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By Repair Man Jack Posted in Foreign Affairs — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Representatives of Zimbabwean President Mugabe offered a positive, upbeat assessment of their country at the most recent Southern African Development Community meeting in Lusaka, Zambia.

"Political reform is not necessary in my country because we are a democracy like any other democracy in the world," Patrick Chinamasa, minister of justice, legal and parliamentary affairs, told reporters as the two-day summit opened in the Zambian capital Lusaka. CNN (16 Aug, 2007)

Chinamasa also dismissed calls for a dialogue with Zimbabwean political opposition leaders such as Morgan Tsvangirai. He accused them of harboring plots to dethrone Robert Mugabe.

Read on . . .

"There can be no justification to make us (engage in) dialogue," he said. "They are only interested in getting into power through unconstitutional means."

Chinamasa has deliberately ignored the fundamental fact that Zimbabwe could utterly cease to function as an independent nation by the end of this year. The economy has progressed beyond disrepair to the point of complete ruin. A western official spoke to the UK Telegraph off the record and told a very different story about what destitute African Nation.

"It is hard to be definitive, but probably within months, by the end of the year, we will see the formal economy cease to work."

He added: "One of the great dangers in all this, if Mugabe hangs on for much longer, is that the country will slip from authoritarianism to anarchy, the government will lose control of the provinces, it will lose control of the towns and you will have a situation where the central authority's writ no longer holds."

That was one unnamed western official’s optimistic case.

John Robertson, a Harare-based independent economist, went on the record as follows.

"We could be a matter of a month or two away from that kind of collapse, and some would tell you that it's happened already," he said. "They can't pay the wages that would be necessary for people to carry on working, because the price at which they're allowed to sell goods is way below the production costs."

A bevy of grim statistics supports Mr. Robertson’s assertion. Rick Moran of The American Thinker Blog, describes conditions on the ground.

The inflation rate stands at 13,000% (not a typo). More than 80% of the people live below the poverty line and are unemployed.

What Moran describes seems surreal to Americans. Zimbabwe officials exchanges 250 Zimbabwean Dollars for One US Dollar. People on the street of Harare will give you Z$400,000. The government officially pays Z$3Mil for 1 Gram of Gold.

As the wheels come off in Zimbabwe, South Africa watches from the Southern border. Refugees flee from Mugabe and no one harvests the crops. Religious leaders have even offered prayers that England would step in and re-conquer this far-flung outpost of its former empire.

Mbeki has no reason to hurry. He will, in time, be asked to intercede. The world will not be allowed to stomach what happens to people in Zimbabwe, but when someone has to solve these problems, no one will want to have the rose pinned on their lapel.

When Zimbabwe’s corrupt junta staggers off in search of a suitable place to die, someone will have to fill that vacuum. Someone will have to restore law and order. Another nation will have to rule that stretch of Africa to head off another situation like the one in the former Belgian Congo.

That someone will be Mbeki of South Africa. The dying lands of Zimbabwe will be the first new province of a South African empire.