Africa Notes: Zimbabwe at a Crossroads - May 1992

In 1991, a Zimbabwean writer characterized his country as a land of contradictions in which the political leadership espoused the principles of Marxism while encouraging an active capitalist economy. Although the stated goal of President Robert Mugabe was to create a single-party system, opposition parties and vigorous public criticism of the government were tolerated. And despite having one of the most tightly controlled foreign-exchange systems in Africa, Zimbabwe was the largest market in the region {outside South Africa) for Mercedes-Benz.

Some of these contradictions have in part been resolved, only to make way for other, more complex contradictions as the political situation in neighboring South Africa comes closer to resolution. Of all the states in the southern third of the continent, Zimbabwe is likely to find itself most deeply affected, both economically and politically, by the emergence of a democratic South Africa.

 

L. Gray Cowan