IF anyone had been ruler of a country for a quarter of a century, during which the once prosperous economy had collapsed, inflation had become one of the world’s highest and the rural poor were on the edge of starvation, you might expect that national elections would spell the end of their rule. However Zimbabwe’s 81-year-old President Robert Mugabe is unlikely to be packing his bags and preparing to move out of the presidential office. His ZANU-PF party will once again have fixed the vote. Mugabe’s government, despite its consistent incompetence and corruption, insists that it is not to blame for the substantial economic misfortunes that have befallen the country in its 25 years of rule — and will not allow anyone to put the blame on it.
Zimbabweans came late to freedom because the white minority declared independence from Britain and maintained their rule with help of white-ruled South Africa and the Portuguese territories of Angola and Mozambique. The collapse of the white Smith government ought to have heralded a brave new world. White farmers, who controlled most of the prime agricultural land and generated the majority of Zimbabwe’s healthy export earnings, called themselves Zimbabweans and appeared happy with the new Mugabe government. They even accepted in principle the need to hand back some of their land to the blacks from whom it had been taken by Victorian settlers.
Unfortunately as the economically illiterate regime drove the economy into the ground, Mugabe needed someone else to blame. The most obvious candidates were the white farmers. Tragically the mayhem that ZANU-PF unleashed upon the farming community, the one remaining support of the country’s already ravaged finances, has proven catastrophic. However strong the moral case for taking back white-owned land, the timing and the destructive manner in which the seizures happened destroyed the jobs and prosperity of hundreds of thousands of black workers.
Were Zimbabwe a truly democratic country, the election results due to be declared later today would probably see an end of Mugabe’s rule. There is, however, general anticipation that they will once again be rigged. Nevertheless, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has seen fit to take part in the vote and his decision deserves respect. The alternative to peaceful change via elections is civil strife which he has rightly deplored. Since the results are almost certain to reconfirm ZANU-PF in power, the question must be what will opponents of this bankrupt and dishonest regime do next. Many of Zimbabwe’s brightest and best, by some accounts an astonishing 3.4 million people, have already quit the country. Those that remain are more likely to be Mugabe supporters who may swing the vote legitimately in the old leader’s favor.
But however honest the vote, nothing is going to change the economic mess that is Zimbabwe short of a complete reversal of the inept and corrupt policies that have driven the country onto the economic rocks.
