I AM STARTING A NEW THREAD ABOUT THE CURRENT SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE.

I call upon South Africans to post their view on the crisis situation in Zimbabwe and how it affects the region in particular South Africa which is the powerhouse of Africa. I'll share my own views about Mugabeland but I first want to hear yours.

The World’s 10 Worst Dictators

By David Wallechinsky
Published: February 22, 2004

Last year, PARADE Contributing Editor David Wallechinsky selected ?The 10 Worst Living Dictators.? We asked him to make a new assessment for 2004. To compile this year’s list, Wallechinsky consulted (as in 2003) independent human-rights organizations willing to expose both left- and right-wing regimes, including Freedom House, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders.

Most dictators marshal various arguments to justify their repressive actions to their people and the world, Wallechinsky notes. The most common are: 1) “The human-rights situation in my country is better than it used to be.” 2) “Western versions of democracy and human rights are not compatible with my nation’s traditions.” 3) “Strict measures are necessary because an outside force is threatening our society.” We offer this list to provide some perspective on world events and to stimulate reflection on our freedoms at home.

1. Kim Jong Il, North Korea.
Age 63. In power since 1994.
Last year’s rank: 1.

All the discussion about Kim’s development of nuclear weapons has deflected attention from the fact that his government represses its own people more completely than any other in the world. Each year, the human-rights group Freedom House ranks every country according to its level of political rights and civil liberties. North Korea is the only nation to earn the worst possible score for 31 straight years. It also ranks in last place in the international index of press freedom compiled by Reporters Without Borders. An estimated 150,000 Koreans perform forced labor in prison camps created to punish alleged political dissidents, their family members and North Koreans who fled to China but were forced back by the Chinese government.

2. Than Shwe, Burma.
Age 71. In power since 1992.
Last year’s rank: 5.

General Than Shwe has survived a power struggle to emerge as the sole leader of Burma’s military dictatorship. Because Than Shwe represents the hard-line faction, his rise has turned an already dreadful human-rights situation even worse. Burma has more child soldiers than any other nation, and the Burmese regime continues to kidnap ordinary citizens and force them to serve as porters for the military in various conflicts against non-Burmese ethnic groups.

In 1990, the party of Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi won 80% of the vote in an open election. The military regime canceled the results. The popular Suu Kyi spent much of the ensuing years, off and on, under house arrest. On May 30, 2003, hired thugs attacked Suu Kyi’s motorcade, killing several of her supporters and arresting others. Suu Kyi has been returned to house arrest. Unlike most dictators, General Than Shwe prefers to work behind the scenes. Even the Burmese people know little about him. He has promised new elections—in four or five years.

3. Hu Jintao, China.
Age 61. In power since 2002.
Last year’s rank: Dishonorable mention.

Hu spent 38 years moving up the Communist Party hierarchy, proving himself efficient and willing to do whatever was necessary to advance himself. Now, as president and general secretary of the party, Hu is the leader of an unusually repressive regime. Apologists point to China’s economic liberalization and say its human-rights situation “is better than it used to be.” However, the party still controls all media and uses 30,000 “Internet security agents” to monitor online use. More than 300,000 Chinese are serving “re-education” sentences in labor camps. China carries out in excess of 4000 executions a year, more than all other nations combined.

4. Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe.
Age 80. In power since 1980.
Last year’s rank: Dishonorable mention.

After leading an anti-colonial war of liberation, Mugabe was elected independent Zimbabwe’s first prime minister, with widespread domestic and international support. In recent years, he has become increasingly dictatorial. According to Human Rights Forum, Mugabe’s government has killed or tortured and displaced more than 70,000. While allowing elections, he has restricted opponents’ ability to campaign and shut down media that don’t support him. When opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won 42% of the vote anyway, Mugabe had him arrested and charged with treason. As his support has slipped, Mugabe has played the race card, confiscating farms owned by whites and giving them to his supporters.

5. Crown Prince Abdullah, Saudi Arabia.
Age 80. In power since 1995.
Last year’s rank: 2.

Abdullah has been the acting leader of Saudi Arabia since his half-brother, King Fahd, suffered a stroke in 1995. Saudi Arabia holds no elections whatsoever. The royal family has promised municipal elections next year but has not announced if women will be allowed to vote. It is forbidden for unrelated Saudis of the opposite sex to appear in public together. Generally, a woman cannot testify in divorce proceedings; a man testifies for her. In court cases, the testimony of one man is equal to that of two women. According to the U.S. State Department, Saudi Arabia continues to engage in arbitrary arrests and torture. During a human-rights conference in October, Saudi authorities arrested nonviolent protesters calling for freedom of expression; some were sentenced to be flogged.

6. Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Equatorial Guinea.
Age 61. In power since 1979.
Last year’s rank: 6.

This tiny West African nation was a forgotten dictatorship until major reserves of oil were discovered in 1995. Since then, U.S. oil companies have poured billions of dollars into the country. Although the per capita income is $4500 a year, 60% of the people live on less than $1 a day. The bulk of the oil income goes directly into the U.S. bank account of President Obiang, who has declared: “There is no poverty in Guinea.” Rather, “The people are used to living in a different way.” In July, state radio announced that Obiang “is in permanent contact with the Almighty” and “can decide to kill without anyone calling him to account and without going to Hell.” There is little public transportation, no daily newspapers, and only 1% of government spending goes to health care.

7. Omar Al-Bashir, Sudan.
Age 59. In power since 1989.
Last year’s rank: Dishonorable mention.

Sudan, the largest country in Africa, has been involved in a complex 20-year civil war that has claimed the lives of 2 million people and uprooted 4 million. Al-Bashir seized power in a military coup and immediately suspended the constitution, abolished the legislature and banned political parties and unions. He is negotiating a peace agreement with the main rebel group. Meanwhile, his army has routinely bombed civilians and tortured and massacred non-Muslims, particularly in the oil-producing areas of the south. Sudanese troops also have kidnapped southerners and enslaved them. Al-Bashir has been accused of “engineering famine” in regions that oppose him.

Al-Bashir has a long history of providing sanctuary for terrorists only to turn against them. He turned over to France the notorious Carlos the Jackal in exchange for financial and military aid. In 1996, he tried, unsuccessfully, to offer Osama bin Laden to the U.S. government.

8. Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmenistan.
Age 64. In power since 1990.
Last year’s rank: 7.

Since taking charge of this former Soviet republic, Niyazov has developed an extreme personality cult. His picture appears on all Turkmen money, and there are statues of him everywhere. His book Rukhnama (Book of the Soul) is required reading in all schools, and all government employees must memorize passages to keep their jobs. He rules without opposition. (“There are no opposition parties,” he has said, “so how can we grant them freedom?”) In the past year, Niyazov has cracked down on religious and ethnic minorities, including Russians. He has imprisoned political dissidents and subjected them to Stalin-style show trials and public confessions. The Turkmen constitution requires retirement at 70, but in August Niyazov created a 2500-member People’s Council that elected him Lifetime Chairman—unanimously.

