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Email this citationCIAO DATE: 03/04
Zimbabwe: Danger and Opportunity
March 2003
Abstract
The economic meltdown, government-created food crisis, and deepening state-sponsored violence that have plagued Zimbabwe in the year since President Robert Mugabe's ruling party rigged the presidential election continue to point in one ominous direction: potential state collapse.
One of Africa's most highly developed formal economies is disappearing. Despite price and wage controls, the inflation rate may hit 500 per cent before the year is out. Severe food shortages resulting from the destruction of the commercial farm sector and the use of food as a political weapon have turned one of Africa's breadbaskets into a beggar nation subject to localised famines. There is real risk that deterioration of command and control over the war veterans and youth militias the government has used against its opponents will lead to a rapid increase in unstructured violence generally throughout society.
