Grace unplugged - Zimbabwe's imploding world
'The juxtaposition of the Mugabe family’s wealth and the failure of Zimbabwe is clear: they would not be rich if it had not been for the failed state'
The furore around Grace Mugabe, her sons, their behaviour and the Mugabe family properties in South Africa illustrates the axiom: Their enrichment has come at the expense of Zimbabweans. There are an estimated 2-3 million Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa, of some four million worldwide, a quarter of the population. They have fled state dysfunction, repression and economic failure. Following the ruling ZANU-PF’s failure to pass a new constitution in a February 2000 referendum, the Mugabe regime began its policy of land seizure without compensation from the 4,800 white commercial farmers, and its redistribution. As a result, the economy shrunk by more than half in the next eight years. According to Steve Hanke, the Johns Hopkins University economist and the world's authority on measuring hyperinflation, inflation reached 89.7 sextillion percent in November 2008 – meaning that prices doubled nearly every day. After a period of stabilisation including the abandonment of the local cur...
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