• The African Union (AU) headquarters in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia was a gift to Africa from China. 

    A few years after the donation, it was discovered that the entire building had been bugged. The servers in the AU building were transmitting sensitive information to a host server in Beijing.

    Well, it appears African governments never learn their lessons. Yesterday, the Zimbabwean president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, officiated the construction of what is to be the country's new parliament building; and yes, you guessed right - the building is to be funded and constructed by the Chinese!

    According to Zimbabwean authorities, the old parliament building located in the city center has become too small to accommodate the lawmakers. They claim the current building was constructed to accommodate only 100 lawmakers, but is currently been used by 350 parliamentarians.

    If this is the case, why can't the country expand the structure or construct a new one, or perhaps reduce the number of law-makers? Must China do this for Zimbabwe, and to why should they do it?

    The new China-funded building will accommodate 650 parliamentarians.

    During the ground-breaking ceremony of the construction, a visibly excited Mnangagwa said, “Other facilities like banks, hotels will be built around this place,” adding that a “modern, smart city” was being planned.

    The building will be constructed in a space of over 32 months by the Shanghai Construction group at Mount Hampden, 18 kilometres (11 miles) north-west of Harare, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation reported.

    China have also pledged to construct parliament buildings in the Republic of Congo and Gabon.

    What are your thoughts?

    Header Image Credit: Al Jazeera