Wall Street Journal - August 2, 2000
Robert Block, Satff Reporter

Having led his party to victory in June's elections on the back of promises to redistribute white-owned farms to landless blacks and veterans of the country's war of independence, Mr. Mugabe is under pressure to deliver. But to do so will spell almost certain economic disaster for a country already teetering on the edge of ruin.

"The president is a man in the middle, stuck between an angry army of landless peasants occupying white farms and the reality of financial collapse. If he ignores the war vets' demands, they will come for his head. If he placates them, the economy is finished. Whatever he does, he loses," says John Makumbe, a lecturer in political science at the University of Zimbabwe and a longtime opponent of Mr. Mugabe.

Although Mr. Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Front, or ZANU-PF, narrowly defeated a burgeoning opposition movement, the victory has brought little relief to the tense situation in the country. Government loyalists continue to attack opposition sympathizers. Hard-currency reserves are down to only a few days' import cover. Fuel lines and power cuts are commonplace.

Inflation is expected to surge ahead of the current annual rate of about 70%. An estimated 200 people die every day as a result of HIV and AIDS.

Zimbabwe's economic and political troubles will be brought to a head by an unofficial alliance among white farmers, businessmen and trade unionists who have organized Wednesday's one-day strike to protest the intimidation of political opponents and the continuing, often violent occupations of commercial farms by armed black squatters. Calls for the strike were sparked by individual farmers who stopped work in different areas of the country over the past three weeks, saying it has become impossible to continue in the face of threats and daily demands for food, fuel, vehicles and shelter from squatters.

Factories, stores and banks were shuttered as the strike began. Thousands are expected to strike in the major urban areas, where the opposition enjoyed its strongest support. There was no immediate word from farming districts, where white farmers planned to join the strike.

The protests gained momentum when businessmen in the town of Karoi in the northwest of the country closed their shops last week in solidarity with local farmers. Encouraged by events in Karoi and with the crises on the farms now threatening the banking and insurance sectors, many businessmen signaled to Zimbabwe's Congress of Trade Unions that they would support a nationwide work stoppage.

Originally, the union planned for a three-day strike, but after business leaders cautioned labor bosses about the disastrous effects of a long stay away, the ZCTU Tuesday announced it was scaling back its protest to just Wednesday.

"We have taken this decision because we want to use the strike as a warning shot and we think one day would be adequate," said acting ZCTU Secretary-General Nicholas Mudzengerere. "If the government does not respond, we will go on a much longer strike."

The crisis on the farms began five months ago and was widely seen as an election ploy by Mr. Mugabe to win rural voters and intimidate whites and black farm laborers from supporting the opposition. Many Zimbabweans believed that once the election was over the crisis would abate.

But farm occupations escalated after the ZANU-PF victory. In the face of mounting pressure on Mr. Mugabe to get the squatters to quit the farms and pave the way for an orderly land-resettlement program, the war veterans' leader, Chenjerai Hunzvi, last week said his followers would not only remain but should be given back more of the land he says was stolen by white settlers.

"The land must go back to the people, and we cannot retreat now," he said. Those pushing for the removal of those occupying the farms include some ministers appointed to Mr. Mugabe's new cabinet who see the issue as a prerequisite for Zimbabwe to lure back the International Monetary Fund and other donors that retreated from Zimbabwe in disgust at the farm occupations and Mr. Mugabe's militant rhetoric.

The IMF suspended all aid to Zimbabwe last year because of the government's failure to meet agreed-upon targets under IMF-backed economic reforms and because of Zimbabwe's military involvement in the civil war of the Democratic Republic of Congo, costing at least $3 million a month.

A spokesman for Mr. Mugabe, George Charamba, has accused the country's whites and the political opposition of trying to sabotage the government's land-resettlement program and of seeking a showdown with the president in order to hinder the new government's plans to tackle the country's economic problems. In an attempt to show that it is dealing with the country's financial woes, Zimbabwe's government devalued its local currency to 50 from an artificially strong 38 Zimbabwean dollars to one U.S. dollar.

The government, which often has used troops and riot police to break strikes, has called Wednesday's planned stoppage "ill-advised" but says it won't intervene if the action is peaceful. However, the government has responded to the challenge to its authority by announcing that it now planned to take more than half of all the white-owned farmland in the country without paying for it and redistribute it to 500,000 black families.

"For the moment it seems the president is desperate to keep the war veterans in his pocket," says Dr. Makumbe of the University of Zimbabwe. "But how long will he be able to do that if the economy disintegrates? Even war veterans have to eat."

Write to Robert Block at bobby.block@wsj.com1

URL for this Article: http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=SB96517555550529395.djm

Hyperlinks in this Article: (1) mailto:bobby.block@wsj.com

000802
WJ000802

Copyright © 2000 - The Wall Street Journal. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the WSJ Permissions Desk.

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2000. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 2000. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .