Public discourse about China’s rising influence is dominated by the role of Chinese companies in Botswana’s economy ÔÇô especially in the construction industry
“Do you believe it?” Miles Nan peers disdainfully at me from across the table. “Do you really believe that?”
It’s a question that Nan ÔÇô the Executive President of the Botswana-China Friendship Association, and Executive Vice Chairman of the Botswana Chinese General Chamber of Commerce ÔÇô will ask again before the conversation is out. On each occasion, I explain that I’m merely putting across issues that dominate public discourse on the role of Chinese companies in Botswana’s economy.
What first prompts Nan to put me on the spot is a question on the allegation that Chinese contractors use prison labour.
“It’s obviously not true,” he accepts my invitation to put the issue to rest. “People who come to Botswana are technical people. I have interviewed Batswana at different sites and they say they are learning a lot from the Chinese.”
There’s good reason to discuss China. The country has emerged in the last two decades as a world leading geo-economic and political heavyweight. Last week, China officially became the world’s second largest economy ÔÇô overtaking Japan.
As China scours Africa for raw materials and markets, and its money, influence and products keep a steady flow, increasingly there is talk of a Chinese agenda on the continent. Some noted commentators like the Ghanaian academic Lloyd Amoah suggest that China seems to have developed a carefully thought-out agenda regarding what it wants from its soaring relationship with Africa. For instance, this is the picture on the region. In Zambia, China has invested nearly US$170 million (about P1.1 billion) in the mining sector, primarily copper.┬áChina has been active in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with investments in cobalt and copper mines. In Zimbabwe, China is investing in minerals, roads and farming. In South Africa, there is clamour for protection from China’s textile products.
I ask Nan if he has come across sentiment that there could be an agenda by Chinese companies to take over the Botswana economy.
“Do you really believe that?” he asks. “I think that is said by people who want to destabilize society or are paranoid. Maybe they just want to create news headlines. They probably have stereotypes or paranoia about the people and companies from China. The Chinese community here works very hard. We help government to save a lot of money.”
Yes, he has heard the indictment that Chinese contractors deliver projects late, and often do a shoddy job.
“I am not in construction, but some of what I see written in the front pages of newspapers about Chinese contractors surprise me,” Nan says. “If there is a delay you must find out the reason for the delay. Some (Chinese) companies finish and deliver projects well before the deadline, but it’s not covered. Why is it not covered? There are companies from other countries, including South Africa, which deliver projects late. Some roads in Mogoditshane and Gaborone are behind schedule, and they are not done by Chinese companies, but nobody asks anything. Why is it that questions are only asked when it’s the Chinese companies that are involved? In any case, it’s not all Chinese companies that deliver projects late. It’s some companies. You should say ‘some Chinese companies’. What I know is that some government ministers and officials say Chinese companies are good and they have saved government money. Chinese companies price maybe half of what the South African companies charge. You can see how much money is being saved, but nobody writes about this.”
How about the persistent talk, especially from political leaders and local construction companies, that the Chinese have pushed Batswana out of the construction industry?
“I listened to the radio yesterday,” Nan relates. “Some people called and said, ‘We are Batswana, yet we don’t have jobs and business in our own country’. Now if something like that happens, ask yourself why you have no job or business. The Chinese people work hard. I am not saying Batswana do not work hard, but they need to work harder. Some contractors say, ‘why does government give jobs to Chinese companies?’. The local companies must improve. Government gives these jobs to Chinese companies because the money and quality are good. I know that some locals, after being given a project, take one payment and buy a Range Rover, and then forget about the project. Don’t complain that government gives jobs to Chinese companies. We must improve our habits. If your price and quality are not good, government can’t give you jobs. What differentiates Botswana from some countries is that is upholds the market economy. Every company has the right to participate in a bid, and Chinese companies get jobs through competitive bids.”
Don’t Chinese companies secure these tenders by undercutting the market?
“No,” he replies. “You know the Chinese nation is reputed as an industrious nation. It works very hard. We save money because we work very hard. You can see that in the construction industry.
Before the Chinese companies came to Botswana, the South Africans had a good life. At Christmas they could go on holiday for a month or two. And they made good profits. They drove big cars. Chinese people work hard, and they have no holiday. In China we know that if you don’t work hard somebody takes your job.”
Nan is aware of the charge that Chinese traders flood the market with fong kong merchandise ÔÇô a deprecating term for cheap quality goods. He travels extensively to some of Botswana’s remote villages, and the stories he comes across are astonishing. In one village, he encountered a woman who earns a monthly salary of P800. Three years back, with a salary of about P600, she could only manage two clothing items from the cheapest knock-down store.
“Since Chinese shops came to her village, with that P800 she can buy for the whole family and still manage to save some money to buy food. Now everybody in the family has new clothes. Previously, her children never had shoes. When I ask people in the villages what they think of Chinese shops, 100 percent say ‘ke itumetse’. The stories about fong kong are not by villagers, but rich people or owners of shops who find that they can’t compete with Chinese shops. Those are the people who don’t need cheap clothing. They should keep quiet,” he says.
Nan ÔÇô who has been in Botswana for 11 years, or “since the last century”, as he jokingly puts it ÔÇô has immersed himself in a charity work to reach out to the local community. That kind of engagement has brought him into contact with organisations such as Adopt A Person, Khama Rhino Sanctuary, SOS Children’s Villages (in Francistown, Serowe, and Tlokweng), Mokolodi Game Reserve, Rotary Club, and the Work Camps Association, where he proudly announces that he is the first expatriate president.
“The Chinese community does a lot of charity work throughout Botswana,” he points out. “At the Tlokweng SOS, there is a family called the Chinese community family, but there is not a single Chinese in it. We have been caring for the children for more than 10 years. At the moment, our big project is the President’s Housing Appeal, where we have already donated close to 300 houses. We had a meeting yesterday with the Chinese community and we want to increase this number.”
For a community that has often been branded too closed and removed from the rest of the society, Nan has initiated a Setswana language course for interested Chinese nationals every Saturday at his company’s premises. He states that the first class was well received. It is his contribution towards fostering better understanding between the Chinese in Botswana and their hosts. Ultimately, he hopes his compatriots will acquire a better understanding of the country he calls his second home.
“I feel like a Motswana,” he says. “I like this country. My business here, my are children here, and my wife is here. This is my second home.”
