From: Carol B. Thompson [mailto:carol.thompson@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2000 10:40 AM
WHAT IS HAPPENING IN ZIMBABWE?
There is concern among many activists in Southern Africa because the media
and even liberals in the USA are labeling Zimbabwe as a "failed state" or
that it is "self-destructing." Further, many analyses of Zimbabwe rely
on the simplistic notion that removing President Robert Mugabe will solve
everything. As activists, we do need to expose every human rights
violation, every breach of the rule of law, and every corrupt act.
However, there has never been a livelier debate in Zimbabwe -- political,
economic and social (e.g. gender rights). The people of Zimbabwe have
shown their patience, their determination and their bravery in holding
general elections, in voting, and in constantly organizing in many civil
society organizations to resolve the problems. The press daily criticizes
any abrogation of law and order by the government, and it is exposing
corruption, probably to a higher degree than the US establishment media is
exposing US corruption. The churches are a strong voice of conscience,
with leaders assisting in democratic organizing. Labor is highly
organized and militant, as the recent general strike revealed. The women
are working in at least two dozen organizations
to be represented in the political discussions, in land redistribution, in
stopping the violence, in ending the HIV-Aids crisis. National
developmental NGOs are highly efficient and working to overcome the
extreme poverty by empowering rural peoples.
As for the government itself, within the parliament, the debates are very
lively and highly critical of executive branch policy. The court system
remains quite independent and ruled just recently that one executive
action was null and void (discounting all mailed ballots for the
election). Only the executive branch of the government is still acting
unilaterally and very often, irresponsibly. One could point out many
governments, including the USA, when such a case was operative, and it
took time to change it. Within the ruling party, Zanu-PF, there is much
debate, and power struggles, over the next steps, economic and
political. The cabinet even has a member who says he will not join a
political party (Minister of Trade and Industry Nkomo) in order to remain
independent enough to do his job, and the Minister of Finance has pledged
that all government agencies will follow the budget (Makoni).
Zimbabwe -- its civil society, its political parties, and most of its
government -- remains very democratic, involving higher levels of
commitment and participation than other, more mature democracies.
Zimbabwe's economy, however, is failing. The reasons for that are many,
including corruption. However, the concern is that in the USA, analysts
seem to have forgotten the international context which is marginalizing
all African economies. The debt of Zimbabwe in 1991, when it signed on
to the IMF structural adjustment program (SAP), was equal to its defense
expenditures
during the 1980s when it was defending itself against apartheid
incursions. Any new government in Zimbabwe will be strapped with apartheid
debt.
The war in the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo) was caused by an
invasion by Uganda and Rwanda, encouraged by the USA, with the government
of Zimbabwe defending the standing DRC government against military
overthrow, a long-term
policy of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). The war is
highly unpopular among the Zimbabwean people, who criticize that
expenditure, relative to social development needs, for the engagement was
taken unilaterally by Mugabe, without reference to the parliament. With
6 governments and 3 guerrilla forces involved militarily, (colonial)
instability in the DRC remains, yet global corporations are able to
continue mining the minerals for incredible profits. The majority of the
Zimbabwean people are demanding complete, immediate withdrawal, while
knowing that any new government in Zimbabwe will be burdened with another
(in addition to Angola) giant neighbor in turmoil.
As predicted by progressive Zimbabwean economists who advised not signing,
the SAP has de-industrialized Zimbabwe; according to the latest figures,
manufacturing output has declined by 25% since its high in 1991, with
textiles now below its 1980 level. Structural adjustment has dismantled
the internationally award-winning primary health care system in Zimbabwe
and has
made primary education unaffordable for many parents. HIV/AIDS has
reduced life expectancy in Zimbabwe to about 43 years. As is true in
every other country where it has been implemented, SAP has also increased
corruption in Zimbabwe.
No international agency or government has taken seriously the need for
land redistribution by offering sufficient funds to do it. When South
Korea and Taiwan redistributed land, American aid provided hard currency
to pay farmers for their land and the US army went to the farms with the
South Korean army to enforce it. Land inequity in Southern Africa is a
legacy of apartheid. No
amount of planning or transparency will provide sufficient funds in
Zimbabwe, Namibia or South Africa to compensate current land-holders and
to settle, with infrastructure, new farmers.
Instead of quickly labeling "Zimbabwe" (the people, the state, the
executive or the economy?) as "self-destructing," we must insist on
linking the suffering of the peoples of Southern Africa to the wider
global issues.
Many Americans are involved in concerted work on debt cancellation, peace,
HIV/AIDS, the WTO, structural adjustment. It is important to use the
abysmal and rapid deterioration of the Zimbabwean economy to illustrate
the effects of
* economic apartheid (land and inequity)
* colonial wars, which become endless civil wars --Angola and DRC (USA is
#1 exporter of armaments)
* onerous debt (apartheid debt)
* global corporations (mining for profit and directly fueling war)
* structural adjustment programs (privatization of health care/essential
drug programs, education fees unaffordable to poor)
* USA fast-tracking intellectual property rights over drugs and
plants, resulting in unaffordable medicine of all kinds, in biopiracy
(TRIPs Plus, USA Trade and Development Act 2000)
The people of Zimbabwe are highly organized and dedicated to change; your
understanding and advocacy contribute to their efforts!
submitted by Bud Day, University of Zimbabwe, Medical College
<warren.day@xxxxxxx> and by Carol Thompson, University of Zimbabwe,
Political and Administrative Studies <carol.thompson@xxxxxxx>.
UNTIL JULY 2001:
Carol B. Thompson
22 Princess Drive
Highlands
Harare, Zimbabwe
tel: 263-4-776-976
fax: 263-4-746-608 (commercial, please put my name on it)