9. Fidel Castro, Cuba.
Age 77. In power since 1959.
Last year’s rank: 9.

The world’s longest-reigning dictator, Castro took advantage of the world’s preoccupation with the war in Iraq last spring to carry out his biggest roundup of nonviolent dissidents in more than a decade. He arrested 75 human-rights activists, journalists and academics, sentencing them to prison for an average of 19 years. Cuba remains a one-party state. The courts are controlled by the “executive branch”—that is, Castro, who traditionally has blamed his country’s problems, both economic and social, on the U.S.

10. King Mswati III, Swaziland.
Age 35. In power since 1986.
Last year’s rank: Not listed.

Swaziland is the last remaining absolute monarchy in Africa. Mswati became king when he turned 18, four years after his father’s death. Though educated in England, Mswati has shown a liking for certain Swazi traditions. In Sept. 2002, he watched thousands of girls and young women dance bare-breasted in the annual Reed Dance, then chose one to be his 10th wife. (His father had 100 wives.) The girl’s mother filed a lawsuit charging the king with abducting her daughter. Mswati announced that Swazi courts were forbidden to issue rulings that limited the king’s power. To appease world opinion, he approved a new constitution to replace the one his father suspended 30 years earlier. However, the new constitution bans political parties, allows the death penalty for any criminal offense and provides for debtors’ prisons.


Robert Mugabe is bad yada, yada,yada. Robert Mugabe is mean, yada,yada,yada. Robert Mugabe is a homophobe, yada, yada, yada Zimbabwe sucks yada,yada,yada. Thats all that seems there is going to be said in this forum.Zimbabwe is going down the toilet, but what can we seriously do about it?

Assassinate the dumb ass and flush him down the gutters!!! Oops... I could be locked up for that!?

Well said HarkerB!!!! :)......but mate...(capetown), you treading on dangerous ground I suppose...........thats aside my aunt and uncle both were killed in Zimbabwe in 2002.

Personally.....I'll bite my tongue.

Pieter your posting was interesting. I happened to see the book and I totally agree that Robert Mugabe is one of the worst dictators in history. At indepenence in 1980 Zimbabwe was only second in Africa to South Africa in economic developement and at that time had a more dynamic economy than SA which at the time was under apartheid. In fact Mugabe told both Julius Nyrere of Tanzania and former Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith that he was inheriting a jewel in 1980. The country had 5% inflation, 10% unemployment and a currency that was worth more than the rand and the dollar. At that time GDP per capita was $600. Twenty five years later it is a tragic situation. The economy has contracted at a cumulative 60% in six years as a result of Mugabe's policies of expropriating commercial farms which once made the country the second largest exporter of agricultural products in Africa. GDP per capita is now below $200 making Zimbabwe one of the world's poorest countries that is now well below Mozambique and Zambia and on par with Malawi. Inflation is at 300% the world's highest in the world while unemployment is between 80% and 90%. In addition there are five million Zimbabweans living outside the country including three to four million in SA. At independence there were 200,000 whites but today there are fewer than 20,000 left while only 200 out of 4,000 commercial farms are still operating.
I think that in light of this total economic collapse, South Africa should demand that Robert Mugabe step down and insist that Zimbabwe restores democracy and the rule of law and allow the Movement for Democratic Change to win a free and fair democratic election. I think quiet diplomacy had been a total failure.

Lol!You're thinking like an American. I think that S.A should just stay out of it and just try to fix its own problems, rather than other country's problems, last time I checked that's what only superpowers do. I personally, don't see what makes him different than any other African dictator, or dictator in general. You think that just because Mugabe is gone that many Zimbabweans are just going to sit by and let their hero go. He's not seen as a dictator by many in his country, but as a hero who is fighting against the west. Many people feel that the economy is falling not because of corruption or whatever, but because of the economic sanctions imposed on it by the West. Shit, even if they had they had free and fair elections they would probably vote for his ass again, and even if that isnt the case, who says the next person isn't going to be as bad as him. Look at the Congo. There'll be probably be a civil war between ZANU supportors and other groups. I think S.A should totally stay out of this volatile situation, before its gets more worse and ends up turning into South Africa's Iraq. And what could suck more than having an "Iraq" that's right across the border?

Here'e another interesting article I came upon.

A rising China counters US clout in Africa
Trade drives political role ahead of Zimbabwe's election.
By Abraham McLaughlin | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

HARARE, ZIMBABWE - The Chinese economic juggernaut and its thirst for minerals and markets has increasingly brought it to Africa, including here to Zimbabwe. The fertile hills of this Southern African nation are rich with gold and the world's second-largest platinum reserves. In Sudan, Angola, and along the Gulf of Guinea, the Asian giant is guzzling the continent's vast oil supply.

But lately the Chinese are digging on a different front, one that could complicate the Bush administration's efforts to promote democracy here: African politics.

Last year, China stymied US efforts to levy sanctions on Sudan, which supplies nearly 5 percent of China's oil and where the US says genocide has occurred in its Darfur region. And as Zimbabwe becomes more isolated from the West, China has sent crates of T-shirts for ruling-party supporters who will vote in Thursday's parliamentary elections.

In addition, China or its businesses have reportedly:

• provided a radio-jamming device for a military base outside the capital, preventing independent stations from balancing state-controlled media during the election campaign;

• begun to deliver 12 fighter jets and 100 trucks to Zimbabwe's Army amid a Western arms embargo; and

• designed President Robert Mugabe's new 25-bedroom mansion, complete with helipad. The cobalt-blue tiles for its swooping roof, which echoes Beijing's Forbidden City, were a Chinese gift.

China is increasingly making its presence felt on the continent - from building roads in Kenya and Rwanda to increasing trade with Uganda and South Africa. But critics say its involvement in politics could help prop up questionable regimes, like Mr. Mugabe's increasingly autocratic 25-year reign.

"Suffering under the effects of international isolation, Zimbabwe has looked to new partners, including China, who won't attach conditions, such as economic and political reform" to their support, says a Western diplomat here. Of China's influence on this week's elections, he adds, "I find it hard to believe the Chinese would push hard for free and fair elections - it's not the standard they're known for."

Indeed, Mugabe often praises China and Asia as part of his new "Look East" policy. He responded to tough questions from an interviewer on Britain's Sky News last year about building his $9 million new home, while millions of Zimbabweans live on the verge of starvation, by saying: "You say it's lavish because it is attractive. It has Chinese roofing material, which makes it very beautiful, but it was donated to us. The Chinese are our good friends, you see."

