Living in a hyperinflation hellhole
A common joke (be warned it is sexist) doing the rounds among Zimbabwe’s rapidly disappearing middle class tells of how the country is going to have an excellent female sprint team for the next Olympics because house wives when doing the grocery shopping have to run flat out, up and down the isles in order to ensure that they get to the till before the prices go up. But with inflation of over 1,000% and rising fast, Zimbabwe’s economic collapse is no laughing matter.
Over the last decade, Zimbabwe has provided other developing nations with an ‘Idiot’s Guide’ of what not to do if you want to encourage economic growth and development. At independence (1980), Zimbabwe had a reasonable base on which to build a free and prosperous society. It had a good transport and telecommunications infrastructure; working democratic institutions (a judiciary, parliament etc) and advanced education and healthcare systems. It was certainly one of the most developed independent African states.
It is important to point out that this legacy does not in any way detract from the injustice of almost a century of white minority rule. Zimbabwe’s inherited infrastructure was certainly not broad based: it was designed to serve the white colonialists and a few fortunate black Africans. On visiting Milton (one of the former Rhodesia’s most prestigious schools), I could not help but notice that not a single black person featured in any of the first team photos (on display in the mess hall) stretching from the 1920’s all the way to the late 1970’s. Thus, not unlike South Africa, Zimbabwe faced the difficult challenge of instituting policies that would promote a more equitable distribution of opportunities.
With hindsight it’s obvious that the policy they adopted, purging Whites and replacing them with Blacks, has failed abysmally. Creating an equitable society is not just as simple as arbitrarily redistributing slices of a pie. For when skilled and experienced people are lost to an economy the whole pie shrinks considerably.
Nowhere is this more prevalent than in Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector. Driving from Beit Bridge (the border crossing between Zimbabwe and South Africa) towards Bulawayo, one sees over grazed bush where farms were once prevalent. Picture a scene out of Alan Paton’s Cry the Beloved Country. And the dire result is that a country that was once the bread basket of Southern Africa is today experiencing widespread food shortages. It is estimated that the more than 80% of the country live below the poverty line. As a non-white family friend put it to me, ‘we may have got the land but it is useless without the ability to farm it.’
Moreover, the process of wealth redistribution has been so fraught with corruption that it has rendered what in theory was a just project, iniquitous. In practice ‘white’ assets were not divided up equally among the former disadvantaged black masses. Much of the wealth was merely transferred into the pockets of Mugabe and his cronies. Stories of this wholesale theft of the countries resources is common dinner table chatter. For example one account tells of how for every litre of petrol Zimbabwe has imported since 1980, President Mugabe has levied a 1 US cent personal tax to be paid directly into his Swiss bank account. Another tells of how, although government ministers are only allowed 1 farm each by law, the Mugabe family has over 15 appropriated through secret trusts. My personal favourite is how the head of the army was forced to set up a car theft ring in order to acquire the necessary transportation for his looted minerals (stolen 4 by 4s have been discovered by Tracker at army bases around the country).
The expulsion of skills, corruption and a break down in the rule of law are at the core of Zimbabwe’s economic chaos. Below are some of the physical manifestations of such policies. Let’s hope they serve as a warning sign and not a crystal ball for South Africa.
Petrol queues |
Bulawayo's main shopping centre on a busy Saturday morning |
The end of the road! No more petrol! |
Even some of the banks are broke! |
Previously at IAS
Inside Mugabe's Zimbabwe
Nice one, but did you have to use the term "bread basket"?! If I ever hear it again I may just get sick.. ;)
Posted by: capdog | March 21, 2007 at 10:36
Mike,
What was the difference between the White rule in Zimbabwe and the White rule in SA?
Also, how did freedom in Zimbabwe initially transpire?
Posted by: Steve | March 21, 2007 at 11:29
Although there was as unequal treatment of whites and black in the former Rhodeisa, there was no formal policy of segregation (or Apartheid) as in South Africa. The best analogy I suppose was to compare it to pre 1948 South Africa.
Land allocation although grossly unfair was far better than South Africa. The Land Apportionment and Tenure Acts for example reserved 25% of the land area as ‘Tribal Trust Land” which was available to be worked on a collective basis by black tribes.
