Zimbabwe 2017

Zimbabwe's leadership squabbles are dominating the news at the moment. It seems everyone at the top is jockeying to take over from Robert Mugabe who has been Zimbabwe's leader for the last 37 years.

What I have noticed is commentators repeatedly saying Zimbabwe is wrecked, or words to that effect. Really? I'd call wrecked a city like Hamburg in 1945. Is Harare in that condition? The news footage seems to show the opposite, people appear well dressed, the streets clean and tidy, the buildings are all standing straight and the cars are relatively late model. Has no-one noticed this? How can a country with 90% unemployment have people so well nourished and apparently quite well off by African standards. 

What I think is going on is that Zimbabwe functions satisfactorily. Most must be in some kind of employment. What I suspect is employers are hiring people on a purely cash basis for a few hours a day and not paying tax. The employees for their part may say the're not in full time employment which is essentially true but disguises what is really going on. Zimbabwe in these circumstances has an empty exchequer, but life goes on for everyone else. 

As for political power; the army may be divided into factions while Zanu-PF may also be divided. Things could go downhill very fast, let's hope not as this country looks to have all the makings of great prosperity.

Update: Robert Mugabe has now resigned and in a move that looks dodgy, Emmerson Mnangagwa will serve out the rest of Mugabe's term. But wait, is that constitutional? The Vice-President position is held by two people appointed by the President. Mnangagwa has been dismissed and removed from office, which leaves Phelekezela Mphoko to take over from Mugabe. Correct? I think that's right, so if Mnangagwa takes over that looks illegitimate to my eyes, not a good start.

For a more objective view of what got us here check out my Fixing Zimbabwe post a while back. No-one read it at the time, but I nailed it JICYDK.