A Zimbabwean PhD candidate at the University of Pretoria has started carrying out research to investigate the impact of Chinese investment in the southern African country.
Maureen Kademaunga says she chose this research topic following concerns by members of the public, business executives and some state officials about unclear Chinese investments in the country.
“I am looking at intergroup contact between migratory Chinese retailers and local people and how that has transformed the retail industry in Zimbabwe. I want to find out whether all this is a problems to be solved or an opportunity to be harnessed.”” she said.
Kademaunga noted that the current debate on Chinese investment in Zimbabwe has not captured some of the issues she will interrogate in her research.
She said her research is likely to shape Zimbabwe-Chinese relations in the near future.
“I would like to expose the weaknesses of the business deals that our government has been signing perhaps it’s not a win-win situation.”
Zimbabwe’s links with the Chinese date back to the liberation struggle of the 1970s.
