Zimbabwe’s Total Collapse

By Savo Heleta
First published in the Newropeans Magazine
November 27, 2008

A few decades ago, Zimbabwe was the second most industrialized nation and the most robust agricultural producer on the African continent. Today, the country is facing a total collapse.

In 1998, Zimbabwe had the second highest GDP in sub-Saharan Africa. In July 2008, the annual inflation rate in the country was over 231,000,000%. Yes, you got it right - 231 million percent and rising!

Since 2000, the overall food production in Zimbabwe has declined by over 70%. The country under Mugabe has experienced "the most dramatic peacetime collapse of any country since Weimar Germany."

Over 80% of Zimbabweans are unemployed. It is estimated that over 3 million citizens have left the country in the recent years. For those who remained, life expectancy is around 34 years for women and 37 years for men. The World Food Program says that about 5 million of Zimbabweans - half of the country's population - will face starvation in 2009.

A cholera epidemic that is currently spreading across Zimbabwe has killed about 300 people so far while thousands are infected. The country's health system has all but collapsed and cannot cope with this and other outbreaks.

After meeting the Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa this week, former US president, Jimmy Carter, has said that "the crisis in Zimbabwe is much greater, much worse than anything we had ever imagined."

The International Crisis Group maintains that the policies, repressive governance, and corruption of president Robert Mugabe and his ruling party, ZANU-PF, are "directly responsible for the severe economic slide, growing public discontent, and international isolation of the country." According to the Economist, the "seizure of commercial farms and collapse of the rule of law have led to a dramatic slump in agricultural output, a sharp contraction in industry, and a flight of investors."

Despite all this, the majority of African leaders are still reluctant to openly criticize Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's ruler since 1980, who is widely respected on the continent as a hero of the fight against colonialism. German Spiegel writes that "hardly any African politician ever so much as voices a word of criticism about Mugabe" and his current disastrous policies.

Zimbabwe held presidential and parliamentary elections in March 2008 that were neither free nor fair. Hundreds of opposition activists were beaten and killed by the ruling party's mobs and the police. The country's electoral commission refused to publish the results of the presidential elections weeks after people voted.

When the electoral commission finally announced the results, it said that the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has received more votes than Robert Mugabe, but that neither candidate has reached the 50% needed for victory. A run-off, held in June, was boycotted by the opposition. As the only candidate for president, Mugabe won.

Despite the violence and terror and the obvious rigging of the elections, there was again hardly any public condemnation of Mugabe and his totalitarian regime from the leaders of other African countries.

In September, Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai signed a power sharing agreement. Mugabe remained the country's president while Tsvangirai got the post of the prime minister. However, due to the disputes over key ministry posts, "the deal is all but dead."

The negotiations between the Zimbabwe's government and opposition resumed this week in South Africa. However, hardly anyone expect any progress.

There will be no hope for Zimbabwe as long as Robert Mugabe and his cronies are in power. As the South African apartheid government could not be reformed but had to be completely removed from power, the same is the case in Zimbabwe. Mugabe's oppressive rule cannot be reformed. It has to be completely removed for the sake of the people in Zimbabwe and their future. If not, the country's total collapse is near.