Most of the buildings which make up the well-equipped orphanage were financed by a South African businessman known as Jack Ping, before he and Zimbabwe’s first lady fell out over a mining deal.
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Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is travelling to South Africa this week, where he will also meet Xi, his office said in a statement.
Some observers see competition among China and other world powers, such as the USA, for African resources and African support.
Chinese President Xi Jinping begins a five-day African visit on Tuesday that he’ll use to showcase China’s expanding role as a protector of regional security, as well as a provider of infrastructure and consumer of resources.
Some immigration signs at Zimbabwe’s main global airport are in Chinese, a sign of China’s deep economic inroads in Africa, which Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit this week.
Christopher Mutsvangwa, Zimbabwe’s former Ambassador to China, says despite a slowdown this year in Chinese investment in Africa, Zimbabwe has continued to enjoy increasing Chinese investment since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980. Data released at the Zimbabwe-China Business Forum held on Monday shows Zimbabwe is now Chinese investors’ 6th most preferred destination in Africa.
Zhang Chun, an expert on Africa at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, said China had invited South Africa to join the BRICS bloc, which also includes Brazil, Russia and India.
Li Haiyang, head of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Zimbabwe, says an influx of new Chinese help in Zimbabwe would be greatly appreciated. Experts confidently expect China to push ahead with new loan and trade proposals for the continent despite its own slowing economy.
In practice, China has been providing great assistance for the African countries over the past 60 years, especially the sub-Saharan African countries, which are facing most difficulties in health, poverty-relief and social stability.
Mugabe and Xi will hold talks later in the day and sign investment deals as Zimbabwe seeks to enhance infrastructure development to offset a crippling capital gap. Zimbabwe, which became a pariah in the West after President Robert Mugabe’s government was accused of rigging votes and human rights abuses, has increasingly turned to China for investment to help an economy desperate for new infrastructure like roads, power and water. “As a trade union or as workers, we have not seen much from our Chinese colleagues”, he said.
South African Investec, a Johannesburg-based investment bank and asset management firm, agreed to work with China Export-Import Bank to enhance export finance, project finance, and the internationalisation of China’s renminbi currency and its use as a settlement currency in trade.
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Africa is one of the few continents that are now experiencing continuous economic growth as measured through average Gross Domestic Product of about five percent, the minister said.
