Zimbabwe Absurdity

It was all on the news the last couple of days; the SADCC (Southern African Development Co-ordination Community) leaders meeting in Kinshasa, DRC, had called for an immediate and complete lifting of sanctions imposed on Robert Mugabe and his cronies as it was “hindering progress” in the Unity Government. That is complete nonsense of course. The hindering of progress is entirely the province of Mugabe’s ZANU-PF and the sanctions are targeted on individuals in the aforesaid regime. This is much more of a racial brotherhood (brothahood?) thing where the nasty western nations imposing the sanctions (mainly white) are victimising “one of us”. Perhaps the strangest thing about the announcement was that it was backed to the hilt by none other than Jacob “Showa” Zuma, the incumbent South African president, whom up until his inauguration was an avowed Mugabe enemy!

It was perhaps notable that in the same newscast was a report by a branch of the IMF that Africa was the most difficult place in the world to do business and while some countries had progressed in cutting red tape others, such as Tanzania, showed absolutely no interest in making life easier for potential investors. I guess it’s easier to beg.

I had a note on my desk last week to call back a potential customer who was looking for a large quantity of tobacco seedlings. As it happened we did not have any to spare but I made a note of his number anyway. Later in the week Tony, my landlord who knows the farmer, told me that this project was unlikely to happen. The farmer had agreed to lease a tobacco farm off a black farmer who’d bought (not stolen) the farm in the mid 1980’s in the same area where Tony had farmed. He’d gone through all the channels and had the scheme approved by the local community, the District Administrator, the Lands Council, and the police. The Governor of the area had vetoed it; he didn’t want any white farmers in the area.