Zimbabwe is ‘a flipped coin’
‘Zimbabwe is like a flipped coin in the air’
Those who suffer under Mugabe see no cause for optimism
Many have banked on economic collapse as the surest way of bringing reform, but even that most depressing solution has been curiously elusive. Though the country has the fastest contracting economy in the world, down 12 per cent each year, and the highest inflation rate — 7,600 per cent — and though many commentators predicted long ago that the economy would simply collapse and take the country with it, Zimbabwean businesses have proved robust almost beyond belief, lumbering on like war-weary soldiers.
Recently, times have been especially hard. In a desperate attempt to contain runaway inflation in June, the government imposed price controls on all goods. Shops were ordered to halve their prices — which led to businesses being forced to sell at a loss. And of course because of the relative cheapness, commodities most Zimbabweans once took for granted — eggs, milk, bread, vegetable oil, sugar, soap and the national staple, maize — quickly moved out of the supermarket shelves and on to the streets where, once the supermarkets had run out, they could be sold illegally for many times their ‘official’ price.
Today, the merest rumour of a bread delivery is enough to make people join long queues for their two-loaf quota. But as Alfred, a labourer in Harare’s suburbs, told me: ‘Often people who go to the market don’t eat what they buy. They keep it and sell it later for more money.’ Well, with scarcity comes business opportunities — essential for the 80 per cent of the population without formal jobs. One supermarket attendant said that bread could be sold for over Z$100,000 (about £1.50) on the black market, a huge mark-up on its original Z$30,000 (about 50p) price in the store. ‘It’s risky, if you get caught you will almost certainly face jail,’ she said. ‘Still, that’s how people are surviving.’
Since the price freeze came in, the government has imprisoned thousands under the Orwellian-sounding charge of ‘non-compliance’, and it’s not just workers being banged up, but the managing directors of big companies as well. They’re being caught by the police, of course, but also by Mugabe’s notorious ‘Green Bombers’, a paramilitary organisation answerable only to the presidency whose young members are mostly drawn from rural areas where they are screened for their loyalty to Mugabe. So the price freeze has been a fiasco and, if anything, has led to more food shortages. And this combined with the decline of industrial agriculture since the 2000 farm invasions, and several consecutive years of bad rains, has meant that much of what the country now eats comes from abroad.
More articles from: Christopher Thompson | this section
Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit
Advertisement
Labour’s punishment freaks are hounding honest citizens
Ross ClarkRoss Clark says that far from keeping our streets safer or cleaner, the government’s new force of amateur policemen are ignoring the worst offenders and pursuing law-abiding innocents instead
‘Whoever killed Benazir wants to kill me’
Christina LambChristina Lamb interviews the husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, Asif Ali Zardari, who hopes to be named President of Pakistan this Saturday
Never mind the Olympics — get set for the Jubilee
Robert HardmanFree and open to everyone, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 will eclipse the London Games, says Robert Hardman — an unforgettable tribute to the monarch
A pilgrim’s progress for the 21st century
Mary WakefieldMary Wakefield talks to the author William P. Young, whose self-published religious novel has astounded the publishing world and sold nearly two million copies
In defence of David Southall
Theodore DalrympleTheodore Dalrymple examines the evidence against two much-vilified British paediatricians, Professors Southall and Meadow, and finds it sadly lacking
Georgia sheds light on the mind of Cameron
James ForsythJames Forsyth says that the Tory leader is more immersed in foreign policy than first seemed probable. Unlike Brown, he has ambitions as an international leader
It is commercial television that is really in peril
Neil MidgleyChannel 4 can’t afford Carol Vorderman and says it needs more cash for its public service remit. Nonsense, writes Neil Midgley: it is mass-market television that needs help
Brown’s security strategy is the worst of all worlds
David DavisIt’s draconian, expensive and ineffective, says David Davis. All the evidence shows that the Prime Minister is eroding our civil liberties pointlessly
Cummins may be part of the green ink brigade, but he was right about Islam
Rod LiddleRod Liddle looks back at the case of the British Council employee who dared to speak the truth about Islamic ideology — and notes that what was heretical in 2004 is now almost orthodox
Shared Opinion
Hugo Rifkind
Gordon Brown’s moral compass is more like a dodgy satnav
Latest blog posts
sponsored links
Sky TV, Broadband & Talk from £16 a Month
Sky TV & free broadband packages available from £16 a month. Choose from a standard free sky box, sky plus or sky hd.
