By Tawanda Chenana
WE, in the village, are really vexed by US’ continued interference in our domestic affairs.
We really do not like this condescending behaviour of treating us like clueless children in need of hand-holding.
As a people, we are building our nation brick-by-brick and we do not need meddlesome people seeking to derail our development trajectory.
We know the source of all this noise is emanating from fear.
Now we have the election date, it is all systems go.
And over the years, it has become common knowledge the CCC, formerly the MDCs, cannot win an election in Zimbabwe.
Coming to elections, the CCC, like the old MDCs, will continue to allege that the elections will not be free and fair unless ‘reforms’ are put in place — what reforms?
We, in the village, know for a fact that the CCC is afraid of taking on any challenge the democratic way, through elections — even its leader Nelson Chamisa has put in place mechanisms to ensure he is not challenged for the post of party president.
It has always been the hope of the MDC leadership that ZANU PF would be pushed out of power through a violent bloodbath and not through the ballot.
That is why the MDC campaigned for illegal sanctions on the country in order to starve the people, create chaos and cause them to rise up against their Government.
It is why the MDC called for mass demonstrations which always flopped.
For CCC, power is unattainable through democratic means in a country where the majority have benefitted from ZANU PF’s pro-majority policies.
Former liberation movements are simply not wanted by the West, especially those in Southern Africa.
We are aware that the US is resorting to ‘coercive diplomacy’ to access the strategic minerals of Southern Africa.
Southern Africa, as a region, hosts most of the world’s strategic minerals, such as PGMs, chromium, manganese, rare earth minerals, cobalt, uranium and others which the West needs for its industries and the production of weapons systems.
Clearly, the US and its allies are concerned that access to the minerals of Southern Africa will become more difficult in the future because of increasing global demand and China’s rapid development fast-turning it into an influential superpower.
China already produces 90 percent of the world’s rare earth minerals at home and is friends with the rest of Africa which also has these precious minerals in abundance.
The Asian giant is also the largest producer of aluminium, antimony, cement, coal, fluorspar, lead, manganese, mercury, rare earth minerals, steel, tin, tungsten and zinc.
The threat to the West in this respect is that, notwithstanding its dominance in the above-mentioned minerals at home, China is also threatening to control production of major minerals in Southern Africa – a region traditionally considered the West’s hunting ground for minerals.
The threat posed by China to the West in this respect is real and they are doing everything to frustrate African governments that have cordial relations with the Eastern giant.
Rare earth minerals are the ingredients in key components in communication devices, satellites, electric fuel cells and batteries that Western industries and the military require. Unless the West changes its ways and adopts the strategies used by China to win contracts in the mining sectors of Southern Africa, they will certainly lose out.
The Chinese are in Africa’s mining sector in win-win deals which are favourable to African countries, most of which are keen to grow their economies using their natural resources.
We will not be fooled by narratives claiming otherwise.
More than five Chinese companies are now among the top 40 mining companies of the world.
In South Africa, the Chinese have gone into partnership with black empowerment companies and are involved in the mining of PGMs, ferroalloys, chromium, manganese and iron.
In Zimbabwe, the country which hosts the largest reserves of chromium, the Chinese are eager to do business with us.
In view of the West’s habitual bullying tactics, it is very important for African nations to work on strategies to defend themselves against all forms of Western attacks.
Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo/Ilizwe lakhiwa ngabanikazi.
The West needs us more than we need it and our elections need no validation from the West!