Black people were not specifically prohibited from voting either. The system was based on a limited franchise with property and education criteria. But in all the year until 1979 Blacks never constituted more than 5% of voters.
Posted by: mike | March 21, 2007 at 18:11
There is Zimbabwe exiles blog calling for the British to invade it and restore democracy. http://radicalzim.blogspot.com/2007/03/britain-should-invade-zimbabwe_12.html
A somewhat radical view point but a sign of how desperate things have got in Zimbabwe.
I am of the "All Africa's a Basket case" school of thought (Sorry capdog) and having visited South Africa last year, I am not convinced they are out of the woods yet.
Populist leaders such as Zuma are perceived as corrupt and likely to promise "Land for votes" in the next elections. The killings fields of the South African farms, and first court seizure are signs that lessons have not been learnt yet.
As for Zim, well It will be a very long time, if ever, before Zimbabwe fully recovers from the damage. All the farm infrastructure has been destroyed, the farmers dispersed, and capital goods (tractors etc) gone, and livestock diseased or eaten. Even just repairing the broken fences will cost millions.
Where is the money going to come from, Switzerland? I don't think so.
The country has effectively been destroyed, and will never regain the chances lost, because even if Mugabe’s regime collapses, all the "squatters", "veterans", and "activists" etc will still be there, and no one will be able to control them. It would need a military government just to protect people, let alone enforce the courts orders.
I guess I am being ultra pessimistic, but I suspect that when Mugabe’s party lose power, they will revert back to guerrilla violence to get it back
Posted by: NoPCThoughts | March 21, 2007 at 18:46
Perhaps something along the lines of what happened in Muritania may be required.
Sandmonkey writes
"I mean, a country that was ruled by a despot for 21 years gets a military coup, that gets done by a group of military officers who chose not to rule the people but hold fair and democratic elections, where not a single one of them or anyone backed by them gets to run, and where they will resign from power and the military after the new government is in place, and this is the middle-east? And they did this totally by themselves, without foreign intervention or pressure? How could you not love that?"
See full link here
Posted by: Steve | March 21, 2007 at 21:04
NoPCThoughts, I am not sure I agree with you entirely. Don’t think it is legitimate for Britain to invade Zimbabwe. If there was an international intervention it would need to be far more broad based. It would at a minimum require AU or SADC support.
I think Zimbabwe’s problems can actually be solved with out a military invasion. I will deal with this in a future post.
Lastly, I would not assume that the MDC will be the next government in Zimbabwe. Many Zimbabweans expect reforms to come from within the ZANU PF. I also don’t know what the true democratic credentials of the MDC are?
I don’t know if you have seen the movie ‘The Last King of Scotland’? I particulayl liked the last scene. Where the people embrace and cheers for the new strong man just as the did for Idi Amin and the strong men before him. The international community too tends to make that same mistake. Change is not of itself good.
Posted by: Mike | March 22, 2007 at 11:15
I have no doubt that if free and fair elections were actually held in Zimbabwe, the MDC would win by a wide margin.
ZANU PF is the Nazi Party of Zimbabwe and must be removed and destroyed before Zimbabwe can move forward.
The main problem is, that in the event of any coup or revolution against Mugabe and ZANU PF, South Africa will likely forget it's non-intervention stance and send the troops in to put their struggle buddies back in power.
SA's Satanic foreign policy is to suport totalitarian regimes and bloodthirsty terrorist regimes wherever they can..
Posted by: Gary | March 22, 2007 at 14:49
Ronno Einstein categorizes Israel as an apartheid state.
Would he define Mugabe's Zim as a "post-racist democracy"?
Posted by: The Dictator / Embittered Correspondent | March 22, 2007 at 15:04
Ronno has already praised Mugabe's regime and vowed that SA would march
shoulder to shoulder with it.
Show me an Israel basher and I will show you a hypocrite-always.
Posted by: Gary | March 22, 2007 at 15:26
Wow, excellent photos.
Thinking and knowing the sort of 'society' Zimbabwe has descended to makes the cave paintings of Europe, Africa, America, Asia, and Australia look like a hopeful sign there's a potential glimmer of human decency whenever there's an Ice Age! :)
Posted by: mortfaucheur | September 05, 2007 at 10:28