Sky TV, Broadband & Talk from £16 a Month
Sky TV & free broadband packages available from £16 a month. Choose from a standard free sky box, sky plus...
ROME CENTRE
PORTA METRONIA, ROME Standing high on the top of one of the seven hills of Rome- the Coelian- this unique
City Breaks. ROME and PARIS
ROME and PARIS: over 350 holiday rentals apartments listed: visit www.romanreference.com and www.parisreference.com or call +39 0648 903612.
Jewellery. RUFFS (Estd. 1904).
Goldsmiths by Design Welcome to Ruffs! You have found a company of Goldsmiths that specialises in the manufacture, amongst other
Spectator Business | Apollo Magazine
Corporate | Advertising | Privacy | Terms
Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP
All Articles and Content Copyright ©2008 by The Spectator | All Rights Reserved
Rose
December 6th, 2007 9:22pmHaving read your comment above in your opening paragraph,I would like to express my disgust and fury over your remark on Ian Smith. He was the TRUE freedom fighter in Rhodesia, and he fought for every Rhodesian, both black and white. He made RHODESIA GREAT, MUGABE MADE ZIMBABWE RUINS. Rhodesians worldwide will keep him alive in spirit. Mugabe has no right to be classed as a human being, he is a traitor to mankind and his own people, put there with with the help of the then British Government. Ian Smith knew this would happen and no-one listened. He never turned his back on his people, even after the war was over and right up to his passing. A great man, our real hero
Herbert Thornton
December 7th, 2007 1:35amRose - the disgust you feel about the opening paragraph is well justified. Smith was a great, decent and very brave man.
My own thought is that just as Zimbabwe has fallen under the insane tyranny of Mugabe, Britain has fallen under the insane tyranny of Political Correctness. Perhaps writer felt that it was in his own best interest to go through the politically correct ritual of writing about Smith in abusive terms.
D Short
December 7th, 2007 8:30pmCan't see anything new in this piece that hasn't been written elsewhere in newspapers. And how can this writer call Smith 'tyrannical' in the same breath as Mugabe. Why no speculation over will Mugabe's eventual demise be the solution, just as for instance when Dr Savimbi was killed in Angola, everyone knew that would be the end of the 25-year civil war. One man goes, and the story changes. And why bang on about Mbeki when he will soon be a lame duck president when Zuma is elected ANC president in a mere couple of weeks or so? Very disappointed in how poor The Spectator is becoming.
Brian
December 8th, 2007 8:33pmI agree with the other writers....what a tragic story for Rhodesia which prospered under Ian Smith despite Harold Wilson. Just how long can this go on for? Not too long is my fervent hope
Maurice
December 10th, 2007 5:39pmThere was never any food shortages for anyone - black or white - in Ian Smith's time, not even during the terror war led by Mugabe. Rhodesia was the envy of every black African state. Now look what's happened.
