Zimbabwe under Mugabe

What is the issue?

37-yearlong rule of Robert Gabriel Mugabe in Zimbabwe came to an end after an Army coup. Click here to know more.

The Zimbabweans obviously hope that their sufferings will be buried at Mugabe’s resignation.

What is the demographic characteristic of Zimbabwe?

Before Mugabe’s rule Zimbabwe was known as the bread basket of southern Africa.
Its well-planned agriculture was highly productive.
The country grew virtually everything - fruit and plantation crops in the highlands such as maize, wheat and cattle elsewhere.
Its maize and wheat yields of over 8 tonnes per hectare were among the highest in the world.
Most of the grain and dairy/beef production came from some large farms owned by white settlers.
Zimbabwe also had a wealth of minerals from coal, iron ore, gold, platinum, and rare earths.
Zimbabweans possessed excellent skills and coped well with ageing machinery in the period of sanctions.
Many young Zimbabweans were prized teachers in the newly independent African countries where they sought exile.
With a per capita income of about $750 in 1980 (although with a highly skewed distribution), Zimbabwe was second only to South Africa on most economic metrics in Africa.

How was Mugabe’s reign?

By the 1990s, Mugabe made himself the President and the country, a one-party state.
Zimbabwe became isolated globally, trade and agriculture declined, contrary to government claims.
The once-lush fields became wastelands. But that did not deter Mugabe from spending huge sums on military intervention in the Congo.
Zimbabwe’s Bankruptcy in the last decade led to the worst case of hyperinflation in modern history.
The country could not even afford for food, and most of the country slid into a barter economy.
Disease and hunger were rampant, with a raging AIDS epidemic.
Grain and dairy production fell to a quarter of that in the 1980s.
The Zimbabwean economy registered a negative growth of 6 per cent a year between 1999 and 2009.

Source: Business Standard