Mugabe lashes 'foreign interference'

A defiant Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has blamed rich countries for the poverty and despair in his country and the rest of Africa.

Mr Mugabe, speaking at the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, yesterday also defended his seizure of white farms, saying the programme pitted the majority against an “obdurate” racial minority “supported and manipulated” by British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

“We have not asked for any inch of Europe,” said Mr Mugabe. “So, Blair keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe.”

But some said Mr Mugabe’s Zimbabwe offered delegates a troubling glimpse of the future and the human cost of failure to confront the huge global problems faced by the summit.

More than half of Zimbabwe’s 12.5 million people face imminent starvation.

Its once vibrant economy teeters on the brink of collapse. More than 70% of its people live in poverty. Most are unemployed. They lack proper housing, basic health care, clean water, sanitation, electricity and quality education for their children.

“We regard Mugabe’s attendance as an affront to the whole concept of sustainable development,” said Tendai Biti, the shadow foreign minister for Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

In just five years, Zimbabwe has fallen from a relatively prosperous and stable country to one wracked by economic despair and government-sponsored political violence.

Zimbabwe government statistics indicate the economy has shrunk by 28% and per capital income has been cut almost in half to 380 US dollars (£240) a year.

Inflation last month reached an annual rate of 123%, and independent economist John Robinson in Harare predicted it could reach 1,000% by the end of the year.

Zimbabwe’s Education Ministry said school enrolments and literacy have declined by a third in the past decade. In 1990, Zimbabwe was the pride of Africa with a literacy rate of 70%.

Access to clinics and medicine was also declining rapidly, Mr Mugabe’s Health Ministry said. Since 1998, malnutrition was associated with half of all childhood deaths.

Despite a looming famine in southern Africa, Mr Mugabe has continued with the seizure of 95% of the white-owned farmland in Zimbabwe, bringing to a standstill an industry that once helped feed southern Africa and accounted for a third of Zimbabwe’s foreign exchange earnings.

Even UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a speech last Tuesday, urged Zimbabwe to change its land policies to help stave off famine. Mr Annan also called on Zimbabwe to observe its own laws and compensate displaced farmers.

The President claims the seizures are necessary to correct lingering colonial injustices and to empower thousands of poor, black, landless Zimbabweans.

But while his government has given thousands of poor Zimbabweans access, though not title, to small plots of land, many of the biggest and best farms have gone to Mr Mugabe’s relatives, government ministers, ruling party officials and even journalists in the state-run media.

“There is no doubt in our minds and in the minds of Zimbabweans that Mugabe is using land as a weapon,” said Mr Biti, who described the land reform programme as ethnic cleansing.

Mr Mugabe dismissed the criticisms of his government as attempts by some countries and regional blocs “bent on subordinating our sovereignty” to their ambitions.