The Zimbabwe crisis continues apace. At this point it is not worth the time to determine whether the political crisis or the economic calamity is worse, as the two simply feed from one another. Robert Mugabe plans to live forever and rule Zimbabwe for the duration, but in case he proves to be mortal, he wants to handpick his successor, a decision to which some within the opposition seem perplexingly willing to acquiesce even as members of opposition groups assert that Zimbabwe's crisis is the world's worse — a bold but not absurd assertion. And in order to step down, he wants a few assurances for his protection even as he appears to be consolidating power for a long stay in Zimbabwe. Mixed signals are, after all, a hallmark of Big Man rule. (And behind it all stands Mugabe's security forces.)
There has been progress on the political front in terms of agreement on joint presidential and parliamentary elections, but it is frankly impossible to believe that Zimbabwe's nightmare is going to find its palliative in the form of structural changes within the context of the status quo. Cliches about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic come to mind.
There appears to be no such news of progress, dubious or not, on the economic front. Inflation continues to skyrocket at such a rate that we have no real idea within 10,000% what the rate actually stands at currently. The government is seriously threatening to take over businesses that defy controversial price controls.
The International Crisis Group has issued a report on Zimbabwe in which it asserts that Zim is moving ever closer to collapse, calls for a regional solution to the problems, and expresses its concern that most of the international approaches considered or suggested have done and are likely to do more harm than good. And yet despite ICG's faith in SADC there are not a lot of signs that SADC wants to take on the task alone. It seems likely that this story will continue to be with us for a long time to come.
