Opinion / Columnist
Zimbabwe will be a shell by 2030
11 Jan 2023 at 16:51hrs | Views
SOUTHERN Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, was slapped with United Nations sanctions in 1965 until 1979, but still managed to be one of Africa's richest nations.
Zimbabwe was slapped targeted sanctions by the United States of America, the United Kingdom and the European Union in 2005 and was reduced to ruins, but left top government officials and some connected people very wealthy, amid poverty among ordinary people.
Is it because of the kleptomanic tendencies of President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government, which have gone unchecked for years, or it is because the Ian Smith-led regime was more shrewd than our present leaders, who seem clueless?
If the Smith regime had the Marange diamonds at their disposal, it would easily have been more than the jewel of Africa that the late former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere once alluded to.
Apart from schools built with assistance from donors, the Zanu-PF government has done nothing, particularly for the rural people, other than destroy what was set up by the repressive colonial regime.
Everything has been reduced to rubble.
Roads have become death traps, with huge dangerous gaping craters.
Senior government officials have become filthy wealthy, driving posh cars in a country whose manufacturing industry has virtually collapsed by creating cartels of briefcase and shelf companies owned by themselves and their relatives, who they dubiously award lucrative tenders.
If we continue at this rate, Zimbabwe will be a shell by 2030, with nothing to show for all the natural resources the country is endowed with.
Zimbabwe was slapped targeted sanctions by the United States of America, the United Kingdom and the European Union in 2005 and was reduced to ruins, but left top government officials and some connected people very wealthy, amid poverty among ordinary people.
Is it because of the kleptomanic tendencies of President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government, which have gone unchecked for years, or it is because the Ian Smith-led regime was more shrewd than our present leaders, who seem clueless?
If the Smith regime had the Marange diamonds at their disposal, it would easily have been more than the jewel of Africa that the late former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere once alluded to.
Everything has been reduced to rubble.
Roads have become death traps, with huge dangerous gaping craters.
Senior government officials have become filthy wealthy, driving posh cars in a country whose manufacturing industry has virtually collapsed by creating cartels of briefcase and shelf companies owned by themselves and their relatives, who they dubiously award lucrative tenders.
If we continue at this rate, Zimbabwe will be a shell by 2030, with nothing to show for all the natural resources the country is endowed with.
Source - Newsday Zimbabwe
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