China is becoming good friends to many African nations, as the US has been. Between 2002 and 2003, China-Africa trade jumped 50 percent, to $18.5 billion, Chinese officials say. It's expected to grow to $30 billion by 2006. US-Africa trade was $44.5 billion last year, according to the Commerce Department. As the world's largest oil importer behind the US, China has oil interests in Sudan, Chad, Nigeria, Angola, and Gabon. The US is also hunting for oil in Africa, with about 10 percent of imports coming from the continent.

Not all of China's activities in Africa are controversial. Under the auspices of the UN, the China-Africa Business Council opened this month, headquartered in China, to boost trade and development. It has peacekeepers in Liberia and has contributed to construction projects in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Zambia, though critics say it is using these projects to garner goodwill that it can tap into during prickly issues like Taiwan's independence or UN face-offs with the US.

Here in Zimbabwe, China also may be helping to support one of Africa's more oppressive regimes. The radio-jamming equipment that has prevented the independent Short Wave Radio Africa from broadcasting into the country is Chinese, according to the US-funded International Broadcast Bureau.

Reporters Without Borders, a group dedicated to freedom of the press, based in Paris, had this to say about the jamming: "Thanks to support from China, which exports its repressive expertise, Robert Mugabe's government has yet again just proved itself to be one of the most active predators of press freedom."

A Chinese diplomat here insists the equipment didn't come from China. And he says the T-shirts, which reportedly arrived on Air Zimbabwe's new direct flight from Beijing, were "purely a business transaction." But he adds that China-Zimbabwe relations have recently "been cemented in the field of politics and business."

In return for its support, China has received diplomatic backing on Taiwan's independence, as it has from many African nations.

Ultimately, China's expansion into Zimbabwe and Africa is more narrow than the 1800s colonization by European powers, when "Christianity, civilization, and commerce" were the buzzwords. For China, it's all about economics. "They've said: 'If you agree to privatize and sell to us your railways, your electricity generation, etc. - we will come in with capital," says John Robertson, an economist based in Harare.

With an economy that has shrunk as much as 40 percent in five years, Zimbabwe's government uses these promises to put off critics. "The government says, 'The Chinese are coming, and they'll bring in billions of dollars in investment, and soon everything will be fully restored,' " Mr. Robertson says.

Here's another thing that I saw from another website

He says his Look East policy had been forced upon him by the refusal of western partners to help with his economic problems. Inflation in Zimbabwe is in triple figures, unemployment is at 70 per cent and he has heavy foreign debts.

In a statement issued by the foreign ministry, Beijing gave its standard defence of its willingness to deal with pariah regimes, saying China did not "interfere with other countries' internal affairs".

Speaking before his meeting with Mr Mugabe, Mr Hu said: "You have made major contributions to the friendly relations between our two countries."

China's relations with African states go back to its days as a Marxist friend of liberation movements. Although it has shed some of the ideology of that era, and certainly the economics, the old relationships have found new life with China's recent economic and diplomatic expansion.

A report written recently by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, an academic, and the head of Johannesburg-based Africa Fighting Malaria, directly links Chinese investment with Zimbabwe's township clearance programme.

"Speculation over the motives. . . has pointed to the removal of local competition threatening newly arrived Chinese businessmen whose stores sell cheap and often poor quality goods," said the report for the American Enterprise Institute.

It estimated that up to 10,000 Chinese citizens had moved into the country under the Look East policy, some moving on to tobacco farms confiscated under Mr Mugabe's "land reform" policies. China has expressed public support for Zimbabwe's reforms.

What do you guys think about that?

Higher up on the ratings (or lower, it depends how you look at it) than Saudi Arabia's leader?!

I think that pretty much sums it up... yeah.

I think we can all agree thats its a terrible situation............however, I am not sure how it should be handled.......I suppose they have a better chance of turning themselves around if Mugabe wasnt in power. Of course, there is no guarantee.........and they would have to work very hard.

RE- his image in Zimbabwe-


He is loved, revered and supported by many Zimbabweans, but there are just as many who feel in danger, and wish the fuck would be out.

Mugabe is 80. South Africa doesn't really need to do anything as Mugabe will obviously die soon. At 80 he can't have much longer.

Don't be mistaken... he has enough followers and potential successors.. his death won't do a thing!! :(

South Africa will not in the foreseeable future go pounding into Zimbabwe because it isn't in our national interest to do so. Our economic ties with Zim are just fine, and we don't want to be seen by our fellow African niehgbours as a regonal hegemony.

Whilst I personally REALLY don't agree with this stance, in a reallistic context this is the only way forward according to the SA government. Hopefully Bobby will pop off soon, but as Andrew says, someone else will step in.

Well, I am surprised to hear about the Chinese coming in although I doubt that there are 10,000 of them in Zimbabwe. I think that China's support for Mugabe is both reprehensible and exploitative of it's people. Mugabe's claims about the Chinese coming in to rescue him must be taken with a grain of salt from a propaganda machine he controls. I think they are just coming in for publicity but do not have their checkbooks with them when they visit Zimbabwe, unlike in South Africa where there probably about 50,000 Chinese business people in the country making investment deals in Africa's economic powerhouse and biggest economy. South Africa is the country where the action is as far as China are concerned not a landlocked backwater that Zimbabwe has become under Mugabe. As far as Mugabe's popularity is concerned how can one say that when in fact he rigged three elections and in the presidential one in 2002 Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC would have easily taken 70% of the vote if it was a level playing field. I do not think for a second that the majority of his people support him but are waiting painfully for the day when he dies, is overthrown or preferably ousted in a fully democratic election. I do not think that only the West is concerned about the situation in Zimbabwe. I agree that Mugabe's regime is no different than most African governments that are corrupt but SA is a democracy that can demand action. Mugabe would not stand a chance. If SA were to cut off electricity to Zimbabwe today Mugabe would fall within less than a week. There are very few people in SA that would sympathise with him. Most blacks and whites alike would like to see him go if only privately at the official level. But there are factions within the ruling ANC that are vocal about the need to get rid of Mugabe such as COSATU and the SACP while all opposition parties except for the PAC oppose his dictatorship. I agree that in the end Mugabe is more than 80 years old and will not be in power much longer because of it. One can hope that there won't be a civil war after he goes. I can understand not wanting SA to intervene as Mugabe likes to threaten certain groups of people as he has done in Zimbabwe such as whites and any one who opposes him just as Hitler percecuted the Jews. But I do not think that we should fear this tin pot dictator who doesn't stand a chance, least against SA which has the moral, political, economic and military authority to bring about democratic change in Zimbabwe. Africa is more likely today to look to leaders like Nelson Mandela who favor democracy, peace, reconciliation and economic development rather than dictators like Robert Mugabe and his predesessors like Idi Amin in Uganda or Sese Seko Mobutu of Zaire (now DRC Congo).

