Zimbabwe: Mutsvangwa claims Chinese investments will stabilise the Zimdollar

By Felix Matasva, New Zimbabwe

Speaking at a Medical and Dental Private Practitioners of Zimbabwe (MDPPZ) annual conference held in Mutare recently, Mutsvangwa heaped praises on owners of Mvuma Steel plant, the Tsingshan Holding Group whom he said will leapfrog Zimbabwe into development.

The claims come at a time the is fast losing value.

The former Zimbabwean ambassador to China claimed after completion, the Mvuma steel plant will enable Zimbabwe to stabilise its currency.

“What we have done as the new dispensation of late is to attract capital with respect to the resources of this country. We have abundant raw materials which nobody has on earth as Zimbabwe. We have got 60 minerals in Zimbabwe, some of the twelve, we are on top in the whole world,” Mutsvangwa said.

“What’s going on in Chivhu today in Mvuma, Africa has never seen anything like that in terms of investment. We are going to become in the top ten in the whole world in terms of production of steel in the next three to five years. We are going to produce something like 15 to 20 million tonnes.

“We have great deposits and we have identified a top company in the world of making steel and even America does not have a company like that.”

“We are going to have new ports in Mozambique to export steel bigger than in Chimoio. Urbanisation is the way to go. Zimbabwe is open for business hence we need capital in Zimbabwe so that people will stop going to the diaspora,”

Tsingshan signed a billion dollar agreement with Zimbabwe in June 2018 with an aim to set up a two-million-tonne-a-year steal plant.

The Chinese company, courtesy of its Zimbabwean subsidiary Afrochine, is currently producing ferrochrome which will also be used in the production of steel.

Added Mutsvangwa: “Ask my wife (information minister Monica Mutsvangwa), we used to meet the Tsingshan Holding Group owner when I was an ambassador in China. He is our friend. The indigenisation programme which was spearheaded by Kasukuwere will take us nowhere. We shall build a new town in Mvuma in short period of time through this steel project.”

“How does a country which produce so much gold and does not have a currency, somebody is manipulating us so that we do not have a currency. We must fight to get our currency back otherwise if we don’t ours will continue to be eroded. They (The west) are manipulating our currency so that we do not prosper.

“We must invest like we are doing in Chivhu so that our currency is restored back to normalcy. When we have partners like Tsingshan we will make it.”

Zimbabweans are currently reeling from an economic crisis that has rendered their salaries worthless.