When white rule ended in Zimbabwe in 1980, whites fled to South Africa and to other countries fearing retaliation from Africans who they felt wanted to settle old colonial scores. So, to reassure the white population, Robert Mugabe announced a policy of reconciliation:
Mugabe: "It could never be a correct justification that because the whites oppressed us yesterday when they had the power, the blacks must oppress them today because they have power. An evil remains an evil whether practised by white against blacks or by black against white."
To show commitment to reconciliation, the Zimbabwean government appointed several Rhodesian white politicians to top positions in government. Gen. Peter Walls, commander of the Rhodesian army in the war against the liberation movement kept his position as military commander...
General Wells was tasked with integrating formerly hostile military formations. David Smith, Rhodesiaβs former deputy prime minister was appointed Minister of Commerce & Industry. Denis Norman, leader of the whites-only Commercial Farmers Union became the minister of agriculture
For the first few years after Zimbabwe's independence, there were some improvements. The government introduced a gradual land resettlement programme to give land to communities that were previously forced into congested areas by the white government...
The government further empowered rural farmworkers through price subsidies and access to marketing services, credit and inputs. Within a few years, rural agricultural output increased and communal farmers were the largest producers of maize and cotton
The government expanded health and education facilities to areas previously ignored by the Rhodesian government. It built roads, schools, clinics, boreholes and established sanitation facilities in rural areas to bring them to par with urban areas
The government expanded health and education facilities to areas previously ignored by the Rhodesian government. It built roads, schools, clinics, boreholes and established sanitation facilities in rural areas to bring them to par with urban areas.
Primary school enrolment rose from 82 000 in 1979 to 2,3 million in 1985, and in secondary schools from 66 000 to 482 000 during the same period. Between 1980 and 1990, the number of primary and secondary schools increased by 80%. However, this was unsustainable
By the early 1980s already, Zimbabwe already had major problems: unequal land and wealth distribution, disgruntled war veterans and the IMF and World Bank. With the two transnational financial institutions pressuring the government to abandon some of its social policies
But a more immediate problem for the Zimbabwean government and Mugabe specifically, was the increasingly disgruntled cohort of veterans from the brutal liberation war
You see, Zimbabwe had a total of 100K soldiers and British military advisers said this was too much and said some needed to be absorbed into the government security and civil services. Those not absorbed in the national army had to find ways to survive...
The governmentβs solution was to provide the former guerrilla fighters with a 'demobilisation grant' of ZW$185 a month for 2 years, to help them find occupations as civilians. This was not enough to provide a meaningful foundation to build on.
According to observers, this money was "far short of what was required to adequately assist former combatants to ease themselves back into the capitalist economy inherited from Rhodesia", while "those in command of the economy spurned the new entrants."
By 1985, 36 000 ex-fighters had been demobilised, but only 16 000 had found meaningful sources of income, either through employment or skills training. Many had no education, as they had left for the war before completing primary education.
The government further tried to empower rural farmworkers through price subsidies, and access to marketing services, credit and inputs. Within a few years, rural agricultural output increased and communal farmers were the largest producers of maize and cotton.
The government encouraged the veterans to put their grants into cooperatives. The number of cooperatives in poultry, livestock, crops, market gardening, retail and other activities skyrocketed in the early 1980s. Many of these collapsed as soon as they were formed, though.
The cooperatives could not survive due to poor, lack of education on what cooperatives were and how they worked, poor management, lack of capital, the inability of members to borrow from financial institutions and the prolonged drought of 1982, among other things.
By 1990, liberation war veterans remained unemployed and poverty-stricken. Things were far worse for female ex-fighters. Civilian men considered them unmarriageable, combative, immoral, and insubordinate. Valid or not, the fears were there.
In 1989, war veterans established the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association to advocate for their interests, which had been neglected by the government they had put into power. The government responded by creating a War Veterans Board in 1992...
The purpose of this board was to establish schemes to assist war veterans and their dependents and a fund for this. It made no difference as it remained just promises, and the veterans continued to vigorously campaign for their causes.