Jo
December 13th, 2007 7:00pmI agree that very little of the information is new but I turn to The Spectator for well written commentary which this article is as always. It was good to be reminded that it is the Jacaranda season. I can almost smell it - is it raining yet? You didn't say. For people connected to Zimbabwe, it is interesting to hear what conservatives such as The Spectator and its readers think and are willing to say if not shout. I was also interested in some subtle features of your article such as the sources of your information. If I understood you, you concluded that the situation, as it is now, is very difficult to resolve and will take detailed negotiations with a broad range of stakeholders. The key and value of the piece seems to me to be recognition that 15 million Zimbabweans are each acting in their perceived self-interest, as are other players including the United Kingdom. The corollary is that effective politics brings all these interests together in a way that benefits us everyone involved. Missing of course is your opinion of Gordon Brown's boycott of Lisbon which, presumably, is why this article was published now. As a person with long standing connections to Zimbabwe, one thing I do know about the way forward is that we need to leave, and be seen to leave, colonial arrogance at the door, and to go to the table with a deep respect of the rights of Zimbabweans to define their own destiny. Until we do so, we will make no progress. I am saddened by the commentary. You may like to ask yourselves whether you are not fueling the virulent anti-British sentiment in some quarters of Zimbabwe. You might also like to consider whether the contempt expressed for Zimbabweans in fora such as these has not encouraged attacks on people associated with the UK which in some cases have led to their deaths. I might also add that speaking carefully is not a matter of being PC. It is a matter of understanding the difficulties and tensions in contemporary Zimbabwe and taking care not to exacerbate tempers and animosities from the sidelines.
James
December 14th, 2007 1:28amJo, sorry to quibble but 'speaking carefully' so as not to inflame the overwraught sensibilities of non-dead-white-males is almost the dictionary definition of PC. A reappraisal of Smith is overdue and a rehabilitation of the positive side of (British) colonialism is a quite respectable project.
Jo
December 14th, 2007 11:06amHi James. Quibble as much as you like with me. We are both over here and it is an academic exercise! Is it done to reply to a reply? If not, I am sorry.
butch
December 22nd, 2007 2:19amIan Smith may not have given them the vote. But they had FOOD EDCUATION HEALTH HOSPITALS WORK WAGES a Life span beyond 27/30 years Now they have the Vote and nothing else except dispair This will never end see the Conga as one example
Brian
January 11th, 2008 10:41amRe my blog of Dec 8 last. I have just been to Victoria Falls on the Zim side. Incredulously the Vic Falls hotel still operates as it did. The full length paintings of King George V and Queen Mary still hang in the lounge and the whole hotel is beautiful. Obviously this is where that odious man Mugabe gets his foreign exchange as I negotiated my lunch time bill for two down from nearly 300000 Zim dollars to GBP 20...cash. Then I think I was done by the system. When will somebody do something for the Rhodesian pensioners Gordon?
Itayi Garande
January 22nd, 2008 3:39pmSad situation in Zimbabwe indeed. Mugabe runs the country like a Mafia organisation. See this latest article on Talkzimbabwe at http://www.talkzimbabwe.com
Mike
January 22nd, 2008 7:58pmAh, 'Ian Smiths Tyrannical footsteps' .... almost sounds like something you'd hear around the country in 1981 - 1982. I wonder, as a point of note, if the author spent any time in Rhodesia or Zimbabwe Rhodesia before Mugabe took power ..... or if he has even bothered to research the achievements that the late Ian Smith made within the country. With his simplistic and naive views of the situation facing Zimbabwe at the moment, and indeed over the past 28 years, I would hazard a guess that the answer is no. During my tenure there in childhood I lived near Bulawayo at Llewellyn barracks, and you would not believe the respect shown to the resident RAR troops, or the Selous Scouts (Near all of the former and over 60% of the latter were black, to use the non pc term). I find Rose's comment amusing, brings back some great memories of the old country ..... even just the quote from the old bumper stickers and T Shirts ..... hell, I even think I still have mine around somewhere. "We made Rhodesia great, they made Zimbabwe Ruins"
Roy
April 11th, 2008 9:48pmBritain should question it's own responsibility in the pushing aside of Ian Smith's government of the time. They couldn't get rid of him quick enough, and for what?
stangun
April 22nd, 2008 6:02pm"The domestic consensus is that Mugabe has managed both to follow in Smith’s tyrannical footsteps and to wreck the formal economy at the same time."
I still want to know what was so "tyrannical" about Ian Smith's tenure as PM? After all, most of the violence during the bush war was perpetrated by ZANU PF and ZIPRA, and security forces were responding to terrorist attacks and not initiating violence, unless in proactive defence. In the mindless media chatter there is this consensus that Ian Smith was evil, but reality does not support it.