By Costa Nkomo
A local traditional leader was on Monday bashed by a Chinese national after reportedly approaching management at a tile manufacturing factory in Norton seeking jobs for his subjects.
Chief Chivero, full name Brown Shopo, was left with a sprained arm after being beaten up by the Chinese national.
An angry Chief Chivero told NewZimbabwe.com that he had welcomed the Chinese into his area but they had turned to abusing ordinary citizens.
“When they opened the gates, I got in with permission from security. He (the Chinese national) came from nowhere and kicked me. My hand is in pain. The person who attacked me is a Chinese national and I am on my way to report the matter to the police,” the traditional leader said.
Outspoken Independent Norton legislator Temba Mliswa immediately came out guns blazing, demanding that the Chinese national be deported.
Mliswa revealed the factory run by a company called Sun Yengifeng is due to be officially opened by President Emmerson Mnangagwa anytime from now.
The Norton MP was speaking on NewZimbabwe.com’s current affairs programme, The Agenda on Monday, warning there could be protests against the Chinese.
“This speaks to the issue of us being treated as second class citizens in our own country. The government must deal with it immediately.
“The department of immigration must deal with it immediately. He must be deported. For as long as they make people who are foreigners more superior than us, there shall be protests, there shall be demonstrations and there shall be a message which should be sent to them foreigners),” said Mliswa.
“This is something I am looking forward to law enforcement agents taking their role seriously and detaining this guy. They must deport him back to China. If he is not deported back to China, there shall be hell.”
Mliswa claimed the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases had gone up in Norton since the factory was established.
“They have been abusing women sexually there. The STI rate has gone up in Norton because of that.”
The lawmaker accused the Chinese company of circumventing Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedures leading to pollution.
“The EIA, they have not followed it up. There is already pollution in the Galloway suburb of Norton which is supposed to be a prime residential area. Already there is smoke everywhere and they continue to operate. They have not adhered to rules,” said Mliswa.
“I went to court, to get a court order stopping them from opening until they complied. But they have not done so.”
The former Zanu PF Mashonaland West provincial chairman accused senior government officials of mollycoddling the Chinese “in a desperate bid to provide jobs.”
Reports of the ill-treatment and exploitation of Zimbabwean workers in various Chinese owned have been flooding the courts of late.