I don't personally see the big deal about this. South Africa has nothing to gain from being involved in Zimbabwe its just a complete waste of time. We also have to take into consideration that another reason why Zimbabwe is suffering so bad economically is because of economic sanctions by the West. It's money that makes the world go round, not democracy. Don't get me wrong, I would rather live in a democracy any day than a country thats not one. But looking at the big picture, they can all be free as birds, but still all starve to death. What good is democracy if you don't have food to eat? And there are many African countries like that, not dictatorial just corrupt. People fling the term "democracy" around as if it is some magical thing that automatically transform a country's living standards to that of the United States.

Zimbabwe is not the only country with fixed elections, hell some countries don't even have elections. China and Saudia Arabia are not democracies,and have leaders who are on the same list as Mugabe is on, yet the West does not sanction them, and(actually in this case basically the United States) have practically sold its soul to them, economically. Why?

My neigbhour here in Dubai is a zimbo and he has land there (for now) and he recons the chineese are hectic there and they were the reason for the mass slums clearnce a few months ago as they said to bob, we will give you shit from houses to planes but we want to run your economy ie we want to have full control over resorces and trade , so the poor slums where there is massive informal trade with everything from car batrtries to eggs being sold on the black market.
So demolish the trade and you end up withj a manopoly easy.

Pieter I agree wholeheartedly with yopu (must be a first) about Saudi and China. I see first had loads of arab politics and how things are ignored and a blind eye turned in order to win p9olitical favour with the west and esspecially the US. It make me sick that they want to continue sanctions against cuba (for not being democratic) yet pump billions into the woirlds largest communist state.

LOL.....slum clearance..........so Mugabe forcibly removes thousands of people from their homes in Chitungwiza, to a "camp" on an isolated farm south of Harare, meanwhile practically bulldozing "slums" in the largest city and giving Harare the image of a "gleaming beacon of success, the pearly Capital".

To be perfectly honest, South Africa is.....for the most part.....benefitting from the situation in Zimbabwe. Think about it.......all the hunters, tourists, and ecowildlife viewers have now decided to make South Africa their destination of choice. Mining output has fallen to literally a miniscule fraction of what it had been previously...helping boost South Africas and Botswanas mining product. Agriculture has come to a standstill in Zimbabwe......farms in South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia are all now seeing better and better income. Really, the situation in Zimbabwe is purely too helpful to the economies and international opinions of stable Southern African countries, to be be reckoned with.


I recently read an essay and discussed at length with a very knowledgable young man from Johannesburg, who seems to comprehend and grasp more about Geo-Politics than most politicians EVER will. In short, he explained to me that, governments WILL help out and WILL intervene in tragedies......but only when its beneficial for them.....and throughout history, almost every nation is guilty of it. Right now anyway, South Africa, (AND Botswana, AND Mozambique, AND Zambia) are just seeing too many pluses to expel money, manpower and dignity.......on a biting mosquito.

GENOCIDE is not enough.

Duh! Don't you already know that, countries helping other countries just out of moral benevolence, is a great myth. No country helps another country just because it is their moral right to. If that was the case Africa and many other countries would not be in the situation they are in. Only reason why other countries intervene in the politics of another country is simply for economic gain. They could give two shits about whose starving and whose dying. Its sad but true.

but the other side of the coin is mass invasion across the bordfer of people trying to escape the opression and poverty and adding to the problem in SA. Its not like there arent enough Zimbabwians living in SA (3 million or so). This leads to Xenophobia .

Yeah, let them in, cheap(er) labour. However,its true xenophobia is a very big problem in S.A, unfortunately. But these are Zimbabweans, at least the Ndebele can blend in with their South African counterparts. I don't know about the other ethnic groups. I think it could turn around to be an economic benefit, if the South African government plays their cards right. Not every body leaving Zimbabwe is poor and uneducated and there would somewhat of a brain drain from that country, which could in the long run benefit South African economy

how can it benifit SA for migrant refugees to work at lower than minimum wages then repatriate thier money to zim. SA looses twice as our own people have had their jobs taken and the wealth generated is spent propping up a genocidal regime.

They may send some of their money back to Zim, but South Africa would also save on the money on the cheaper labour that that they would be. Or South Africa could build up a Berlin wall type border to quell mass migration, and limit migration to professionals and those who are educated, maybe they would be able to help with S.A 's education problem. Since they would have an influx of educated professionals who would be able to train local people. Where are most of the professional and educated Zimbabweans going in the first place, are they going to the West are they going to South Africa?

sort of agree on the educated types, but what about the thousands of educated south africans leaving uni with no job to go to cos the zimbo took it?
I do believe in securing ones borders and the electric fence as built amnd p[aid for 20 years ago is sufficient

LOL.......duh?...................dude..........take a chill pill............ur not the only fuckin ass on the website guy, get over yourself :)

you refering to me Datilguy?

Nah to Pieter over there :)

Yes I agree that Zimbabwe is not the only dictatorship in the world and that the USA is famous for telling others it's own version of it along with other rich countries. The West's own role in Zimbabwe before 2000 is to be questioned. While much attention was focused on apartheid in South Africa and every continent had a say about it during the 1970-80's, no one, the West included did anything or say anything about Mugabe's North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade which slaughtered 40,000 Matabeles between 1983-87, an atrocity far greater than the 20,000 people killed in apartheid SA from 1960-1994. Yet the West ignored Zimbabwe while focusing on SA because SA had a white government, while there were black goverments that were just as bad if not much worse were forgotton...Uganda...Zaire...Sudan.

I do not agree with Pieter about sanctions causing the crisis in Zimbabwe. The sanctions imposed by the West are merely "targeted" sanctions that do not have a punitive impact on the regime. They are in any event evaded by officials not on the black list or under different names and these targeted sanctions I think are a joke. They are not like the punitive sanctions imposed on SA in the 1980's that included bans on investment, loans, and major commodities like steel and coal along with divestment laws by US cities and counties. There is no such effort by the West up to now to apply similar measures against Mugabe's regime. Although I think that there may be shareholder activism against companies that trade and invest in with Mugabe's Zimbabwe by NGO groups in Britain and SA. We must not forget that COSATU, which has two million members, can apply pressure on companies and pension investment funds just like anti-apartheid activists did in the 1980's. Even Skanska's shareholders balked at the takeover by Old Mutual because of the latter's holdings in Zimbabwe. I think that Old Mutual may have to choose between Zimbabwe and their lucrative deals overseas. I would think in this matter they would would choose the latter since Zimbabwe is no longer a lucrative place to do business. Already SA companies have disinvested from Zimbabwe by pulling at least $1 billion out of that company along with their counterparts in the West.

