By George H. Wittman on 3.8.07 @ 12:06AM
Octogenerian brute Robert Mugabe seeks to extend his rule, as if to see how much more devastation and hardship he can cause his once prospering land.
Robert Mugabe, 83 years old, now in the twenty-seventh year of
his reign as prime minister, then president of Zimbabwe, is once
again maneuvering to extend his longevity in that office.
Cleverly, as Mugabe usually acts when he isn't simply brutal,
the self-ordained "father of Zimbabwe" has had floated the idea of
rescheduling to 2010 the presidential election due at the end of
his term in 2008 in coordination with the parliamentary elections.
This device would prolong his stay in office while giving him time
to sort out the current bitter infighting within his own ruling
party, Zanu-PF.
Meanwhile his country's economic state is disastrous. What once
was a balanced economy before he assumed power in 1980 now borders
on bankruptcy. The national inheritance of a modern agriculture and
growing mining and manufacturing sectors has been squandered.
Inflation neared 1600 percent in January of this year and
international banking circles predict it to reach a possible 5,000
per cent by the end of the year.
Mugabe, who supposedly earned a master's degree in economics
from London University, appears to have forgotten or ignored the
basics of his discipline while espousing his own form of
dictatorial socialism learned from his days in Kwame Nkrumah's
Ghana. It seems of little interest to Mugabe that a majority of
Zimbabwe's populace lives at a bare subsistence level.
Zimbabwe is not bereft of technically trained administrators.
They are simply disregarded, exiled, or worse. The head of the
central bank, Gideon Gona, however, laid out the economic problem
quite accurately, and indeed courageously, to a parliamentary
committee recently. He put the onus squarely on the politically
organized squatters who have taken over the land sequestered from
the European settler-owned farms. He made clear these thugs and
their tribal allies have simply ravaged the once commercially
profitable holdings and then moved on.
The official estimate of losses due to the smuggling of
Zimbabwe's mineral products runs between 40-50 million dollars a
month. The plans for a government takeover of the marketing of
gemstones have been slow to develop. In any case, government buying
offices remain questionable as a method to deter the illegal sales
as long as the proposed new bureau remains a politically controlled
instrument.
The entire transport system of the country is in danger of
collapsing from the absence of foreign exchange reserves. The once
dependable rail system is breaking down from lack of infrastructure
maintenance and spare parts, as is the government-controlled
airline.
For his part Robert Mugabe appears oblivious to the economic
degradation of his country. He even has been quoted as saying that
he doesn't believe a sovereign nation can become bankrupt.
Apparently the term doesn't fit his socialist lexicon. He is quite
happy with the results of his "democratic redistribution" of the
land. He does not recognize that Zimbabwe's farmland has little
intrinsic value, but that it is the act of farming and managing
that land which gives it value.
Of deeper meaning is the government-encouraged behavior of the
roving gangs who pass as "farmers." For a country so endowed with
both natural beauty and richness of economic potential to undergo
such socio-economic rape is a sadomasochistic crime.
The people are not quiescent, but the repression of opposition
demonstrations remains brutally harsh. Even with this Hitlerian
method of governance there is a dangerous and ironic sign of
official bureaucratic breakdown in the reported growing desertion
rate of members of the security forces.
Mugabe can no longer trust his own party from being torn apart
by political rivals seeking to be his replacement. The vicious
infighting between Zanu-PF leaders has added to the turmoil created
by the public demonstrations of the opposition. In an effort to
quell the uproar Mugabe has ordered a ninety-day ban of all
political rallies. However, such internal disruption may actually
perpetuate his reign.
In Africa turmoil has often ensured the retention of power of
many of their original leaders no matter how despotic they became.
Peaceful democracy has had a difficult time being cultivated in the
otherwise rich soil of Africa. Zimbabwe is no exception and Robert
Mugabe persists as a living monument to African
self-destruction.
topics:
Economics, Africa, Socialism, Oil
