As Africa’s preferred benefactor gains a purposeful grip on the continent’s sovereign assets, questions have been raised about the growing incidence of what some are calling “collateral colonisation”. In other words, if a country defaults on loan repayments, China will have contractual recourse to its sovereign assets. Kenya, for example, could lose control of the port of Mombasa to the Chinese government if Kenya Railways Corporation defaults in the payment of 227bn shillings (R30.80bn) owed to Exim Bank of China. This after the government borrowed billions to construct the MombasaNairobi standard gauge railway, against opposition that the project by China Roads and Bridges Corporation, a state-owned company, could become a white elephant. China’s deliberate strategy is paying off, in the view of Ronak Gopaldas, a consultant for the Institute of Security Studies (ISS) and director of mitigation company, Signal Risk. “Until now, these actions have largely gone under the radar. But China’s slow and patient approach to establishing dominance in Africa is raising eyebrows.” China’s practice of helping itself to key assets of defaulting beneficiaries – what Gopaldas describes as “salami slicing” – is not unique to Africa and is what infamously happened to the Port of Hambantota in Sri Lanka which was ‘seized’ after that country defaulted on Chinese loan agreements. While this “debt-trap diplomacy” has raised questions over whether developing countries are naively mortgaging their resources and strategic assets to China, Gopaldas believes that Africa should take responsibility for the loan agreements it enters into and should stop playing the “blame game”. “Much of the discourse has been simplistic – painting China as evil and Africa as naïve bystanders.” Kenyan commentator Azentse Were concurred, saying that the debt-trap narrative infantilised Africa. “It’s creating a scenario where African governments can pretend they didn’t know whereas African governments know exactly what they’re signing up for.” Accusations and concomitant fear-mongering followed news of last year’s R370bn Chinese bailout of Eskom, an announcement that came in the same week it emerged that Zambia was considering two parastatals as collateral for loans from the government of Xi Jinping. Durban logistics consultant Nick Porée said that apart from South Africa and Kenya, there were many such cases across Africa – in Lesotho, Tanzania, Angola and Zimbabwe. Tanzania and Zambia for example, are still stuck with the lingering hangover of a railway network, Tazara, that was built by China with little forethought as to future sustainability and that has, unsurprisingly, fallen into disrepair and dysfunction. Simply stated, China’s industrial involvement in Africa is not an act of largesse. Quoting Roman poet Virgil from antiquity, Porée told FTW: “I fear the Greeks, even when they bring gifts.”
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