Remember that the crisis in Zimbabwe is Mugabe's doing, not the West's. Western companies and bankers are not investing in Zimbabwe because their goverments are telling them not to as was the case under apartheid, rather they have chosen more lucrative places to do business.

Yes I agree that Zimbabwe is not the only dictatorship in the world and that the USA is famous for telling others it's own version of it along with other rich countries. The West's own role in Zimbabwe before 2000 is to be questioned. While much attention was focused on apartheid in South Africa and every continent had a say about it during the 1970-80's, no one, the West included did anything or say anything about Mugabe's North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade which slaughtered 40,000 Matabeles between 1983-87, an atrocity far greater than the 20,000 people killed in apartheid SA from 1960-1994. Yet the West ignored Zimbabwe while focusing on SA because SA had a white government, while there were black goverments that were just as bad if not much worse were forgotton...Uganda...Zaire...Sudan.



The West focussed on South Africa because it had a racist government. Other countries on the continent had pyscho governments, but they at least treated everyone equally (poorly). If the Nats had no racial ideology, and oppressed EVERYONE equally, nobody in the world would have said a word.

Very true. ^

not to ignigte this thread again, but as an opressed people wouldent you rather be alive and under apartheid than butched and starved under a kenyatta,mugabe, seku seku, idi amin etc?
Food for thought

They all equally suck. Fear is fear no matter who scares you. Death is death, no matter who kills you. Studying human behavior,there is no way a white South African government would oppress everybody equally, that doesn't make any sense and has never happened before on the history of the earth.


P.S Its not Seku Seku, its Sese Seku

P.S Its not Seku Seku, its Sese Seku

Until you corrected him, I had no idea he was referring to Mobutu.

P.S Its not Seku Seku, its Sese Seku


It's not "Its not Seku Seku, its Sese Seku," but rather "It's not Seku Seku, it's Sese Seku."


Until you corrected him, I had no idea he was referring to Mobutu.


Weirdly enough, I knew he was referring to Mobutu.

In fact, I find this incessant pointing out of spelling mistakes quite... silly. :)

I only corrected him, not to be annoying, but because I don't anyone else would have figured who he was talking about.

Thanks Tom, I find it petty too, who gives a shit about spelling mistakes, Its a blog site for fuck sakes

I would agree with datilguy that tourism in SA no longer has to compete with the Zimbabwe's dilapidated tourist sector. As recent as 1999 there were 550,000 overseas tourists visiting Zimbabwe, which is about a third the number that visited SA. The tourism industry in Zimbabwe has collapsed as a result of Mugabe's disastrous policies. Foreign tourist receipts have plunged from $400 million in 1999 to $30 million in 2004. Hotels such as the Meikles in Harare and the Elephant Hills Hotel in Victoria Falls (the latter is a former InterContinental property) have closed half their rooms, while the Sheraton is pulling out of Harare at the end of this year when their management contract expires. I read that while a tourism fair was held at this property a week ago guests were without water because of shortages caused by the fuel crisis. No surprise that it is no longer a posh five-star property it once was.

That said thare are Zimbabweans who are investing in SA's tourism sector including millionaire Keith Stewart, who has developed the R500 million rand Pezula Estate, which includes Pezula Resort Hotel, a country club and luxury houses, in Knysna on the Garden Route.

Amazingly I have a friend that just returned from Zimbabwe in late August........he said it was in just a horrible horrible state. He had a gun pointed at him the whole time........which makes me wonder, how he even got in and out of the country. I am sure he didnt fly into Harare, as he was told by government officials in South Africa, Botswana and the American Embassy that *people?* had invaded the airport, and were making certain ethnicity tourists turn around and reroute to Bulawayo or Maputo.


Go fucking figure.

So howzit going in Zimbabwe, now?

Mugabe has just refused UN sponsored tents for the thousands of homeless, caused by the dictator himself.

Today I read about the inflation there... it broke a world record @ 375%... some of my friends from Zimbabwe told me some stories about living (or lack thereof) with the inflation.. horrible horrible horrible...

He said his people arent tent people. what a fool.

Wow, thats terrible why is he doing this?

Shoot to Kill
Inside the hidden links between American big-game hunters and Zimbabwe’s Mugabe dictatorship.

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/6794/060112safarileopardvlwidec3rh.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
An American woman with a leopard shot in August, 2003 during a Buffalo Range Safari in Zimbabwe

WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Joshua Hammer
Newsweek
Updated: 5:58 p.m. ET Jan. 13, 2006
Jan. 13, 2006 - Jocelyn Chiwenga is not a woman to be taken lightly. The wife of Gen. Constantine Chiwenga, commander-in-chief of Zimbabwe’s army, Mrs. Chiwenga has earned a reputation in her own right as a vicious enforcer for President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Popular Front (ZANU-PF). In April 2002 she reportedly showed up at a farm outside Harare, the capital, with an armed gang and ordered the farm’s white owner to turn over his property to her or be killed, according to documents filed in a Zimbabwean court. One year later, Chiwenga accosted Gugulethu Moyo, an attorney for a pro-opposition newspaper, and beat her so severely that she had to seek medical attention. “Your paper wants to encourage anarchy in this country,” Chiwenga reportedly shouted as she punched and slapped the 28-year-old lawyer on a Harare street. “Chiwenga is as close to the center of power as you get,” says David Coltart, a parliamentarian and leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, the country’s main opposition party.

She also knows how to use her power. About three years ago, Chiwenga won an auction for a coveted lease on a 220-square-mile tract of bush, owned by Zimbabwe’s Parks and Wildlife Authority, located just outside Hwange National Park in southwest Zimbabwe. Abounding in the Big Five—lion, elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard, and black rhino—Chiwenga’s property has since become a choice destination for professional hunters, particularly well-heeled Americans.

Now, Chiwenga’s business ambitions—as well as her political clout—have brought her to the attention of the U.S. government. Last November, the Treasury Department added Chiwenga, 50, to a list of 128 Mugabe relatives and cronies who are “undermining democratic processes or institutions in Zimbabwe.” The Treasury Department has blocked the assets of those on the list and established penalties of up to $250,000 and 10 years’ imprisonment for anyone who does business with them. And that executive order has put dozens, if not hundreds, of Americans who hunt on her land in legal jeopardy.

