President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe runs a classic 1970s-style African dictatorship: Brutal, corrupt, incompetent and driven by the delusions of one man. His people emerged from white rule full of hope. Except for the relatively few supporters who have benefited from government patronage, the hopes of everyone else have been dashed. Inflation is running at 400 percent, which means that for all practical purposes the currency is worthless. Unemployment is in excess of 70 percent. Agriculture has collapsed and with it the country’s once-vibrant foreign currency exports. Zimbabwe is broke and can no longer even feed itself.
If Mugabe and his ministers had taken first-class degrees in how not to run a country, they could not have done better. Among their bungles was the way in which they seized the best farmland from white farmers and so destroyed a large part of Zimbabwe’s economy. A significant part of these vast productive holdings had been created in colonial days by grabbing tribal lands. It was right that black Zimbabweans be restored an interest in this territory, but there were other ways to do it. Farms could for instance have been incorporated, with shares given to former owners while the white farmers maintained a stake and got on with the job of managing them.
It is because the West led by Britain, the former colonial power, has chosen to make an issue of the violent ouster of white farmers that other black African states — most importantly South Africa — have stood back from open criticism of Mugabe. Unfortunately, their private pressure on this maverick leader has done nothing to stop him plunging his country deeper into the economic mire.
Now Mugabe has concluded a $200 million weapons deal with China for 12 aircraft and 100 military vehicles. Why China has chosen to ignore the international arms embargo on Zimbabwe at this time is of the greatest concern. Beijing is likely to come under considerable pressure to cancel the sale.
Zimbabwe’s neighbors, however, will be asking themselves why this impoverished country is spending money it does not have on armaments. If it is to resume its intervention in the troubled waters of the Congo, where Zimbabwean leaders have in the past looted diamonds, then the loudest protest is called for. If this weaponry is to be used to reinforce the emerging police state and the oppression of the majority of Zimbabweans, then the protests should be every bit as strident.
Africa’s economic failure in the last 40 years can be explained to a significant degree by the activities of venal and economically illiterate dictators like Mugabe. The rest of the world played its part by driving down the price of the primary goods Africa produced and fighting out its ideological conflicts on African soil. But the world has changed. Africa has a chance. Forgiving crippling historic debts is on the cards. Africa has transformed its politics and South Africa is a shining example to the rest of the continent. Mugabe is a hindrance to progress.
