Foreign Policy Blogs

He Said, He Said

Recent scuttlebutt around Zimbabwe had the government abandoning its ill-conceived recent laws demanding that at least 51% of all businesses in the country be owned by Zimbabweans. From whence did the scuttlebutt come? A spokesman for Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

On Wednesday that rumor was squashed. Who did the squashing? President Robert Mugabe.

This tells you in a nutshell just about everything you need to know to get a sense of Zimbabwe’s politics today.

 

Author

Derek Catsam

Derek Catsam is a Professor of history and Kathlyn Cosper Dunagan Professor in the Humanities at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. He is also Senior Research Associate at Rhodes University. Derek writes about race and politics in the United States and Africa, sports, and terrorism. He is currently working on books on bus boycotts in the United States and South Africa in the 1940s and 1950s and on the 1981 South African Springbok rugby team's tour to the US. He is the author of three books, dozens of scholarly articles and reviews, and has published widely on current affairs in African, American, and European publications. He has lived, worked, and travelled extensively throughout southern Africa. He writes about politics, sports, travel, pop culture, and just about anything else that comes to mind.

Areas of Focus:
Africa; Zimbabwe; South Africa; Apartheid

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