Chiwenga’s sanctioning by the U.S. government has drawn new attention to the unsavory, and usually hidden, links between American sportsmen and the Mugabe dictatorship. During the past six years, Zimbabwe’s economy has been in free fall, with the country’s gross domestic product dropping by half and agricultural production sinking by more than 80 percent. But hunting has remained one of the country’s few thriving industries, bringing in as much as $30 million annually, according to conservationists and professional hunters in Zimbabwe. Much of that cash has gone into the coffers of ZANU-PF insiders, who have gained control of government-owned safari land at below market prices, reportedly through rigged auctions in many cases. One of Chiwenga’s neighbors in the Victoria Falls area is Webster Shamu, Mugabe’s Minister of Policy Implementation, and a key architect of Operation Murambatsvina—“Clean out the Rubbish”—the brutal slum clearance program that has left some 700,000 poor black Zimbabweans homeless. (Shamu is among the original 77 insiders who had their assets frozen and were barred from entering the United States by the Treasury Department in 2003). Another big player is Jacob Mudenda, the former governor of Matabeleland North. All of them do a brisk business catering to professional American hunters, who make up about half of the clientele, according to industry insiders.

The Mugabe cronies-turned-safari operators are usually careful to conceal their direct involvement in the hunting business. Joyce Chiwenga, for example, seems to work through a network of agents that markets safaris heavily in the United States but never reveal the name of the property’s primary lease holder. Among them: Rob and Barry Style, owners of Buffalo Range Safaris, based in Harare. The Style brothers are regular participants at the Annual Hunters’ Convention scheduled for next week in Reno, Nevada,—a three-day marketing extravaganza sponsored by Safari Club International, America’s largest hunting club—and at other venues where American hunters congregate. Although Rob Style denied in an e-mail to NEWSWEEK that he had a business relationship with Chiwenga, several professional hunters in Zimbabwe insist that the brothers have frequently taken clients to shoot animals on her property. The Hunting Guide, an industry newsletter published in the United States, also names Buffalo Range Safaris as a hunting-safari operator on Chiwenga-owned land. Asked whether Safari Club International was concerned about the prospect of facilitating commercial links between American hunters and a sanctioned Zimbabwean figure, David Nagore, an SCI spokesman, says “On the advice of counsel, SCI has no comment on the matter.”

American hunters are also flocking to private-game reserves that were seized without compensation, and sometimes with violence, from white farmers and ranchers as part of Mugbe’s radical land-reform program, which reached a peak in 2002. That property is now mostly in the hands of ZANU-PF activists and Zimbabwe independence war veterans—considered to be among Mugabe’s most diehard supporters. While hunting on these properties doesn't violate U.S. sanctions, human-rights activists and political opposition figures in Zimbabwe say that it is morally objectionable and helps to give legitimacy to a repressive regime. In addition, it is on these ranches, Zimbabwe conservationists charge, that some of the worst abuses of the country’s environment are taking place—abuses that could threaten the survival of Zimbabwe’s rich wildlife, especially the endangered black rhino. Many of the land owners who took this property by force have no experience in wildlife conservation: they reportedly ignore strict hunting quotas established by the Wildlife Authority on prized species such as lion and leopard. They also allegedly kill animals, including rhino, inside protected wildlife areas such as Hwange National Park, one of southern Africa’s most renowned game reserves. “Poaching is rife,” says Johnny Rodrigues, the head of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, a private activist group. “There’s no law and order here.”

Sorting through the thicket of charges and countercharges can be difficult. Larry Cumming, a white rancher, purchased Woodland Estates near Victoria Falls more than 30 years ago and developed it into one of the country’s best hunting and safari reserves. “I built dams, fenced the property, sunk 22 boreholes, purchased wildlife,” he says. But in 2001 the Mugabe regime forced him to surrender half his property—and half his hunting revenue—to 89 destitute Zimbabwean families as part of its land-redistribution plan. Threats were exchanged and, in 2003, Cumming and his wife fled the ranch and moved to Victoria Falls. At that point, a local safari company, Inyathi Hunting—partly owned by Mudenda, the former provincial governor and a close associate of Mugabe—signed a deal with the ranch’s new owners to take over commercial hunts on the property. During the past two years, Cumming charges, Inyathi has been ignoring quotas, hunting for game on other properties, and failing to keep track of wounded animals—a serious violation of hunting ethics. “Inyathi is hunting there knowing that they will not have the property forever, so there’s pillage and rape [of the environment],” Cumming charges.

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/130/060113safarigiraffehsmallstand.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Steve Williams, the founder of Inyathi and now a marketing consultant for the company, says that he and his partners had no qualms about buying rights to hunt on land that Cummings says was stolen from him. “If your government goes with it [as a policy], then you have to go with it,” he says. Williams claims that Cumming is spreading untrue reports because he is embittered about losing the property. “I can’t condemn the man for being emotional about something that’s been his for years, but we were never a part of that,” he says. He argues that much of the hunting revenue benefits poor black Zimbabweans who wouldn’t have shared the wealth during the days of white ownership. “The 89 black families who have taken over Woodland Estate now have safe drinking water, a better standard of living, an income. We’ve taken the blows, the allegations, the ridicule of people like Cumming. But we’re operating the property in a manner that we are proud of,” Williams says.

That may be so. But in September 2005, Mudenda, along with three other top officials of ZANU-PF, were accused by a conservation group in Zimbabwe of using fake hunting permits and poaching wildlife in the Intensive Conservation Areas in Matabeleland, established by the government in 1991 to protect rhino, elephant, lion and other prized species. All have denied the charges.

Debate also swirls around what many industry sources call the most controversial operator in Zimbabwe: Out of Africa Adventurous Safaris. Founded by four former South African policemen and based in both South Africa and Overland Park, Kan., the company has done a brisk business taking a heavily American clientele to hunt on several ranches that, according to industry watchdogs in Zimbabwe, were seized by ZANU-PF activists and independence war veterans. Critics, including the Zimbabwean Association of Tourism and Safari Operators, say that the group uses poorly trained hunting guides who, among other violations, sometimes endanger the lives of their clients and overhunt species in violation of the Zimbabwean government's hunting rules.

Zimbabwe’s Parks and Wildlife Authority banned Out of Africa last year from operating in the country. “This is an unscrupulous organization that doesn’t respect the environment and pursues unsustainable quotas,” says David Coltart, the opposition leader. Conservationist Johnny Rodrigues calls the company the most “flagrant violator” of hunting regulations in Zimbabwe. Dawie Groenewald, one of the founding partners of Out of Africa, denies that his company has done anything ethically wrong and says that he has been slandered by white Zimbabwean hunters. “The white Zimbabweans hunting in Zim don't want anyone else coming in there to hunt—they hate South Africans coming to hunt in their kingdom," he told NEWSWEEK. Out of Africa's attorney, Kevin Anderson, says that “these allegations about poaching and other illegal activities have been floating around for several years and they've never been substantiated.” Anderson also says that Out of Africa recently decided to stop organizing hunts in Zimbabwe because “it's just become too difficult.”

