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Zimbabwe: Zanu PF Lashes Out at British Billionaire Over Investment

WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.

Original Post Date: 2010-09-22 Time: 11:00:03  Posted By: News Poster

By Alex Bell

ZANU PF has lashed out at attempts by a British billionaire to encourage foreign investment in Zimbabwe, saying they will not tolerate “backdoor entry by ‘vultures’ disguised as angels.”

Billionaire Richard Branson, who heads the Virgin business group, has urged international investment in Zimbabwe, saying on Monday that the world was wrong to wait, instead of helping the country revive itself.

Virgin Unite, the philanthropic arm of Branson’s Virgin Group, has helped create Enterprise Zimbabwe, a non-profit group aimed at connecting philanthropists and commercial investors with different opportunities in Zimbabwe. Branson said that the idea is to provide a ‘safe haven’ for people to invest through.

“In life, people have got to take risks. If everybody waits on the sidelines it will be the people who suffer,” said Branson. “The present state of politics in Zimbabwe is by no means perfect, but it’s a great deal better.”

“Zimbabwe, of all the African countries, it’s got the best chance of getting back … it just needs a bit of help being kick-started,” he said.

ZANU PF however sees Branson’s intentions as a late attempt to take advantage of Zimbabwe’s resources.

Tendai Midzi, the son of a ZANU PF chairman, wrote on Tuesday that Branson is attempting to counter “the power of China. Zimbabwe does not need investments disguised as ‘philanthropic work’ now,” Midzi wrote “The international community has now realised that this jewel we call Zimbabwe, having discovered the largest deposit of diamonds, in now able to lift itself out of the poverty that the West helped create in the first place.”

Details about how Branson’s investment ‘safe-haven’ will be created have not been clarified and there are doubts that it can be achieved. Robert Mugabe has insisted that the controversial business indigenisation programme will go ahead, which will see foreign companies in the country forced to hand over 51% of their shares to pre-selected Zimbabweans.

At the same time, the illegal seizures of commercial land have continued, despite most properties being protected by court orders. Many farms are also meant to be protected by Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreements (BIPPA’s) signed between Zimbabwe and other countries. But these are also being completely ignored, allowing Mugabe’s loyalists to seize as much land as possible.

Original date published: 21 September 2010

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201009220064.html?viewall=1