Iden Wetherell in Harare
THE recent disclosure that a Malaysian company has secured logging rights in Zimbabwe’s pristine forest reserves has set alarm bells ringing in Harare.
The move represents a further incursion by the Malaysians who have recently taken a large slice of the country’s power utility, moved into the troubled telecoms sector, and are operating in the construction industry.
The chairman of a Malaysian company involved in a project to build 12 000 homes in Bulawayo, Dr Hassan Ali, also heads the Hasedat Corporation which recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Vice President Joshua Nkomo’s Development Trust of Zimbabwe (DTZ) to undertake logging in various parts of the country. The Forestry Commission has also been approached to supply timber which Ali says will be used for the housing project.
A total of 50 000ha of state and communal land is thought to be involved. Ali visited Zimbabwe last week for talks which are expected to translate his agreement with the DTZ and the Forestry Commission into firm logging concessions involving mahogany, mopani, mukwa and teak. Nkomo’s multi-tentacled DTZ has considerable leverage with rural district councils in Matabeleland in the south of the country, which control local woodlands.
The Malaysian connection has moved centre stage recently with President Robert Mugabe vigorously defending his government’s decision to allow Malaysia’s YTL Corporation a 51% share in the Hwange power station, Zimbabwe’s largest thermal plant. A project to boost output at Hwange had originally been put out to tender, but Mugabe pre-empted the outcome.
Observers believe Mugabe cut the R3-billion deal in private talks with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed and then instructed his ministers to sort out the details.
When the board of Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) protested, its members were promptly fired.
Critics of the agreement describe it as back-door privatisation and say it contradicts the government’s oft-proclaimed goal of transferring ownership of the economy to indigenous Zimbabweans.
Branding the deal “Powergate”, economist Eric Bloch has called for a parliamentary inquiry to see if anything “sinister or untoward” transpired.
Bloch points out that YTL was the least qualified of those bidding for the Hwange tender which included prominent American and European power companies.
When four Western countries joined the chorus of protest, Mugabe told them to “go to hell”. But senior United States officials made it clear to the president at a recent regional investment conference in Harare that deals of this sort were unacceptable.
Such awards “could cause irreparable damage to the leaders and countries concerned and to our efforts to promote United States business interests here due to the lack of transparency”, said director general of the United States commercial service Laurie Fitz-Pegado as Mugabe sat expressionless just metres away.
Former United States diplomat Chester Crocker warned investors would lose confidence in the region if contracts were “warped by political favouritism or improper dealings”.
In another controversial development, the Malaysian company Celcom has stolen a march on local black businessmen hoping to participate in the Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (PTC)’s new cellphone project.
Celcom approached Mugabe directly for permission to set up a joint venture offering management and technical support to the PTC.
“Black Zimbabweans should have no illusions now about indigenisation,” said one bitter entrepreneur who was sidelined.
Mahathir’s son is also thought to be involved in both the YTL/Zesa and Celcom/PTC deals.
Meanwhile, environmental organisations are deeply worried by the prospect of logging concessions in Zimbabwe’s forestry estates, given the record of Malaysian logging companies elsewhere.
Prominent conservationist Dick Pitman said he was “horrified” by the news. “What will be the extraction rate?” he asked. “Who benefits, what monitoring mechanisms will be put in place?”
These questions appear to be of little concern to those busy cutting deals – and cutting down trees. Affirmative Action Group president Philip Chiyangwa, however, is in no doubt as to who will benefit. Describing the Malaysians as new colonialists, he said they invariably took advantage of their partners.
“I have always been suspicious of the Malaysians. All deals involving them are suspicious,” he warned.