admin
Dingizulu Mahlathini Moyo
At a time when Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC-T is said to have produced a “dossier” detailing the alleged rigging of the 31 July general elections, his recent act at Oxford University and the Centre for African Studies does not help his cause.
Tsvangirai’s stunt at the United Kingdom’s institution of higher learning proved, firstly, that the man who wants to be president of Zimbabwe is devoid of knowledge on the fundamental events that make part of the history of the very country he wants to be president of.
Secondly, his failure to remind the audience on the role of Zimbabwe in the making of that institution showed the man as weak. If anything Tsvangirai’s stance at Oxford exonerated all those that have labelled him and his party sellouts and puppets of the West.
It is clear that Oxford University and the Centre of African Studies represent not what Africa is, but what it should be in the eyes of the Westerners. This institution is the modern day’s Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. This institution has remained an astute tool of the brain-washing of Africa and legitimising the plunder of the continent’s wealth. But Tsvangirai chooses not to see this glaring truth and yet expects to win an election in an African country, where Pan-Africanism rules the roost.
MDC-T’s failure to identify with the history of his country is further exposed by a speech given by Roy Bennett at the same institution on 29 May 2012. In his opening remarks Bennett, a founding MDC member who has reportedly resigned from the party, said: “I am grateful for the opportunity to speak at this venue tonight. I do so in the knowledge that some will wince-and others will rub their hands together at the sight of a former white Rhodesian farmer addressing an audience that benefits from the largesse of Rhodesia’s founder and overlord, Cecil John Rhodes.”
Then comes 22 October 2013, when Tsvangirai took to the same venue and said:
“It is always inspiring and a great honour to be invited to an august forum of such a prestigious and famous institution of higher learning and research. I sincerely acknowledge the invitation to Oxford University and the Centre for African Studies, one of the highest centres of learning in the world. For centuries some of the world’s greatest minds have walked the cobbled streets of Oxford and graced its platforms and I am humbled to have been chosen to be in your company today.”
That Tsvangirai finds glory in edifying the institution that is a symbol of the British plundering of our wealth through the likes of Cecil John Rhodes is sad and it took a white former Rhodesian farmer, Bennett, to speak on that sad chapter of our history and not our presidential aspirant, Tsvangirai.
It then becomes clear that Tsvangirai is inspired and feels honoured at Oxford University because:
The Rhodes Trust, created out of Zimbabwe’s wealth, is based at Rhodes House, Oxford, England, since it was established in 1902 under the terms and will of Cecil John Rhodes and by subsequent Acts of British Parliament. The trust consists of two registered charities, the Cecil Rhodes Scholarship Fund and the Rhodes Trust Public Purposes Fund.
For the first 78 years of its establishment, the Rhodes Trust only gave scholarships to white Rhodesians.
The Rhodes Trust is an educational charity whose principal activity is to support scholars selected from the citizens of 14 specified geographical constituencies in order to study at University of Oxford, of which Zimbabwe has had a two slot each year since 1980. The trust has never made Zimbabwean beneficiaries public.
The Rhodes Trust has been used as an investment vehicle in Britain.
While the people of Matopo in particular and Zimbabwe in general are jealously guarding Cecil John Rhodes grave, the Britons are munching the profits from the Rhodes Estate.
At his Oxford speech, while speaking on the country’s diamonds, Tsvangirai claimed the resource, “… turned out to be a curse rather than a blessing for the country.”
Tsvangirai could be forgiven for not comprehending the country’s history in the manner the likes of Bennett do, but for a presidential aspirant to lack knowledge of current affairs is quite shocking.
The contribution of diamonds to Zimbabwe’s economy, despite the difficult trading conditions effected by the illegal sanctions regime, cannot be overstated.
For example, in 2010 Mbada Diamonds and Marange Resources contributed more to the fiscus than the contribution made by Zimbabwe Platinum Mines and Mimosa Mines from the platinum sector.
The two diamond mines between January to December 2010, made a total sale of $314 million of which $85,7 million went to Treasury as dividends, $31,4 million in form of royalties, $41 million corporate tax and $18, 8 million for other taxes. In total, Treasury realised $174 million from the diamonds sales.
On the contrary, the same period under review saw the two platinum gurus Zimbabwe Platinum Mines and Mimosa Mines, realise a whopping $700 million. No dividend was paid to Government as it does not have any shareholding in the companies. They remitted $21 million in royalties, $42 million corporate tax and an additional $42 million for other taxes. The total realised by treasury from the platinum mines was $105 million falling far short of what the other diamond mines had contributed.
The disparity in the contribution made to Treasury by the mining firms speaks volumes on the critical value of indigenising the economy. The statistics clearly show that 57 percent of the total sales of the diamonds were remitted to Treasury and indirectly localised in Zimbabwe compared to the 15 percent contributed by the foreign owned platinum mines. This is despite the fact the platinum sales nearly doubled the diamond sales.
Government has 50 percent shareholding in Mbada Diamonds, while it enjoys a 100 percent stake in Marange Resources. In the platinum sector, Zimplats is 87 percent owned by Impala Platinum of South Africa, while Mimosa is jointly owned by Impala Platinum and Aquarium of Australia on a 50-50 ratio.
Besides, the dividends that Zimplats and Mimosa are enjoying, they have another “bonus” in the form of concentrate and matte they export which contain various minerals — which by the way are not declared and their quantities will remain unknown — such as palladium, iridium, gold, silver and ruthenium.
Online Reporter