Roundtable Forum - ZIMBABWE
"What should be done about Robert Mugabe?"
IA Forum asked 6 commentators: Inflation in Zimbabwe
stands at 2,200 per cent, three quarters of the population are
unemployed, and three million people have fled the country,
yet President Robert Mugabe remains in power. Is it time that
the international community removed the Mugabe regime,
and if so, how should it be done?
Responses
Knox Chitiyo, Royal United Services Institute
Response: Zimbabwe is a landscape, with guns. Robert Mugabe has descended from paragon, to pariah;
the nation, instead of looking to the future, is in thrall to the violence of memory. Zimbabwe’s precipitous
fall from grace, which began in 1997 and was accelerated by the controversial land redistribution
programme and simultaneous political violence post- 2000, has yet to end. For many, particularly in
the... more
Annabel Hughes, Zimbabwe Democracy Trust Inc.
Response: Robert Mugabe continues to belly-crawl beneath the rat-a-tat-tat of fierce criticism being
fired at him on a multifronted battlefield, always dusting himself off the other side unscathed, if not
victorious.
The Zimbabwean president is a master at outwitting his opponents. Right from the start—while exiled in
Mozambique during the 1970s liberation war—he nimbly vaulted over the heads of the fo... more
Kaysie Brown, Center for Global Development
Response: There is no doubt that Zimbabwe is in the midst of an economic and political meltdown. With
the highest inflation rate in the world, crippling poverty, non-existent political freedoms, and ongoing land
and property disputes, frustration is mounting both internally and externally. And Mugabe’s recent
signing of protocols with labor and businesses as an attempt to quell discontent and reduce soari... more
Miles Tendi, Zimbabwean Journalist
Response: Since 2000, the Robert Mugabe government has made a sustained attempt to depict human
rights as Western and a form of moral imperialism no different from past pretexts, such as the white
man’s burden, for Western Europe’s colonial machinations. This has been done through the construction
and propagation of a narrative called Patriotic history. In Africa, sovereignty is ‘an inversion of
colonialism... more
Kathryn Llewellyn, Action for Southern Africa
Response: The situation in Zimbabwe is reaching breaking point. Over 80% of the population are
unemployed and access to even the most basic necessities are becoming more and more difficult. The
facts are clear and undisputable yet the path to a solution is not so straight forward. Zimbabweans have
the right to participate in free and fair elections and elect who they want to govern their country. They
have ... more
Steve Kibble, writer on Zimbabwe
Response: Inflation is now probably three – five times that amount (and could reach 1.5 mil. %) as it
seems that inflation is beginning to feed on itself. Attempts by the regime to enforce price controls
including forcing shopkeepers to sell under buying price will merely lead to even more economic activity
taking place on the parallel market – which in essence has become the real market (60% of economic
ac... more