Article published December 31, 2006
Zimbabwe's burden
TO THE detriment of Zimbabwe, President Robert G. Mugabe's party, which governs the country, has decided to extend his term from 2008 to 2010.
Zimbabweans have not had much hope for a brighter future since independence in 1980, when Mr. Mugabe took power. The last presidential elections, held in 2002, were marred by government intimidation. The next round of balloting is scheduled for 2008, raising the possibility that Mr. Mugabe, 82, would honor his hint that he might step down at that point.
Mr. Mugabe has been a disaster for the 12 million people of the southern African country since he came to power with bright, conciliatory words upon its independence. Virtually his first act was to raise new troops from his Shona tribe, with North Korean help, to stamp out his Ndebele minority opposition.
Then, over the years, he destroyed the Zimbabwe economy. Apart from his army's depredations in Ndebele country, he went after Zimbabwe's white farmers, who grew not only tobacco and other commercial crops for export, but also the bulk of the country's food. He and thugs who had his authority simply grabbed the white farmers' land, installing in their place not peasant farmers, but military and civilian Shona cronies of Mr. Mugabe.
Zimbabwe's people now suffer starvation from time to time and depend to a large extent on food relief. Through corruption and economic mismanagement, Mr. Mugabe has also severely damaged the rest of the economy, with inflation sometimes reaching four digits.
An opposition confronts him internally, but it has no chance against the army and the Shona majority, which accounts for 80 percent of the population.Zimbabweans' only hope is that Mr. Mugabe will die soon. If he were overthrown, it would likely be by the military, which he tends, and its members are almost entirely Shona and have no knowledge of economics.
South Africa could bring landlocked Zimbabwe down fairly easily, but it does not for two reasons. First, South Africa's African National Congress leadership sees Mr. Mugabe as a fellow former revolutionary against white rule. Second, South Africa does not want to worsen the already considerable flow of Zimbabwean refugees into its own land.
So, Zimbabwe, once a flourishing country, with agriculture, mining, and industry, will likely just have to wait to prosper. That wait has just gotten two years longer.
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