Zimbabwe’s first modern businessman was Cecil John Rhodes, the tycoon and imperialist whose remains are buried in the Matobo Hills near Bulawayo. The patronage politics of the past few decades of Zanu-PF rule and the mineral riches and other economic goodies on offer in Zimbabwe, have swollen a private sector that resembles the adventurers, buccaneers and rogues of Rhodes’s era.
Cecil Rhodes always stood at the nexus of political and economic power. Not only did he create two of South Africa’s most successful mining companies – De Beers and Gold Fields – but he was prime minister of the Cape Colony and a representative of British imperial interests during the scramble for Africa.
As Zimbabwe’s economy has spiralled down, with one million economic refugees in South Africa alone and ordinary people facing shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter, there is a class of people who have done extremely well out of the system.
(Alyaksandr) Alexander Zingman
Alexander Zingman is a Belarusian businessman who in 2019 was appointed honorary consul for Zimbabwe by Mnangagwa. A year before, in March 2018, Zim Goldfields, a company jointly owned by Zingman.
