By Farai D Hove | ZimEye | Harare – April 16, 2025 — In a move that is already raising eyebrows across Zimbabwe, the government has announced a new industrial agreement with Belarus to establish a bus and tractor assembly plant in the country by December — a fresh development that flies in the face of a long-running controversy over a secretive 2019 deal in which vast ancestral land was handed to Belarus in exchange for just 300 buses.
The announcement was made on Monday by Mr Pearson Chigiji, Chief Director for Political Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, during the opening of the Mid-Term Review of the Joint Permanent Commission of Cooperation (JPCC) between Zimbabwe and Belarus in Harare.
“The Government of Zimbabwe is deeply appreciative of the decision by the Government of Belarus to make Zimbabwe its industrial manufacturing hub for the region,” said Chigiji, citing plans for bus and tractor assembly and mineral beneficiation, including lithium, to begin this December.
The meeting is co-chaired by Foreign Affairs Minister Professor Amon Murwira and his Belarusian counterpart Maxim Ryzhenkov. It marks the latest chapter in an increasingly opaque and controversial relationship between the two authoritarian allies, built on what critics say are murky deals, elite capture, and land dispossession.
Land-for-Buses Scandal Resurfaces
This latest announcement is being viewed by analysts and civil society as an attempt to launder the image of the original 2019 deal, which saw President Emmerson Mnangagwa hand over a 10,000-hectare swathe of land — reportedly three times the size of Masvingo and as vast as Mutare — to the Belarusian government in exchange for 300 ZUPCO buses.
Though government officials including Information Secretary Nick Mangwana insisted the land was merely “state land” and therefore not “sold,” state media reports at the time and Mnangagwa’s own public statements contradicted this. ZANU-PF’s own foundational policy from 1975 categorically defined such land as ancestral and thus not for sale or barter to foreign powers.
The land-for-buses saga deepened in 2020 when a Belarusian official, Vadim Zhuk, revealed that the deal was not just for 300 buses as Zimbabwe claimed, but for 1,000 buses — raising immediate questions over what happened to the missing 700. No clear accounting has ever been provided.
Critics Slam “Business” Ties
Critics argue that President Mnangagwa’s track record in managing national enterprises has been catastrophic, stretching back to his time under Robert Mugabe when state-run entities under his oversight suffered total collapse.
“Any enterprise he touches dies,” a veteran political analyst told this publication. “This government is incapable of turning partnerships into tangible, sustainable benefits for citizens — it’s always about enrichment at the top and poverty at the bottom.”
In 2024, Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev reportedly mocked Mnangagwa’s business ethics as “unjustified,” reinforcing perceptions abroad of his government’s economic incompetence and chronic lack of transparency.
Belarus Denies Ready-Made Bus Supply
Amid the public backlash, state broadcaster ZBC has attempted to clean up the controversy by airing statements from Mr Zhuk, who claims that the new phase of cooperation is not about ready-made buses, but local production in Zimbabwe, including skills transfer and technology sharing.
According to Zhuk, the project will be based at AVM Africa, a Harare-based firm that will handle production, with the aim of creating jobs and boosting exports to regional markets. He emphasized that local components will be integrated and that Belarus will not charge Zimbabwe for transferred technology.
Yet this narrative does little to calm criticism over how Zimbabwe initially gave up significant land holdings — ancestral territory — without a transparent, competitive process or parliamentary scrutiny.
Strategic Opportunism or Neocolonialism?
The timing of this new “industrial hub” initiative, coming as Zimbabwe prepares to mark its 45th Independence anniversary and Belarus its 80th anniversary of victory over fascism, has been described by some as ironic.
“How do you celebrate independence by ceding land and industrial sovereignty to another state?” asked a civil society leader. “This is not partnership — it’s modern neocolonialism dressed in diplomatic niceties.”
While government officials tout this as a win-win, with promises of bus exports and employment, the fundamental questions remain unanswered: Who signed off on the 10,000-hectare transfer? Where are the missing 700 buses? And how many jobs — if any — have actually been created?
Until those answers are provided, this latest deal may be seen less as economic progress and more as another entry in the long catalogue of Zimbabwe’s misgovernance under Mnangagwa.
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