The price of bad government
I was one of a small minority of white Zimbabweans who had fought the fight to secure equal rights and the vote for the majority in Zimbabwe. I actually joined the political struggle in 1966 and in April 1980 I found myself sitting on the podium at Rufaro Stadium in Mbare behind the Prime Minister of India and just a few metres from the Prince of Wales and the new Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. I was there because I had made a small contribution to that moment in time. It was hugely moving to watch units of the armies that had been involved in the war of Independence, on the Parade Ground in front of us and a capacity crowd in the stands.
Next week it will be 34 years since Zimbabwe was created and the Zanu PF Party took power. Ian Smith governed the country for 16 turbulent years. The whites had controlled the State since 1923 when Rhodesia had been granted Dominion Status; that is just 57 years. I think Zimbabwe is now old enough for us to judge how our leadership has done with the mandate they were given in 1980.
They took over a country with virtually no debt, a small but self sufficient economy which was able to sustain a reasonable standard of living for its people, albeit in a very unequal and skewed manner. The country had received virtually no external assistance in the previous 60 years, had been at war with itself since 1964, with a real war from 1972 and had been operating under the most severe system of United Nations Sanctions ever mounted by the world community, since 1967.
Mr. Mugabe took over a country with a small but honest and efficient administration, a well-educated minority and a people who, despite all the struggles and conflicts of the past, had the second highest standard of living in the Southern Africa after South Africa.
At the same moment in time China emerged from its long night under Mao tse Tung - its economy was at about the same stage as that of Zimbabwe, 30 per cent urban, the rural poor in a desperate state with millions dying from starvation each year, low incomes - perhaps half that of Zimbabwe and barely able to stand up in the global community. Isolated and shunned.