Whatever the case, next week in Reno, Out of Africa will set up its usual booth at the SCI convention—just down the hall from Buffalo Range Safaris, according to the SCI Web site. But for the hundreds of American sportsmen browsing for an African safari next week, finding out the full story of those two companies’ activities in Zimbabwe will require a real hunting expedition.

© 2006 Newsweek, Inc.

It is a pity for Zimbabwe. The same happens in Côte d´ivoire prsently under other circumsatnces, of course. In the 70´s, 80´s and with some "stains" in the 90´s Côte d´ivoire was the most shining example of economic development in sub-saharan africa (outside South africa, of course). Abidjan was an amazing city with Parisian style boulevards, glitzy and well-maintained skyscrapers , huge hypermarkets, fancy restaurants and patisseries, lovely French-style boutiques, wonderful African art galleries, superb hotels and casinos and a good industrial and service sector, lovely weekend "hang outs" outside the city (beaches with excellent Lebanese, Ivoirian and French-Style restaurants)...and even an Olypic-sized ice-sakting rink in the midst of a tropical country (the only one in Africa by then;outside of South Africa). In the 1980´s Côte d´ivoire GDP per head even exceeded that of Botswana .

You could also easily glide on a six-lane motorway from Abidjan to the new capital Yamoussoukro (200 km from Abidjan)....Côte d´ivoire with a population of just 7-8 miilion in the 80´s was a tropical paradise which also explains its melting pot character (millions of Africans from Mali, Senegal, Ghana, more than 300 000 Lebanese, almost 100 000 Europeans mostly French and about 10 000 Vietnamese settled there)

Now everthing is in decay. The decline of the country is SHOCKING, to put it mildly! Towers are rotting away. Streets are filled with litter,African "immigrants" have fled, out of the 100 000 Europeans only less than 2000 Frenchmen are left and corruption is killing the country...It really makes my heart bleed!
Can you imagine that Côte d´ivoire GDP per head was higher than that of Thailand or Malysia in the 80´s? it sounds unbelievable but it is true!
Zimbabwe seems to me to have a ressemblance with Côte d´ivoire (as it once was the "bread basket of Africa" with well-developed cities)

It is a pity for Zimbabwe. The same happens in Côte d´ivoire presently under other circumstances, of course. In the 70´s, 80´s and with some "stains" in the 90´s Côte d´ivoire was the most shining example of economic development in sub-saharan africa (outside South africa, of course). Abidjan was an amazing city with Parisian style boulevards, glitzy and well-maintained skyscrapers , huge hypermarkets, fancy restaurants and patisseries, lovely French-style boutiques, wonderful African art galleries, superb hotels and casinos and a good industrial and service sector, lovely weekend "hang outs" outside the city (beaches with excellent Lebanese, Ivoirian and French-Style restaurants)...and even an Olypic-sized ice-sakting rink in the midst of a tropical country (the only one in Africa by then;outside of South Africa). In the 1980´s Côte d´ivoire GDP per head even exceeded that of Botswana .

You could also easily glide on a six-lane motorway from Abidjan to the new capital Yamoussoukro (200 km from Abidjan)....Côte d´ivoire with a population of just 7-8 miilion in the 80´s was a tropical paradise which also explains its melting pot character (millions of Africans from Mali, Senegal, Ghana, more than 300 000 Lebanese, almost 100 000 Europeans mostly French and about 10 000 Vietnamese settled there)

Now everthing is in decay. The decline of the country is SHOCKING, to put it mildly! Towers are rotting away. Streets are filled with litter,African "immigrants" have fled, out of the 100 000 Europeans only less than 2000 Frenchmen are left and corruption is killing the country...It really makes my heart bleed!
Can you imagine that Côte d´ivoire GDP per head was higher than that of Thailand or Malysia in the 80´s? it sounds unbelievable but it is true!
Zimbabwe seems to me to have a ressemblance with Côte d´ivoire (as it once was the "bread basket of Africa" with well-developed cities)

Very sad indeed. Thanks to power hungry, corrupt scoundrels like Mugabe and what have you. Can Africa ever shed the mantle of the incompetent, lost continent? What's wrong with the thinking of most African leaders? They are spending billions on weaponry, at the same time crying and pleading for their debts to be cancelled. They are such a bunch of embarrassing monkeys, I say!

The countries that sell them these weapons should stop selling it to them. The U.S., the U.K., France, Russia and China are all permanent members of the UN Security Council, yet they are the world's leading arms dealers.

That's taking the responsibility out of African hands. Why can't the imbisiles take responsibility and prioritize? We cannot endlessly blame the West for the shithole that we're in, and blame all our mishaps on the them. Africa almost gave Sudan the AU seat, irrespective of what' that's gvt's doing there.
Home examples: the ANC tend to take an antogonistic stance when it comes to the world's outcasts, not taking into account what damage it might cause to SA- in the name of 'brotherhood' i.e Mugabe, Ghadaffi, Castro, Aristide. There were rumours that the govt will vote against action being taken against Iran. I'm frankly surprised that its not the only country with diplomatic ties in North Korea?!

Do they still drug the animals b4 the tourists go and "hunt" for them. thats just sick wat they do.

Welcome to Zimbabwes Biggest Daily Online Newspaper

Zim Daily (http://www.zimdaily.com)

Another Victim Of Mugabe's Policies - Sheraton Pulls Out Of Zimbabwe

Friday, December 09 2005 @ 01:06 AM GMT
Contributed by: correspondent

http://www.yu-build.com/main/c/033/033b.jpg

The five-star Sheraton Hotel in Harare faces closure amid reports that the US franchisor Starwood refused to extend the management contract beyond December 31. One of the three biggest and most prestigious hotels in Zimbabwe, the Sheraton Harare is managed on contract by United States of America-based Starwood Hotels, the owners of the Sheraton brand.

Sources close to the developments said the hotel lost the franchise because it has regularly failed to pay management and franchise fees. The five-star hotel is owned by Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG), a company in which the government of Zimbabwe has 17 percent stake. A Libyan investment firm, Lafico-fca, holds 14.1 percent and French hotel operator, Accor-Afrique, controls 34.61 percent of the Group. Local investors own the remainder. Zimdaily understands that Starwood Hotels' management contract was signed in 1993. RTG chairman Ibbo Mandaza confirmed that the hotel had lost the franchise but denied that RTG was losing the contract because of deferred payment of management fees.

