From a distance it is always hard to picture just how hard life is in Zimbabwe and to imagine how much worse it can get. For so long we have been writing about economic collapse, inflation statistics beyond comprehension, the fact that at least a quarter of the country has fled to seek work abroad and that life expectancy has tumbled.
Commentators have long spoken of the dangers of a possible ‘meltdown’. The signs of what that might look like have grown stronger this week.
The death toll from the worst cholera epidemic in recent records is near 500 – and possibly double – with shortages of water in Harare and elsewhere and a health system hopelessly ill equipped to cope. Not so long ago, one of the region’s more prosperous countries would probably have been able to prevent an outbreak of cholera and would certainly have been able to treat it.
Unprecedented clashes on Monday between what the army described as “indisciplined” soldiers and Zimbabweans have added to fears the situation could get out of hand. The army understandably said it was worried by the troubles, put down by police. As too many other African countries have found out, angry soldiers can prove a danger to everyone.
Banks are so short of cash that queuing for almost worthless notes has become a full time occupation for some of those lucky enough to – in theory at least – have jobs. But the amount of cash the banks can give out each day is often not enough to buy a loaf of bread.
President Robert Mugabe’s government says the health system and economy are foundering because of sanctions imposed by Western powers it says are trying to oust him for seizing thousands of white-owned farms and redistributing the land to black Zimbabweans.
Mugabe’s critics, such as opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, say it is his policies that have ruined Zimbabwe.
But no matter who is to blame, the situation looks dangerously as though it could get beyond anyone’s control.
Should the crisis force Tsvangirai to join Mugabe in the power-sharing government they had agreed to - even if he doesn’t get all the posts that he wanted? Should Mugabe give way to the opposition leader’s demands? Tsvangirai’s MDC said talks between the parties on the unity government would resume in two weeks. Is that soon enough? Does Zimbabwe have any choice but a deal between the two old rivals?
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who cares about the politics! speak to an average zimbabwean who has to cross illegally into another country to feed their families! white farmers, land siezures, abductions, food shortages, cholera, mob like military control, restrictions on foreign press. it will get worse! it is getting worse. neighbouring countries prepare for an attack on their borders by a mad mugabe who see’s his neighbours harbouring the oppostion and training militia! the man is a lunatic! argue all u want about how it was started and about race and the colour of your own skin! since when does the colour of your skin determine your nationality? white farmers who held citizenship for generations having their land stolen from them! because they were white??? zim floated on britains back becoming a strong african country! the regime changes and power is handed back and what happens??? someone please tell me? do you see those farms producing anything because i sure don’t! but it is beside the point! there is nothing to be done about zim, aid doesn’t reach the joe plod on the street,illegal immigrants are rounded up everyday in other countries and are dumped in camps on the other side of the border! talking politics is like a rocking chair fun to do when your bored but not going to get you anywhere! all african leaders need to take their heads out of the sand and take a stand against mugabe! it affects the whole sothern african region! south africa says mugabe is a fellow african brother and must be supported! supported while he destroys his country and kills his own people???? the rest pretend like there is nothing happening just over their border!!! king bob is over 80 years old, he is now the only thing standing between his generals and army facing charges of war crimes. he has gone from being another african dictator to a puppet diguising something much worse to come. give it time and it won’t be mugabe you are arguing about but his generals and uncontrollable militant force who will finally destroy zimbabwe. i am a true african and fear for the lives of those stupid enough to remain in Zim! i fear for my own country which borders zim, how long will it take before their crisis spills into my own back garden?
- Posted by nalediThe problem with our continent is that we are cowards. We overtalk and never deliver. We know the right thing to do and we never do it. All we do is complain complain and never strategize strategize and implement implement. Majority of Africa is complaining about Zimbabwe and nothing has been done yet about this guy. Western hands cannot help us anymore. For us to grow, we need to handle things ourselves. Let us grow up and do it now.
- Posted by Believer in the story of AfricaMy God, how long is the international community going to sit on their hands and let this madman take the whole country down the toilet with him?? I have this great fear that as these crisies get more and more dire, the world communnity is finding it easier and easier to turn their backs on these defencless, starving,sick and desparate people
- Posted by The RounderIt is true, I myself have seen with my last remaining eye (the other was taken out by war-hero Hitler Hunzai so I could get my war veteran pension), the white Rhodesians plotting to throw over our beloved Zimbabwe.
