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Mangoma tears into ‘mega deals’

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Elton Mangoma has dismissed the recently signed “mega” deals between Zimbabwe and China, saying only four of them were of material worth.

RENEWAL Democrats of Zimbabwe (RDZ) president Elton Mangoma has dismissed the recently signed “mega” deals between Zimbabwe and China, saying only four of them were of material worth.

BY OBEY MANAYITI

Addressing journalists in Harare yesterday, Mangoma alleged Zimbabwe was being exploited by China, saying the deals signed with the Asian giant were motivated by greed.

“Only four of the agreements involve money. All the others mean very little to the ordinary Zimbabwean people,” he said.

“In our view, these deals are driven by greed and corruption and they must be stopped. So rather than celebrating, we should be sad that the major part of our resources is going away.”

The deals involved $1 billion loan for the construction of units 7 and 8 at Hwange Power Station and a $98 million loan for fibre for TelOne. The RDZ leader, however, said the Hwange deal was overdue as the tender was done in 2012 and the undue delay was unwarranted because the country was facing erratic power supplies.

Mangoma said the government misdirected itself in entering into the TelOne deal, arguing there already existed fibre-powered government entities particularly NetOne and Powertel.

Deals he considered “non-event” include the aviation co-operation agreement, and the agreement to construct a new pharmaceutical warehouse because the country already had one in Southerton, Harare, which, however, was understocked. He also dismissed the exchange of notes on the construction of a new Parliament building.

Turning to the private sector, Mangoma said: “AVM Africa has an agreement worth $1,5 billion for the assembly of motor vehicles in Zimbabwe. This could be a green shoot in the very brown field, but could be scorched by the economic El Nino.”

Mangoma also dismissed the recently presented 2016 National Budget, saying it was not inspiring at all and had nothing for the ordinary Zimbabwean.

“The budget has not been balanced and will reflect a deficit in 2016 following another deficit in 2015. These deficits will further have a debilitating impact on the performance of the economy.

“The budget deficit will be financed from local borrowing, thus crowding out the private sector and making the government’s unsustainable debt position worse,” he said while providing his party as the only solution to the country’s problems.