctions are not removed.

"We stand ready to allow our economy to talk to yours," Chinamasa told Western envoys accredited to Harare during a recent briefing on the country's new economic blueprint, Zim Asset.

Said Zim Vigil: "What is clear is that only a few months after the rigged elections, Zanu PF has been exposed as having no clothes (apart perhaps from a dunce's hat).

"It's now reduced to begging from the very countries which it continues to vilify despite the aid they have poured into Zimbabwe."

Zimbabwe adopted a so-called Look East policy, actively courting Chinese support and investment, after relations collapsed with the West over the last decade.

The European Union (EU) and the United States, along with countries such as Australia and Canada, imposed sanctions against Harare more than a decade ago over allegations of vote fraud and human rights abuses.

Western investors have also stayed clear of the country, unable to tolerate the policies of the 89-year-old Mugabe, who has been in power since independence in 1980.

China has responded to Mugabe's seduction however, and set its eyes on Zimbabwe's abundant mineral resources and high agricultural productivity.

Last year, China emerged as Zimbabwe's top foreign investor with bilateral trade between the two countries hitting new highs of more than US$1 billion.

Chinamasa needs all the friends he can get however.

Appointed finance minister after the July 31 elections won by Zanu PF, he faces a tough challenge righting an economy wrecked by a decade-long recession.

Zim Vigil said they were not holding up much hope that Chinamasa would succeed.
"The problem for Chinamasa is that Asian investors have imposed their own economic sanctions on Zimbabwe," the group said.

"Industry and Commerce Minister Mike Bimha complained that - although the government was not 'sitting on its laurels' - countries in the East were withholding their money because Zimbabwe was seen as a risky destination. This must surely be discriminatory!"