They meet once a week in a secret place in south-London. The only black people allowed are the waiters, such is there racial tendencies. They hire them from the concentration camps set up by the gay British for those poor Zimbabweans still waiting for their legal farms.
On that one time when I spied on them the table was full with at least 4 Rhodesians, some were Selous Scouts as they wore Smith combat uniforms (very dirty and smelly) and had beards that reach the floor.
They flaunt their illegally procured wealth, stolen from the sweat of Zimbabweans. One even lighted a self-rolled cigarette with a Zimbabwean half a billion note. Another, who called himself ‘The Big Boss’ even ordered a hamburger and chips, which he ate with relish. Whilst our brothers and sisters starve, this evil man thought of nothing to fill his belly from the sweat of our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe.
The invasion is almost ready. They plan to arm all remaining Rhodesians, none under 50, with empty beer bottles and throw them over the fence at Musina till the border is closed, blocking vital supplies from our best friend South Africa.
- Posted by LoreDear Chris,
You should be pleased that I mistakenly called you Chris Brown because Chris Brown is a pop superstar…
Seriously now, why do you think the US Congress instructed US officials to block the Asian Development Bank from making loans or doing transactions with Zimbabwe if the bank has nothing to do with African, as you claim. You obviously know better than the people that drafted the law…
Re-investment in downtown Harare, how come millions of Zimbabweans are fleeing economic hardship and starvation in Zimbabwe if these multinationals are pouring investment into the country as you claim? It is one thing to invest money in the development of a few mines and the mining of minerals. It is another thing to actually invest in the economy as a whole. For your information, the only reason these companies are investing the minimum required in these mines is that the law requires hem to do so. Otherwise, the law allows the government to take the mines away from them…
Re-Mugabe, I don’t mind sanctions against Mugabe but why pinish 10 million Zimbabweans with economic sanctions just because you believe Mugabe has abused their human rights? Where is the logica in that? Why the collective punishment of black Zimbabweans for the alleged crimes of Mugabe?
Would Britain, America, and the Rhodesians not gain a little credibility if they were not sponsoring worse abusers of human rights in Africa while rushing to the UN Security Council every six months in a bid for regime change in Zimbabwe?
Leaders in the region ignore Brown and co specifically because they know that he does not care about human rights in Somalia where warlords carrying British passports and US-backed troops are slaughtering, raping, gouging (according to Human Rights Watch) 10,000 civilians in Somalia.
- Posted by VincentDear Vincent,
Im impressed that you can cut and paste all the names of the international lending agencies straight from Wikipedia’s website given that:
a) you have trouble reading (my last name is given as ‘thompson’, not ‘brown’) and…
b) notwithstanding that some of institutions you cite, such as the the Asian Development Bank and the Inter-American Investment Corporation, have absolutely nothing to do with loans to Africa.
But lets excuse that for the minute and focus on your human rights “argument” which can be summed up as: because Mugabe is not the worst human rights violator on the African continent ipso facto it is unfair to target him as opposed to Obiang in Equatorial Guinea etc.
Interesting that you do not dispute the evidence of decades of sustained human rights abuses by Mugabe. Be that as it may, I wish sanctions were also applied to Obiang et al - but since they’re not, Mugabe clearly deserves them; indeed they should have been applied some years ago starting with his genocide against Ndebeles in the 1980s.
Perhaps your mother never recounted the old aphorism that “two wrongs dont make a right, they make…” - but I’ll let you and ‘African’ finish that one off.
As for the “economic sanctions” - please stop lying. See my earlier post for examples of UK/US multinationals still doing business and investing in Zimbabwe post 2000. Or just go visit Harare’s central business district.
- Posted by chris thompsonChris Brown,
Stop trying to be too clever. What do you mean by Zimbabwe owes “tens of millions of dollars?” African is right, Zimbabwe’s expulsion had nothing to do with debt. They country owed precisely US$75 million and the IMF chose to expell it instraed of restructuring the loan as it does will every other country.
As we speak, most African countries owe up to US$1 BILLION to the IMF but they are allowed to restructure their debts and never expelled.
