Zimbabwe's finance minister told local business owners to quit singling out Chinese entrepreneurs during a budget meeting in Bulawayo after some guy from the grain millers group wanted the government to crack down on foreign competition. Mthuli Ncube basically said calling out specific nationalities is how xenophobia gets started, and he reminded everyone that Zimbabweans have dealt with that garbage themselves when South Africa turned hostile years back.
The minister pointed out that Chinese investors are hitting business sectors where locals never even bothered looking, and as long as they stay out of reserved industries and operate legally, they should get left alone. He dropped a story about a Nigerian military commander who showed him an old payslip with a deduction that funded Zimbabwe's liberation movement, telling the crowd to show more respect to foreigners who supported the country when Western sanctions were crushing the economy after land reform went down.
The minister pointed out that Chinese investors are hitting business sectors where locals never even bothered looking, and as long as they stay out of reserved industries and operate legally, they should get left alone. He dropped a story about a Nigerian military commander who showed him an old payslip with a deduction that funded Zimbabwe's liberation movement, telling the crowd to show more respect to foreigners who supported the country when Western sanctions were crushing the economy after land reform went down.
