Zimbabwe Crisis

Zimbabwe crisis essentially refers to the untold political and economic difficulties that occurred in Zimbabwe from the year 2000 until about 2010. It was an entire decade of growing and unprecedented isolation of a country which once stood as a promising economic and democratic beacon in otherwise war and coup raged Africa.

The trigger to the crisis in Zimbabwe was the inversion of the commercial farmers that were largely controlled and owned by white Zimbabweans. As to what triggered the actual inversion in the first place is still a subject of debate even to this day. Two key theories are dominant.

Critics of Zimbabwe President, Robert Mugabe and his ZANU PF party sense that the party was cornered by a coming revolution propelled by the labour movement and had to find a scapegoat to retain power through anarchy. Indeed for many years in Zimbabwe after the government sanctioned farm inversions of 2000 and 2001, there was continued speculation and rumours of the President declaring a state of emergency.

The second theory about the start of the Zimbabwe crisis which appears to appease the government of Zimbabwe of the day and ZANU PF in particular is that the government was running out of patience with white farmers who refused to share land with landless black indigenous people. It therefore allowed the rural villagers who were later joined by the war of liberation veterans to take the law into their own hands.

The people of Zimbabwe are naturally reserved and careful of controversy and anarchy. What characterized the 10 years of problems in Zimbabwe was outright barbarism and anarchy driven by a few political thugs many of whom have clear links with ZANU PF party.

In response to government sanctioned lawlessness in Zimbabwe, the European Union and the United States immediately slapped Zimbabwe with sanctions initially targeted at the ZANU PF leaders. Clearly, on the ground the sanctions affected even ordinary people. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe was forced to print Zimbabwe dollars which in turn led to serious inflationary pressures on the Zimbabwe currency and the economy in general. Inflation is thought by independent analysts to have reached levels of one billion percent.

Due to the intensifying and ongoing lack of foreign reserves, the government went into full gear printing money to finance government projects and election campaigns. The central bank in Zimbabwe became a dominant player in the Zimbabwe crisis. For many, government administration was temporarily shifted to the central bank with the Governor Mr Gideon Gono literally and nicknamed the Prime Minister of the country.

The Zimbabwe crisis was characterized by severe food and fuel shortages. Endless lines were the order of the day across cities in Zimbabwe the worst hit being Harare and Bulawayo. People literally fought for goods and services. Even passports ran out for thousands of Zimbabweans desperate to leave. The boarder between South Africa and Zimbabwe became a hive of criminality as Zimbabweans without papers crossed crocodile infested Limpopo river into South Africa by night and many others through bribery of boarder control.

Education and medical facilities such as hospitals became dysfunctional. Teachers, doctors and nurses left the country in hordes and many people unnecessarily lost their lives due to lack of medical attention at under-stuffed hospitals and clinics.

A new phenomenon never experienced in the history of Zimbabwe emerged overnight. Goods and services began to be available at the parallel market. Shop shelves were wiped empty through government sanctioned weeks of rampage forcing shops to cut prices by up to 70%. Thugs, criminals and corrupt government officers extolled money and goods from shop owners and many businesses collapsed overnight.

What followed in a Zimbabwe hit by a crisis were months of hunger were meat, fish and other products were sold from street corners and car boots people playing hid and seek with authorities desperate to put inflation under control by arresting sellers.

The Zimbabwe crisis was a long and painful ten years of election results disputes between MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai and ZANU PF. Each election was characterized by untold violence to the degree of crimes against humanity. There were reports of people being buried alive and many others having their limps cut off in rural areas for supporting western backed enemies of the state. For many villagers the wish was for election to be banned as they brought nothing but misery and suffering.

Things seemed to take a new turn in 2009 when a new government between Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in after nearly 5 years of secret negotiations. Today Zimbabwe has a new multi-currency system which has stabilised the economy and entered Zimbabwe into a period of deflation.

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