Mugabe lifts lid on arms-for-minerals deal with China

Although Mugabe did not reveal the name of the Chinese firm he referred to, the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) has two platinum mining joint ventures with the Chinese.

In 2006, the ZMDC announced it had set up Global Platinum Resources in partnership with arms manufacturer China North Industries Group Corporation (Norinco), handing over platinum concessions seized from Impala Platinum’s Zimplats. ZMDC also has a platinum joint venture with Chinese firm Shin Zim.

But it is the partnership with Norinco which has, in the past, been accused of quarterbacking China’s arms-for-resources deals with Iraq, during Saddam Hussein’s rule, and lately, with South Sudan, that appears significant.

It is not known how much the arms Zimbabwe has imported from China are worth. In 2008, an arms shipment for Zimbabwe was turned away by unionists at a South African port.

In 2009, the Airforce of Zimbabwe bought a fleet of K-8 trainer jets, which reports at the time claimed as worth $240 million.

This week, a Parliamentary Committee on Defence, Home Affairs and Security reported that the Airforce of Zimbabwe was $61 million in debt.

Global Platinum Resources, which ZMDC says is still at the pre-feasibility stage, more than a decade after the joint venture was born, recently drew fire from an impatient Walter Chidhakwa, Zimbabwe’s mines minister.

Chidhakwa said in a September 24 interview that he had summoned the firm’s representatives to explain the delay in launching operations, for which they had been licenced in 2011.

“They are supposed to brief me where they are because the statement I have made is we will not tolerate people who sit on claims,” Chidhakwa told The Source in the 2014 interview.

“So they have indicated a desire to come and see me and tell me (where they are), so I’m waiting for them to come and see me and tell me where they are and what they intend to do.”

In his ZTV interview, Mugabe did hint at Harare’s frustrations with Beijing’s reluctance to implement projects, but admitted that Zimbabwe’s inability to pay for past loans was a major stumbling block to deeper economic co-operation. Zimbabwe owes China close to $1 billion.

In response to a question on why China seemed to invest more in other African countries than in Zimbabwe, which professes to having a special relationship with the Asian giant, Mugabe said: “I don’t know what they are giving other countries but it depends on our capacity not only to absorb the funding, but to ensure also that we repay what we should repay.”

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