Chinese “investors” in Zimbabwe have crossed the line, reducing citizens to second-class status through violence, exploitation, and environmental destruction. Silence from leaders is complicity. True investment respects dignity, yet Zimbabwe faces modern-day colonization disguised as partnership. Enough is enough—Zimbabweans must demand accountability and defend their sovereignty.
Let us be clear from the start: these individuals are not investors. They are tormentors. They have reduced Zimbabweans, the rightful owners of this land, into second-class citizens who can be beaten, humiliated, or even killed with impunity.
The most recent example emerged at Bikita Minerals, where a Chinese national identified only as Wang was caught on CCTV viciously assaulting his Zimbabwean colleague, Talent Mupoti. The footage, now widely circulated, shows Wang repeatedly punching, pushing, and kicking Mupoti in a display of raw contempt. This was not a workplace quarrel — it was an assault on one man and, symbolically, on the dignity of all Zimbabweans. If such brutality can be carried out in full view of cameras, what horrors are taking place in remote mines where no one is watching?
This case is far from isolated. In 2024, another Chinese miner, Cai Yulong of Stone Steel Blue Mine in Zhombe, was sentenced to 30 years for killing one worker, injuring another, and assaulting a third. The cold-bloodedness of that crime should have been a turning point. Instead, the violence continued. In January 2025, Liu Haifeng of Ming Chang Sino-Africa Mining threatened to shoot an excavator operator, Kholwani Dube, during a wage dispute. What kind of “investor” points a gun at workers demanding fair pay?
The blood trail stretches further back. In 2020, Zimbabweans were shocked by the killing of worker Kenneth Tachiona, shot five times by his Chinese employer, Zhang Xuen, in Gweru. Another man was seriously injured. The dispute? Zhang’s refusal to pay salaries in U.S. dollars, despite prior agreement. Instead of dialogue, he chose bullets. A life was lost, another scarred forever, and yet business carried on as though nothing had happened.
These are not isolated misfortunes but part of a broader pattern of abuse, arrogance, and impunity. Workers have been underpaid, forced into dangerous conditions, and stripped of dignity. Communities have been displaced without fair compensation to make way for mining projects. Rivers have been poisoned, mountains blasted apart, and forests decimated. This is not development. It is plunder — a modern-day colonization carried out under the guise of “investment.”
Zimbabwe Must Confront Abuse by Chinese Investors
And yet, what is perhaps most painful is the silence of our own leaders. Can anyone imagine Chinese citizens being treated this way by foreign employers in Beijing? Never. Their government would respond with outrage and swift punishment. Here in Zimbabwe, however, our leaders seem more preoccupied with preserving their “all-weather friendship” than with defending their own people. Is the price of so-called investment our dignity, our resources, and even our lives?
Let us be clear: this is not about being anti-Chinese. It is about respect and justice. Zimbabweans are not beasts of burden to be exploited and discarded. We are a proud people with a history of resisting colonial domination. Yet today, we risk slipping into a new colonization — one masked in the language of “partnership” but built on exploitation, violence, and contempt for African lives.
There is a Shona expression: vave kurasa miswe — they have overstepped the line. That is exactly what has happened. Chinese companies now behave as if Zimbabwe were their colony, its people their subjects. They know they can beat us, shoot us, poison our rivers, and destroy our lands without consequence, because our leaders will not challenge them. Victims are left in silence, while perpetrators grow rich off our suffering.
This must end. True investment uplifts communities, creates decent jobs, safeguards the environment, and respects human dignity. What we see instead is exploitation, environmental destruction, and disregard for human life.
Zimbabweans must rise with one voice and demand accountability. Foreign investors must abide by our laws and respect our people. Leaders must be held to account when they sacrifice the nation’s dignity for personal enrichment. Our land and resources belong to Zimbabweans, not to outsiders who treat us as disposable labor.
The world must hear this clearly: Zimbabwe is not a Chinese colony. Our dignity is not for sale. Those who abuse our people must face justice, and those in power must be forced to act. If we remain silent, we will betray everything our forefathers fought for.
The time has come to say enough is enough.
Source- Bulawayo24
