Yus,
I tend to agree with Basil here that Zimbabwe went from a country that was a
net exporter of food, to one in which there were food shortages as evidenced
by the endless queues to buy very limited supplies of bread and maize meal
in Bulawayo and elsewhere around the country. I lived in Botswana actually,
but spent a great deal of time in Zimbabwe, both for work and recreation (
it was our family's number one vacation spot). There was a thriving trade
where masses of Zimbabweans streamed into Botswana, buying not only food
but even tioletries and household goods to take back home to re-sell.I have
Zimbabwean friends who made pretty good money doing just that.There were also
many of them who came to Botswana to get employment, and be able to send food
back home. I had a young lady who worked for me taking care of our kids, and
she and her friends used to send even loaves of bread to their families on
the train.These are things that better management could have avoided. Yes,
they do have great infrastructure and are a very hard-working and
enterprising people, but unfortunately, they have left much room for the
likes of Ian Smith to say that this is what they had predicted, and the blame
rightly falls on Mugabe and his people.
Jabou
In a message dated 2/17/00 7:59:35 AM Central Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
<< Hi Yus,
As i communicated to Jabou, the land reforms was the key
element of the liberation struggle and i agree that the
black majority should be able to own and farm the land of
their ancestors. When i stated that the economy was
bouyant, I was refering to the fact that Zimbabwe was a net
exporter of food at independence. How many African
countries can claim to be net exporters of food. They could
have built and enhanced these developments after
Independence. The economic indicators were favourable,
stable currency, low inflation, good infractructure. (Maybe
Jabou can tell us more of her experience living in
Zimbabwe). They could have invested more on improving
health and education of the majority black population. But
alas! mismanagement, corruption and bad polices has
resulted in Zimbabwe being a net food importer and the
economy going into a down ward spiral.
As you said a land reform act would have taken care of the
problem. But no, Mr president want's more power - lets have
a referendum.
basil
> >
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