Zimbabwe: A Failed State

Once upon a time there was country called Zimbabwe. It was a country that was born out of the ruthless and brutal white minority Rhodesia. Like that biblical Canaan, it was a land flowing with honey and milk. Like many other countries in Africa Zimbabwe as we know it today is still regarded as a developing country. The term ‘‘developing usually denotes a situation where a nation is posting a positive growth in the GDP. It also entails a qualitative development in the lifestyles of the people of that nation. A question to be posed at this juncture is: Can Zimbabwe still be regarded as a developing country at this point in the history of this country? To any disciple of the events that have taken center stage in the last decade the obvious and unassailable response will be a big NO. It will be doing gross injustice to the conscience of humanity to continually ascribe the term ‘‘developing” to present day Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe as we know it today is a pale gloomy shadow of the same post colonial state which was characterized by relative economic growth notwithstanding the violent disturbances that took place in those early formative years. For the past decade the country has been falling tremendously into the conundrums of economic doldrums. These economic difficulties instigated the flight of capital, massive migration of both skilled and unskilled labourforce to other countries both regionally and internationally, and also a daunting deterioration in the standards of living of the generality of the population due to poor service delivery from various sectoral institutions of the state.

It is interesting to note that Zimbabweans have come up with sarcastic yet intriguing acronyms due to the myriad of economic challenges bedeviling the country. The very first one is derived from the name of the country itself. The name ZIMBABWE has been coined to mean Zero Income Mainly Because Able Bodied Workers Emigrated. The short of this is that there is no development taking place in the country in terms of output from different sectors of the economy due to lack of labourforce which is a direct effect of rampant emigration. Another interesting word, MONEY, has been regarded as the abbreviated form to mean Mugabe Organizes Nothing Every Year. This is a direct castigation of the Mugabe regime for the propagation of unworkable policies that have brought more harm than good to the country. ZESA (Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority) has been crafted to mean Zimbabwe Electricity Sometimes Available indicating that on many occasions Zimbabweans are living in the darkness due to the erratic supplies of electricity hence the country has been duped the ‘‘dark country”. The list of these acronyms is endless and abound. Underlying this sarcastic ‘‘acronyms” is the unquestionable gloomy picture of the little southern African country that for the past decade has and still faces a receding economy due to the engineering and implementation of economic policies that are devoid of any economic fundamentals for the development of the country.

Many theories have been put forward in regard to the downfall of Zimbabwe which until the inception of the land reform in the late 90s was regarded as the leading example of a successful nascent and developing democratic country destined for greater heights in Africa south of Sahara. Today Zimbabwe is a country that is riddled in grand corruption, economic meltdown, shrinking democratic space and also poor service delivery in terms of health, education and other services. This has resulted in untold suffering of the masses of the people who have had and are still bearing the burden of this. A labyrinth of state institutions has been reduced to a sham. Take for example the justice delivery system. Litigants will have to wait for months if not years to have their cases finalized. Justice itself is not being done not only because of delays in justice administration but also because of systemic corruption which has taken center stage in the system as judicial officers accept bribes to augment their paltry salaries.

The educational and health sectors have been hard hit by large scale migration of labour to greener pastures in the region in particular South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. Universities and colleges are now being manned by less qualified lecturers and in some cases other departments and faculties have been closed down due to lack of qualified personnel. The health sector apart from the loss of skilled workers also suffers from lack of drugs and equipment due to poor budget allocations as large sums are channeled towards security issues.

The fast track land reform programme has proved to be a national disaster. Zimbabwe, which was once venerated as the breadbasket of Africa, is now leading the whole of Africa in begging for food. It cannot be overemphasized that the individuals who seized the farms are only ‘‘professional land occupiers” who do not possess the technical know how and expertise to put the land into productive use for the benefit of the nation as a whole. More so, the readily available farming inputs from the government are always channeled into informal markets instead of being used for farming.

It is therefore unassailable that the problems that beset Zimbabwe today primarily stem from misgovernance, grand corruption on the part of those who wield political power, self-aggrandizement and poor economic policy planning. The resultant effect has been the downward spiral at unprecedented levels of the Zimbabwe economy. This has resulted in the decline of quality service delivery in terms of health, education, finance, justice administration and a whole lot of other services. And who suffer? Obviously the majority of the ordinary people are the ones who are reduced to mere inanities.

Zimbabwe is now in a class of its own. It cannot be regarded as a developing country as all pointers indicate that all sectors of the economy are moving albeit in a negative direction. Zimbabwe therefore categorically fits in a class of failed states. There is no possibility of resurrection under the present leadership that has proved itself to run out of ideas to rejuvenate the country to a path of economic recovery. They view the country as a private limited that exist to generate profits for themselves at the impoverishment of the majority of the plebiscite.