Opinion: Zimbabwe is in crisis because of President Mnangagwa’s broken promises

[TomSea]

Opinion: Zimbabwe is in crisis because of President Mnangagwa’s broken promises
Robert Rotberg

Robert Rotberg is the founding director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Program on Intrastate Conflict, a former senior fellow at CIGI and president emeritus of the World Peace Foundation.

Thanks to drought, cyclones, gross mismanagement, inflation, currency manipulation and continued corruption, as many as half of more than 13 million Zimbabweans will experience hunger this year. President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s postcoup administration promised better, but has delivered only economic hardship, fiscal chaos, massive electricity shortages and political desperation to his once rich country.

Zimbabweans eat white maize as a staple, many times a day. But in the harvest that has just concluded, Zimbabwe’s farmers managed to produce only 20 per cent of annual needs. The government-run Grain Marketing Board holds another 30 per cent in its silos. That means a shortfall of 50 per cent and coming hunger.

In past seasons, Zimbabwe could purchase maize from neighbouring countries. But Zimbabwe has limited foreign currency. It is effectively broke and will need to rely on handouts from the UN World Food Programme, itself dependent on U.S.-grown yellow maize. For most of two decades, U.S. surplus maize has fed 25 or 30 per cent of poor Zimbabweans. This year and next Zimbabweans will rely on global generosity.

Read more at: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-zimbabwe-is-in-crisis-because-of-president-mnangagwas-broken-promises/