Budget Speech

Here.

Cry The Beloved Zimbabwe

Could it be that Robert Mugabe is not the evil tyrant that he is made out to be? Maybe he is not sole author of Zimbabwe’s economic peril and ‘humanitarian crisis’. Might there be more to it? Perhaps the man is just one ugly head of a larger and much more sinister socio-societal beast.

Thinking broadly about the land question in Southern Africa in the 20th century as a legacy of colonialism and a dispersion of political power in postcolonial Zimbabwe between War Veterans and urban based worker unions, Mamdani thinks there is more going on in a letter to the London Review of Books. But then R.W Johnson (never heard of him before to be honest), response letter finds Mamdani’s arguments selective and altogether spurious. However, Mamdani’s come back letter suggests that his respondents either romanticize Mugabe or demonise him with little room for other more interesting arguments.

Zambia profiting from Zimbabwe’s misfortune?

The Zambian Economist steers us towards this story from the Washington Post on the impact of the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe on tourist activity at the Victoria Falls. The article suggests a positive spillover for the town of Livingstone on the Zambian side of the border as tourists choose to view the falls from that side rather than from the Zimbabwean town of Victoria Falls.  As a personal anecdote, I recall when travelling to Victoria Falls from Windhoek by bus in 2004 that we stopped first at Livingstone (where almost all of the tourists disembarked) before proceeding on to Victoria Falls. I understand that in previous years, Victoria Falls was the first point of call.  I also recall that already then the main entrepreneurial activity was street forex trader. If I have it right, the exchange rate at the time was 8000 -10000zim dollars to 1USD, I shudder to think what it is now.