By Takura Zhangazha*
The government of Zimbabwe has decided to privatize its gold
refinery, Fidelity Printers and Refineries.
In a report carried by NewZwire it turns out the parastatal is now going
to be majority (60%) owned by at least ten unnamed gold mining companies that
paid a total of $US49 million to the Zimbabwean government.
For many a Zimbabwean this may be a run of the mill business
transaction. Or they wouldn’t even
bother with any follow up questions on either the necessity let alone accountability
of this specific development. Let alone its far
reaching impact on not only gold mining but also the broader political economy
of the country.
What has however been in the public domain about gold has
been stories and allegations of gold smuggling.
Even most astoundingly at our own international airports. So the narrative is one of cartels and shady operations
about gold. Including the more tragic
ones concerning gold-panners and so called ‘illegal miners’ commonly referred to as ‘makorokoza’. With the
latter always being in the media for either violent incidents or tragic deaths
in collapsed disused mine shafts.
What gets lost in translation is the fact that the mineral
that is gold is a key component of our national wealth. Initially by way of historical symbolism. It is recognized on our national flag and it
is also recognized as having been key to not only the establishment of our revered
ancient civilisations but also what racist colonial settler capitalists
initially envied and sought to conquer us for.
So the given national assumption via historical consciousness is that we, as Zimbabweans, own our
gold. It represents a key component of
our national wealth and therefore must be utilized for the general public good
and not the aggrandizement of individuals let alone corporate profiteering.
That the government can, with relative ease, privatize not only its mining
but now its actual refining and end process global marketing should give us
pause to reflect on a number of issues.
With the initial emerging question being, “To whom does our gold now
belong?” Given recent developments it
now evidently belongs to a select private sector. With probable links to our ruling political elites
in one form or the other. With an
assumption, probably from state officials, that there shall be some trickle
down benefit to the masses with the passage of time. And we have been here before as a country via
what was then the Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes (ESAPs) of the late 1980s
through to the year 2000. Large scale privatization of the national wealth meant the loss of jobs due to following the arbitrary dictates of a global
market. All of which came to undermine our
national social well being while protecting global capital’s interests.
The second element that emerges with this new move by the government is where and when it is juxtaposed against the whole idea of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) of 2000 going forward.
So
assuming we took the land from our previous oppressors for revolutionary ownership
purposes, how do we then privatize a key mineral asset such as gold? It comes from underneath the very soil we claim
to have fought for but our government is of the view that it cannot be nationalized
for the public good? Never mind the fact that we were accusing former white
commercial farmers of illegal gold and diamond mining during the FTLRP. And even now
we are compensating them at competitive global market prices for the same land
we popularly argue we reclaimed. It is
as contradictory as it is an incremental reversal and sacrifice of nationalist ideological
causes at the altar of neoliberalism.
In the third instance, the privatization of gold does not
appear to have a bigger plan that the people of Zimbabwe can appreciate as impacting
any improvement in their everyday lives.
Sure enough Mnangagwa’s government has embarked on infrastructural
rehabilitation projects. But in the majority of the examples that can be given
for these projects it is in order to enable what he has referred to as the ‘ease
of doing business.’ There is limited
room to doubt the priority of private capital’s interests with this government. Whereas in Venezuela or Bolivia major mineral
extraction plans focused on large scale national welfarist programmes, despite global
capital’s hostilities and sanctions, it was evident that the national wealth was
to be spent on the majority poor in those countries. Here in Zimbabwe we appear to be keen on
assuming that if we satisfy private capital, we satisfy the people. This has been historically proven to be a
false assumption and one that can only lead to a result which I outline
as a final point in this write up.
Lastly, when political elites find common ground with owners
of local and global private capital, it is a recipe for the establishment of national
oligarchies. It is as American a model as it can be Chinese. In the former they create revolving doors
between business/private capital and politics.
In the latter they expand a one party state into a global corporation that
resists challenges to its overall hegemony.
We are probably in the early stages of either of the same in
Zimbabwe. That’s is a combination or alliance
of the political and corporate/private capital elite in order to establish a
permanency to their new found potential hegemony. Hence the latest scramble after the scramble for
the control of gold production and profits. We would still however, as Zimbabweans, need to answer this question, "Whose gold is it anyway?"
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
(takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)
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