Although Zimbabwe’s dictator Mugabe yesterday implemented the power-sharing agreement signing Tsvangirai (Movement for Democratic Change) into office as prime minister, Mugabe had a couple tricks up his sleeve; he had Tsvangirai’s deputy minister of agriculture arrested on scandalous charges almost immediately following the ceremony. Also, he showed up with 7 additional posts to be sworn into office outweighing Tsvangirai’s number of posts. Not a good start.
Tsvangirai’s first goal in office is to fix Zimbabwe’s shattered and possibly unfixable economy. Zimbabwe’s infrastructure is in ruins, most schools and hospitals are closed, the IMF stopped assistance a decade ago, direct investment into the country has stopped, their four primary sectors of export are defunct, agriculture doesn’t produce enough to feed its own country, tourism is almost non-existent, and the EU and U.S. refuse to give aid or lift sanctions until some sign of economic change, rule of law, improved human rights, and true power-sharing are displayed by Mugabe. One solution is for Zimbabwe to adopt South Africa’s rand as its currency. Ultimately, this means Zimbabwe would give up its trade sovereignty and become a province of South Africa. This is not something Mugabe will consider but it is something Tsvangirai’s would entertain.
All the while, 7 million Zimbabweans are in need of food and th
ere’s an AIDS and cholera epidemic. The situation has been out of control for quite some time and it appears Mugabe wants to keep it that way. Clearly, people are starving to death and dying of disease but numbers are not being reported. Is this yet another genocide in the making? At what point will the UN, ICC, NGO’s, etc. decided to give this deserved attention?
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