brisbane lions guernsey 2019<\/a><\/p>\nSmall African countries like Zimbabwe risk being entangled in China\u2019s debt trap \u2014 owing more than they can pay back in reasonable time.<\/span><\/p>\n
Since 2010, China has invested US$10 billion in Zimbabwe, which is a meager slice of the US$230 billion invested in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa in the same period. According to the International Monetary Fund, Zimbabwe has one of the world\u2019s most fragile economies (probably the worst for a country without any wars or devastating natural disasters). It has external debts of US$9 billion \u2014 more than half the size of the nation\u2019s GDP \u2014 and needs more than US$15 billion for an immediate economic revival.<\/p>\n
With western countries and investors wary of investing in Zimbabwe without massive restrictions and pre-conditions that the country looks unlikely to meet, China is the only global powerhouse willing to throw a bone, supposedly with \u201cno strings attached.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Last year, a meeting between Mnangagwa and China\u2019s President Xi Jinping ended in a promise to write off Zimbabwe\u2019s debt to China, which had been accrued under former President Mugabe\u2019s rule. With the recent announcement by Xi Jinping that China will invest US$60 billion in Africa, one can begin to connect the dots that Ncube\u2019s fiscal policy is a clean-up act to attract more loans and investment by showing a commitment to paying back the money.<\/p>\n
In fact, this is a game being played by almost all African nations. The Scramble for China is on, with countries competing for the biggest slice of China\u2019s cake. Last September twice as many African leaders attended the China-Africa cooperation summit in Beijing as the last UN general assembly.<\/p>\n
Austerity policies reek of the neo-liberalism that the World Bank and IMF forced upon global south countries in the early 1980s in the form of structural adjustments and unequal free market policies.<\/span><\/p>\n
The austerity measures are a calculated display by the government to show that Zimbabwe, under Mnangagwa\u2019s leadership, is worthy of getting a bigger slice of the Chinese pie because their money will be used efficiently, and this time debts will be paid. But, as several governmental bodies, development organizations, and economic analysts have already warned, small African countries like Zimbabwe risk being entangled in China\u2019s debt trap \u2014 owing more than they can pay back in reasonable time.<\/p>\n
Some of these warnings are coming from the United States and the EU, which clearly feel threatened by China\u2019s growing influence in Africa. But China\u2019s role does raise serious questions with not so clear answers. How will China protect its investment? How much will China be involved in ensuring a return on its investment? To what lengths and at whose expense (the public or the government \u2013 the rich or the poor), will countries like Zimbabwe go to try and pay back the debt? And with the growing unease, particularly from global north countries, that China is trying to export its labor-intensive industry to Africa, how will these countries protect their sovereignty in the process?<\/p>\n
Austerity policies reek of the neo-liberalism that the World Bank and IMF forced upon global south countries in the early 1980s in the form of structural adjustments and unequal free market policies. In fact, Ncube has quoted the late UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who saw her neoliberal economic policies as the only path, often saying \u201cThere Is No Alternative\u201d (TINA).<\/p>\n
Small sovereign nations like Zimbabwe need to look at other African countries that have tried the same policies and failed. A wave of anti-austerity protests earlier this year should serve as a warning of how devastating these unpopular policies can be. Protests have resulted in arbitrary detentions in Sudan, violent clashes in Tunisia, and political turmoil in South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, and Gabon.<\/p>\n
Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek minister of finance, knows from his own country\u2019s experience that these measures are self-defeating as they not only depress national income but also the government\u2019s revenue, therefore making the nation suffer rather than prosper. He calls austerity an \u201cassault on the poor.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s high time African governments start to implement policies that favor the well-being of their people first before pleasing the Money Masters. An economy that does not improve the lives of its citizens is a poor and failing economy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Craig Dube is an Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity. He previously worked in Zimbabwe as a Regional Field Officer for Champions For Life, an HIV psychosocial support program.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has had to cut his holiday vacation short to try to resolve an escalating strike among doctors at public hospitals over low pay and medical supply shortages. Now entering its second month, the strike comes as the government pursues a short-sighted effort to improve its reputation among international creditors by slashing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}