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Taking
Africa's name in vain
Tawanda
Mutasah
From The Day After Mugabe, Africa Research Institute
November 01, 2007
Read more from
The
Day After Mugabe: Prospects for change in Zimbabwe
http://www.crookedlimb.net/ARI/research-papers.php
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The tooth fairy
is harmless folklore, and useful to comfort a child confronted with
the loss of a prized milk tooth. But what happens when the leadership
of an entire region promises to put money under Robert Mugabe's
pillow while he continues to ride roughshod over his economy and
people?
At their August
2007 summit in Lusaka, Zambia, heads of state from the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) "mandated" their
finance ministers to "draw up an economic plan to support Zimbabwe".
It was not made
clear why Zimbabwe, which at the height of economic sanctions against
Ian Smith's Rhodesia had been the second largest economy in southern
Africa, was today in need of support from its neighbours - except
by Mugabe. For him, repeating the word "sanctions" serves
to disguise all the excesses of a classic lootocracy: the parceling
out of land and businesses to the judges, cabinet ministers, senior
army officers, intelligence and police operatives whose loyalty
Mugabe needs.
Members of this
elite club generate stupendous profits from the rent-seeking activities
made possible by deliberately self-serving policies. They deal for
their own advantage in lines of credit procured by the central bank,
and in the productive assets of state industries. Economic collapse
has facilitated hedonistic levels of consumption by a small political-military
elite, while the poor endeavour to escape hunger by swimming across
the Limpopo.
In many ways,
the discussion of Zimbabwe at the SADC summit crystallised its translation
into a regional and African crisis. The meeting was surrounded by
intrigue - sparked by the arrest in Lusaka of Zimbabwean civic leader
Tapera Kapuya and the deportation of more than sixty activists ostensibly
on the grounds that their "Save Zimbabwe" campaign T-shirts
were a threat to peace and security.
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