Regime change in Zimbabwe: Mugabe’s tyranny at an end

SPEAKING before his death almost exactly 11 years ago, Ian Smith, prime minister of Rhodesia from 1964 to 1979 and a controversial figure by any standards, said that he would happily walk down any street in Harare — Salisbury in his time — but that his successor Robert Mugabe dare not.

Smith’s implication was that Mugabe’s dictatorship, even then a heady mixture of despotism and kleptocracy, had made him a figure of hate. He believed that without the

protection of his Praetorians, Mugabe’s safety could not be guaranteed — and that has been the case for nearly four decades. He also implied that Zimbabwe was then incapable of self-governance. Though history has confirmed that dystopian view, Smith’s tacit — at best — racism remains as provocative and as cutting as it ever was. Sadly, however, the figures and the absence of opportunity that almost defines that country justifies his pessimism.