In May 1996, a local newspaper published an article about a War Victims Compensation Fund. This fund was established at independence to pay out to deserving veterans. But ordinary people had never heard of it, while high-ranking politicians had been benefiting from it since 1980.
Then there was chaos as veterans charged the fund's offices seeking compensation. This was followed by looting of the fund with the mass dishing out of medical certificates to ineligible people, confirming supposed disabilities and enabling them to claim compensation.
The War Victim Fund was suspended within a year after a public outcry. Now the veterans began demanding pensions and other benefits enjoyed by civil servants, some of whom were war veterans. Mugabe was under pressure now, so he made some drastic promises...
Mugabe pledged to make lump-sum payments of ZW$50 000 to all former fighters, along with monthly pensions of ZW$2,000 and provide funding for the veteransβ health care and their children's education. Mugabe knew this was unaffordable. So, why? Answer: the IMF and World Bank.
Zimbabwe had been taking money from the international lenders and donors for a while, and now it was time to implement the money lenders' policies which pressured the government to abandon some of its socialist policies and programmes
By 1991, Zimbabwe had agreed with the WB to implement a 5-year programme toward a 'freer' market. They were required to lift restrictions on imports, reducing taxes on foreign imports. They were then promised US$690 million to fund this programme
The donors that had helped Zimbabwe in the 80s were now demanding much more drastic changes. Zim had received little to none of the promised funds, and donors said they would not come into the country until the government negotiated a much freer market deal with the IMF and WB
A freer, more liberal economy meant the government had to remove subsidies on health, education and agriculture. This put healthcare out of reach for many as the IMF required the government to cut expenditure and stop subsidising healthcare.
The foreign demands compelled the government and farmers to switch from food crops (for consumption) to cash crops (for sale) to supply the export market. The government's crop purchasing system was abandoned, and farmers were left to find their own markets.
Because they needed cash, farmers were trapped by middlemen and forced to sell at low market prices which decimated their incomes. Meanwhile, mostly white commercial farmers stopped producing food for domestic consumption and instead focused on export crops and horticulture
The implementation of the IMF/WB Economic Structural Adjustment Programme in 1991 saw economic growth go from a 4% average to 0.9% between 1991 and 1997. Workers were retrenched as industries closed down, and public spending was cut in line with the structural adjustments policy
Soon as the Zim government cut a deal with the IMF/WB nexus, Unemployment rose from 32.2% to 44% between 1990 and 1993. The deregulation of prices and removal of subsidies on essentials resulted in hardship for workers, the unemployed and the poor.
IMF/WB-mandated cutbacks in health and education subsidies made these services inaccessible to most, and the introduction of school fees reduced school enrolments. Health services fell 30% and the number of women dying in childbirth doubled compared to the period before 1990
The results of the IMF/WBβs Economic Structural Adjustment Policy in Zimbabwe are too numerous to detail here. The point is that flirting with globalists to try and please the neo-colonialist institutions does not go together with uplifting the poor, as Mugabe soon learned.
By the late 1990s, Mugabe's government was reaping the consequences of putting reconciliation, free markets, and the "global community" over the immediate needs of the majority. When the veterans who had fought for liberation came knocking, the IMF/WB were nowhere to be found.
In a nutshell, Robert Mugabe and his comrades believed they could take money from the IMF, World Bank and international donors and use it to uplift Black people. All was good for a while until it was payback time. That's largely how they find themselves in the current mess.
Sources:
A History of Zimbabwe by
Alois S. Mlambo
Becoming Zimbabwe Edited by
Brian Raftopoulos and A. S. Mlambo
Zimbabwe and The IMF: Time For Shifting From Neo-Liberal Paradigm To People Centered Development Alternatives by Rangarirai Machemedze
A History of Zimbabwe by
Alois S. Mlambo
Becoming Zimbabwe Edited by
Brian Raftopoulos and A. S. Mlambo
Zimbabwe and The IMF: Time For Shifting From Neo-Liberal Paradigm To People Centered Development Alternatives by Rangarirai Machemedze
Loading suggestions...