‘Mr Groundbreaking’ kept busy by Zimbabwe’s early adopters

● Although Zimbabwe’s executive dissolves today to make way for the eighth election since the country’s independence in 1980 tomorrow, President Emmerson Mnangagwa shows little sign of being a man who is spending his last days in office.

On the contrary, Mnangagwa, who has been in charge for about eight months since his rise to power last November, spent the final week ahead of tomorrow’s election, ramping up his “Zimbabwe is open for business” drive. He also attended the three-day Brics summit in South Africa this week, briefly leaving the political campaign trail to his rival Nelson Chamisa, who has almost 100 election rallies under his belt.

Mnangagwa presided over several ceremonies, which included opening a platinum mine owned by Karo in Mhondoro-Ngezi, a chrome mine owned by African Chrome Fields in Kwekwe, and Harare airport’s $153million (R2-billion) expansion. Earlier this month he attended the $241-million ceremony for the upgrade of the Beitbridge border post, one of Southern Africa’s busiest inland borders and last month he presided over a ceremony for the $1.5-billion refurbishment of Hwange power station.

The government claims that investment inflows attracted in the first half of the year under Mnangagwa’s watch amount to about $15-billion.

“I am now Mr Groundbreaking,” said Mnangagwa.

“Each incident where we are commissioning or doing groundbreaking, that is creation of employment; that is putting food at the table of our families. This is the new Zimbabwe we want. We shall continue to grow and grow,” said Mnangagwa.

Mnangagwa’s pro-business stance has endeared him to foreign investors. After years of stand-off with former ruler Robert Mugabe’s government, they are now seeking opportunities in the country. Zimbabwe is the continent’s largest lithium producer, has the second-largest known platinum reserves in the world after South Africa, and has vast gold, chrome, coal and diamond deposits.

In the longer term, should he win the election, Mnangagwa hopes that his pro-business approach, among other things, will be enough to convince multilateral lenders such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to open up fresh credit lines for the country.

Zimbabwe owes these institutions and the African Development Bank about $10.2billion. Last year, Trading Economics estimated Zimbabwe’s GDP at $17.8-billion.

The two South African-linked companies that launched their respective mining operations this week — Karo and African Chrome Fields — are poster boys for those foreign-owned companies that seem to be throwing caution to the wind and not waiting until after the election to enter Zimbabwe.

Zunaid Moti, chairman of the Moti Group, this year described Zimbabwe’s mining potential as “virgin” in contrast to that of South Africa.

Mines and Mining Development Minister Winston Chitando said on Wednesday that African Chrome Fields would enable Zimbabwe to become a competitive player in the chrome industry.

Karo chairman Loucas Pouroulis said the $4.2-billion joint venture between Karo and the government presented exciting opportunities “in what is one of the most remarkable geological addresses in the world. Zimbabwe has not only been blessed with an extraordinary metal and mineral endowment, it has also been blessed with a vibrant, hard-working, skilled and driven population”.

Karo will open the first of four open-pit mines in 2020 and at its peak expects to produce 1.4 million ounces of platinum, more than twice Zimbabwe’s current total output. Its base and precious metal refineries will have capacity to refine another 600 000 ounces. The project will include a coal mine and power station and should employ 15 000 people when fully operational.

But as Mnangagwa promises to repair the economy after nearly two decades of collapse, few Zimbabweans actually believe the government’s claim of attracting billions of dollars in foreign direct investment.

Economic observers are wary of Mnangagwa’s ability to deliver an economic turnaround. Tony Hawkins, economics professor at the University of Zimbabwe, said: “The government is talking of about $16-billion in six months, while the UN Conference on Trade and Development estimates $28billion in foreign direct investment for the entire sub-Saharan region this year. Needless to say these figures from them [the government] are unrealistic.”

Hawkins said the promises were “just politicking”.

“The economy has serious problems, it is heavily indebted, there is about 90% unemployment and 3 million people are out of the country. The claim of thousands of jobs is fanciful. The only jobs that have been created has been in the public sector, which recently was given pay hikes of between 17% and 22%. In the private sector, we have seen job cuts and pay increases of 3% and 5%,” said Hawkins.

Over the past few weeks of election campaigning, Chamisa has highlighted the failures of the Zanu-PF government. Chamisa, who staged his final rally in Harare yesterday, has promised to fix the country’s shortage of US dollars within weeks should he be voted into power.

Two SA mining houses among those not waiting until after the poll