Chinese products                                                                                                                                 

Zimbabwe

                                  Chinese vessel carrying weapons destined for Zimbabwe

April 16th, 2008  sokwanele

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We wrote about a few Chinese goings on earlier. The story about the arms destined for Zimbabwe seems to now be confirmed:

Leonard Hadebe, head of Durban Customs told Sapa: “We have confirmed that the shipment was headed for Zimbabwe. It arrived at the Durban Harbour on April 14.

“Right now the ship is awaiting clearance. If they are carrying any prohibited or illegal goods, they will be detained by customs,” said Hadebe.

 And:

 Inspector Nicholas Gunther of the SA Explosives Unit in Durban told Sapa the vessel - called ‘An Yue Jiang’ - was carrying a shipment of arms.

 “We went there just now and they are not being allowed in,” he said. “There was a problem with the documents they submitted and we have directed the matter to the Chief Inspector of Explosives in Pretoria, Senior Superintendent van Sittert and it may take days for them to get clearance,” said Gunther.

 Are the weapons about to be offloaded and sent on their way to Zimbabwe?

 

 

                                                                 Hey, heads up

April 16th, 2008      sokwanele

Hey, heads up. 

Transnet and National ports authority of South Africa have just released the ship to begin off loading the Arms and Ammo.

Looks like you have the shit heading your way.

Keep safe, grab your bullet proof and camera. Get out into the field.

This is like watching a murderer plan and assemble his tools in slow motion. As if torture and violence are being played out on movie screens everywhere.

We all know what’s going to happen. We are not a nation at war: the only people on the receiving end of those bullets are innocent civilians.

 I feel like the people in our country are on the brink of untold violence, with China and South Africa enabling it, and the world watching. It’s horrific!

The SA Police Services (SAPS) and the SA Revenue Services (SARS) were on Thursday sending their top public relations officers to Durban to deal with media enquiries surrounding a Chinese ship carrying weapons destined for Zimbabwe.

 The controversial cargo packed into 3 080 cases includes three million rounds of 7.62mm bullets (used in the AK47 assault rifle), 69 Rocket Propelled Grenades as well as mortar bombs and tubes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Woza. Women of Zimbabwe arise

 

 

Saturday, 01 July 2006

CATHY's weekly letter from Zimbabwe

We have a rash of cheap Chinese products

Dear Family and Friends,

There has been much talk in the state owned media this week about the fact that
Zimbabwe is a sovereign state and will not be dictated to or colonized by
anyone, from anywhere, ever again. 99% of news readers on ZBC radio and TV are
unable to pronounce the words sovereign and sovereignty and no one corrects them
and so now a whole generation of young Zimbabweans are talking about protecting
our sov-er-wren-ity. Adhering to the meaning of the term, however, seems as
elusive as the pronunciation because every day now we hear about the
involvement of other countries in the basic nitty gritty's of our day to day
affairs. We have a rash of cheap Chinese products ranging from clothes to
luggage and tools all over the country already and have Chinese aeroplanes and
minibuses moving us around. Last week there was talk of Chinese interest in our
thermal power stations and this week we hear of pending "joint ventures" with
the Chinese in regard to Tel One (our telephones) NRZ ( our railways) and Hwange
(our coal mines). It's not clear yet what benefits the Chinese will gain from
all these joint ventures but so far we hear of pay back involving cobalt and
other minerals still buried in our sovereign soil.

Trying to come to grips with it all - the podium banging, the selling of our
essence and the mortgaging of our soul -is overwhelming and exhausting - as is
our daily life. It is a daily life in Zimbabwe that is so ridiculous that a
nervous breakdown seems precariously close almost all the time. It is a daily
life dominated by rubber bands - to hold stacks of money together in one, two,
five or ten million dollar bundles. A daily life swamped with electricity power
cuts - two, four or five hours at a time - sometimes twice a day. A daily life
suffocated by a rash of new rules and regulations, bills and prices.

This week we received our second telephone account for this month. The second
bill arrived just ten days after the first one and printed on the top,
surrounded by a line of stars, was the legend: "Tarrifs have been increased per
unit to $18 895.50 W.E.F. {with effect from} 14/06/06. You will receive 2 bills
for June 06." There are no apologies offered - this a government owned company
and there are no other fixed line telephone companies in the country so it is
simply a case of pay up or get cut off. For the second time in a month the queue
snaked out of the door as all the receipts were being written out painfully and
laboriously by hand as there was yet another power cut.

Emerging from the freezing cold queue after paying my second phone bill, the
sight of what should have been a bustling town on a busy Friday morning at month
end was surreal. Almost the entire town had stopped. Sitting on roadsides and
pavements, lying on grassy patches, leaning against walls - the whole town was
just waiting ever so patiently for the power to come back on. The electricity
had been off since 6.30am and finally at 11 am it came back on. Everywhere
people started running - to get back into queues for photocopiers, for passport
processing, for cash machines, for computers. Life had suddenly been kick
started again....and so we stagger on....again. Until next week, thanks for
reading, love cathy.

 cathy buckle 1st July 2006