Even if you are right about the IMF, what is your excuse for the USA’s decision to block Zimbabwe’s access to the following:
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
The International Development Association
The International Finance Corporation,
the Inter-American Development Bank,
the Asian Development Bank,
the Inter-American Investment Corporation,
the African Development Bank,
the African Development Fund,
the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Multilateral Investment Guaranty Agency.
Regarding you “human rights” excuse, does Zimbabwe have a worse human rights record than
Equatorial Guinea (where there is absolute presidential rule), Egypt (where the opposition is banned and martial rule has been imposed for almost 30 years), Ethiopia (where the goernment rigged the elections, shot 100 people for protesting against the rigging, and jailed all opposition leaders), Central African Republic (another absolute monarchy), the warlords in Somalia, and other USA/British allies in the region?
Admit it, Britain and the USA are looking for an excuse for regime change. Cholera is the latest excuse. They do not care about ordinary black Zimbabweans, otherwise they would have lifted their shameful economic sanctions and target Mugabe alone.
- Posted by VincentJust to rebut ‘African’; more ill-informed ZANU-PF propaganda regarding fictional “sanctions” on Zimbabwe.
The IMF, World Bank and other multilateral lending agencies stopped giving loans to Zimbabwe’s government for the very simple reason that previous ones were not paid back on time.
Zimbabwe has been in arrears of tens of millions of US dollars to the Bretton Woods institutions for some while now. Feel free to call up their press office and get precise figures. I have done so many times myself.
That’s why international agencies cut Zimbabwe’s ratings. Because - like any good lender - they no longer had confidence in the government’s ability to repay them.
Angola on the other hand, which has a similarly stormy relationship with the IMF etc, does pay its bills on time, which is why plenty of countries lend to it.
Zimbabwe’s lack of loans is down to government incompetence - which is why even its ‘Look East’ partners (China, Malaysia etc) won’t give it any serious money.
Your assertion that Zimbabwe “cannot get…international investment” is plain stupid.
Go tell that to Anglo-American, Rio Tinto, Barclays bank, Old Mutual and a host of other international companies who have invested millions of US dollars in Zimbabwe since 2000 and continue to sustain their operations there at the moment.
ZIDERA, to which you refer, was enacted in response to the gross human rights abuses Mugabe committed in the wake of his failed 1999/2000 referendum and subsequent land-reform programme.
If western countries had been consistent in their promotion of human rights they would have enacted it 15 years earlier - when Mugabe’s murderous 5th brigade was slaughtering tens of thousands of Ndebele political opponents.
Your argument doesn’t stand up to the slightest scrutiny and it is a pity you waste your words defending a monster like Mugabe.
- Posted by chris thompsonRegarding cholera.
Britain and its Western allies (particularly where Rhodesians have significant influence) are trying to use cholera in Zimbabwe the same way they used fictitious WMD in Iraq: an excuse to implement their deadly agenda.
Here are some recent cholera outbreaks in Africa and Iraq (which is controlled by the USA), but we did not have the Prime Minister of Britain rushing to the United Nations Security Council to demand removal of the leaders of these countries. Does this mean that Britain and the USA love Zimbabweans more than all other countries that have suffered a cholera outbreak?:
May 2006: ANGOLA — Cholera outbreak in Angola killed more than 1,200 people, about 35,000 people infected (
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/499096 0.stm )
February 2007: ETHIOPIA — cholera epidemic in Ethiopia 684 killed nearly 60,000 infected ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/feb /22/ethiopia )
October 2007: IRAQ — Since the cholera outbreak was first detected in Kirkuk, Northern Iraq, on 14 August 2007, it has spread to 9 out of 18 provinces across Iraq. It is estimated that more than 30 000 people have fallen ill with acute watery diarrhoea
( http://www.who.int/csr/don/2007_10_03/en /index.html )
September 2008: NIGERIA — Cholera outbreak kills 97 in northern Nigeria (
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?Repo rtID=80531 )
September 2008: GUINEA BISSAU — Since the beginning of May 2008, Guinea-Bissau has been facing a large cholera outbreak. As of 21 September, 7 166 cases had been reported throughout the country, among whom 133 people had died
- Posted by African( http://www.who.int/csr/don/2008_09_24/en /index.html )