"Remember there has been some recession experienced in the tourism industry. Yes it is true that we had an accumulation of management fees to Starwood, but we cleared that earlier this year," Mandaza said. Zimdaily heard that the bill had ballooned to US$1 million over four years. Mandaza however conceded that since the decline of the tourism industry in 2000, RTG, which has been operating under international brands and franchises, has experienced difficulties in generating both local and foreign currency to pay management fees for the brands. Mandaza said the hotel has suffered from low occupancy rates and reduced revenues since recession gripped the local tourism industry four years ago.

Once the fastest growing economic sector, tourism nosedived as foreign visitors cancelled bookings fearing political violence and lawlessness in the country. Mandaza expressed the hope that RTG would continue running the hotel once it resolved its financial difficulties, saying the company had sought help from top authorities: "We have engaged the highest levels of monetary policy authorities and government who are assisting us to deploy solutions which are sustainable and mutually acceptable to all concerned."

Pleading with international creditors to be patient with defaulting Zimbabwean companies in his most recent monetary policy review, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono said: "My appeal to creditors is that they should give these companies sufficient time to pay their obligations without taking actions that might in the end disadvantage both parties." Gono has led efforts to persuade millions of Zimbabweans living and working abroad to send home hard cash, which is needed to help companies such as Sheraton Harare meet their foreign debt commitments. But the governor last month admitted that his efforts have so far failed to yield much. Mandaza said the hotel has seen an increase in operational costs and profits stymied by the current economic problems, blighting virtually every sector of the economy. Recently the US government trawled sanctions against Harare over increasing human rights violations.

Very sad indeed. Thanks to power hungry, corrupt scoundrels like Mugabe and what have you. Can Africa ever shed the mantle of the incompetent, lost continent? What's wrong with the thinking of most African leaders? They are spending billions on weaponry, at the same time crying and pleading for their debts to be cancelled. They are such a bunch of embarrassing monkeys, I say!


What about the pigs who give money and guns for the coups to happen?

I cant believe its closing. I used to stay there regularly. Very sad news. Zim used to be such a lovely country.

If the government in Zimbabwe is so tyrannical, why is that it has allowed the former brutal, racist white Prime Minister Ian Smith to not only keep his life, but to live in comfort, participate in political life, and routinely criticize the government. How many [tyrannical] countries would do that?

If the government in Zimbabwe is so tyrannical, why is that it has allowed the former brutal, racist white Prime Minister Ian Smith to not only keep his life, but to live in comfort, participate in political life, and routinely criticize the government. How many [tyrannical] countries would do that?

None. I think that Robert Mugabe should have either expelled him at independence and if he refused to leave Zim he should have been shot.

Bloody hell. Muckingfutz where do you live and where are you from? How about the 20,000 poor bastards who were victims of the 5th brigade? etc etc etc. Jesus christ. how many times have youi been to zim?

And capetown you obviously care more about prejudice than you do about democracy.

Business Day (Johannesburg)

COLUMN
April 5, 2006
Posted to the web April 5, 2006

Dumisani Muleya
Johannesburg

WITH Zimbabwean opposition and civil society groups fractured and disabled, the country's economic crisis has become President Robert Mugabe's biggest opposition.

Recent studies have shown Zimbabwe has the fastest-shrinking economy in the world -- outside of a war zone, that is. It also has the highest inflation in the world at 782%, followed by Iraq at 40%. To top it off, Zimbabwe has the weakest currency in Africa.

Countries reeling from bouts of civil war such as Sudan, Somalia and Côte d'Ivoire and poverty-ridden ones like East Timor, Afghanistan and Guinea-Bissau have lower rates of inflation than Zimbabwe, which is not classified a poor country by the United Nations even with its current conditions. Zimbabwe is endowed with human capital and natural resources. This is why the prevailing situation is such an indictment of Mugabe, whose regime has distinguished itself for being corrupt and incompetent. No amount of revolutionary demagoguery by Mugabe and his hangers-on can mask this.

Mugabe's rule has become costly and unsustainable. His continued hold on power is proving to be an active agent of economic decline, poverty and sociopolitical instability. The collateral damage of Mugabe's reign on regional economies is also ominous.

Zimbabwe's rampant inflation is soon expected to break the 1000% mark as government continues to print money on a massive scale to keep itself in power. After that the country will plunge in to a spiral of hyperinflation. The country has, over the past couple of months, printed Z$46-trillion to pay international debts and sustain government operations.

Mugabe has come out in defence of printing money, a move which all but confirmed the policy bankruptcy of his regime. For a president who is supposed to be an educated economist -- with seven university degrees -- it is even more embarrassing.

A study titled Macroeconomics in the Global Economy by Jeffrey Sachs and Felipe Larrain B, notes that the main causes of inflation are revolutions, wars, civil strife and exogenous factors, which all inevitably lead to the printing of money. Printing money increases money supply growth and hence inflation.

For the US, before the 20th century, the main cause of inflation -- which peaked at an annual rate of 5570% and 40% monthly in 1864 -- was printing money to finance the civil war. At one time over 80% of the total US government financing was from paper money. The same situation gripped Europe after wars.

During the 1980s, hyperinflationary conditions developed in many Latin American such as Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru and Nicaragua, and in the former Yugoslavia. The situation in Zimbabwe is different from these other countries but the conditions for hyperinflation already exist. The economic indicators, unemployment, interest rates, exchange rate and business performance, are grim.

Corruption has also reached alarming levels. Government and the ruling Zanu (PF) officials are falling on each other to strip the economy of its assets and loot whatever remains. The officials have descended on the cadaverous economy like vultures. They have taken farms, safaris, companies, they are looting minerals and now they want to grab mines. They are also abusing public assets for private gain. This has been acknowledged by government itself but nothing is being done to save the economy. Rent-seeking behaviour in the public and private sectors is also rampant. These issues are accelerating economic collapse.

The divided opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and civil society movements are disorganised and weak. The MDC wrangles have ensured that the party becomes ineffective and not a notable threat to Mugabe. If the MDC and civil society groups were strong, Mugabe's regime would not last long. The economic hardships and popular discontent, if capably exploited by the MDC, would be the most lethal political weapon against the Mugabe.
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Ultimately, the economy will be the agent of change in Zimbabwe -- not the MDC. The economy and dynamics in Mugabe's party are now the major driving forces behind slow but sure collapse of Mugabe's regime.

There is no elected government in modern history which has survived four-digit levels of inflation and such an economic crisis. The writing is on the wall -- the economy will be Mugabe's downfall.

The only slum area I know that has been cleared because of Operation Murambatsvina is the Siyaso Home Industries Area in Harare. I don't know if any other slums have been affected by this slum clearance order.