Victoria Falls Mayor in trouble for snubbing Chinese delegation

By Tichaona Sibanda
02 June 2006

The MDC Mayor for Victoria Falls Tose Sansole, on Wednesday infuriated the Mugabe regime when he snubbed a Chinese delegation that was visiting the country’s premier resort town.

Sansole and all MDC councillors failed to turn up for a meeting with the Chinese delegation which was being accompanied by local government Deputy Minister Morris Sakabuya. Our Bulawayo correspondent Themba Nkosi told us Sakabuya has vowed to take action against the Mayor and his councillors.

It’s reported that the Chinese delegation is in the country on a fact finding mission and to explore investment opportunities. In the past week they have been visiting the two Matebeleland provinces.

Nkosi said it is not known how the regime will deal with the issue because the Mayor and councillors could have genuine reasons for not attending the meeting, additionally Chinese investment in Zimbabwe has been criticised for it’s support of dictatorships and it’s willingness to ignore human rights abuses.

The head of the Chinese delegation, Wang Yunze, is reported to have said there were many potential areas of investment in Matabeleland North that needed to be explored.

But Nkosi doubted their sincerity saying the Chinese have a bad reputation in Zimbabwe for bringing into the country sub-standard goods they end up dumping on the local market.

‘These people are not investors, they come here and open shops and sell second rate goods, make quick money and then disappear,’ Nkosi said.