International Donors Losing Patience With Corrupt, Starving, Poverty-Stricken Zimbabwe

The president of Zimbabwe Emmerson Mnangagwa has asked the international community for funds and investments to help the debt-ridden southern African nation emerge from extreme poverty, hunger and hyperinflation.

Mnangagwa made the plea after the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, African Development Bank and the Paris Club all declined to provide Zimbabwe new loans, citing outstanding foreign debts totaling some $8 billion.

Nonetheless, Mnangagwa has grandiose plans for his impoverished country.

“Our five-year national development plans running up to 2063 will endeavor to achieve an upper middle-income status by 2030,” he said. “The need to remain [sensitive] to the shocks of drought and the impact of climate change through the necessary social safety nets cannot be overemphasized. We appeal for multilateral support to augment our efforts.”

Zimbabwe faces a multitude of crippling problems. Millions of people in rural regions are facing starvation in the wake of a severe drought and other calamities.

"More than 60% of the population of a country once seen as the breadbasket of Africa is now considered food-insecure, with most households unable to obtain enough food to meet basic needs due to hyperinflation," said Hilal Elver, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food. "In rural areas, a staggering 5.5 million people are currently facing food insecurity, as poor rains and erratic weather patterns are impacting harvests and livelihoods. In urban areas, an estimated 2.2 million people are food-insecure and lack access to minimum public services, including health and safe water.”

Elver added that the hunger crisis is worsening due to “poverty and high unemployment, widespread corruption, severe price instabilities, lack of purchasing power, poor agricultural productivity, natural disasters, recurrent droughts and unilateral economic sanctions."

Bettina Luescher, a spokesperson for the UN’s World Food Program, said eight of Zimbabwe’s 59 districts have acute malnutrition rates of more than 5%, a figure that is unprecedented.

Zimbabwe’s poverty and hyperinflation is also paralyzing the economy.

The World Bank reported that the rate of extreme poverty in Zimbabwe jumped from 29% in 2018 to 34% in 2019.

Inflation has been climbing since October 2018, driven by “monetization of sizable fiscal deficits of the past, price distortions, and local currency depreciation.”

In July 2019, the annual inflation rate skyrocketed to 230% in July 2019 (from 5.4% in September 2018), with food prices surging by 319% over that period. By December, the inflation rate reportedly reached nearly 500%.

"I witnessed some of the devastating consequences of the acute economic crisis in the streets of Harare, with people waiting for hours on long lines in front of gas stations, banks, and water dispensaries," Elver added. "The Zimbabweans I spoke to in Harare and its suburbs explained that even if food was widely available in markets, the erosion of their incomes combined with an inflation skyrocketing to over 490%, made them suffer from food insecurity, also impacting the middle-class.”

The World Bank further warned “in the absence of international support, Zimbabwe macroeconomic challenges may persist.”

Only last week, the International Monetary Fund warned that Zimbabwe’s monetary and economic reforms were “off-track” raising even more doubts about its ability to attract funds from foreign donors.

“The government that came to office following the 2018 elections adopted an agenda focused on macro stabilization and reforms … but [this] is now off-track as policy implementation has been mixed,” the IMF stated.

The fund also said that “uneven implementation of reforms, notably delays and missteps in [foreign currency] and monetary reforms, have failed to restore confidence in the new currency.”

Alexander H. Noyes, a political scientist at the RAND Corp., said Mnangagwa, who seized power in a coup in November 2017, has done little to help Zimbabwe, much like his notorious predecessor Robert Mugabe.

“I found very little genuine progress, along with an uptick in repression and a rapidly declining economy that is near collapse,” Noyes wrote of a trip to Zimbabwe. “On the political front, reform promises are severely lagging.”

Noyes noted that Mnangagwa’s economic reform efforts are “either incomplete or falling short” of stated goals.

“A new currency regime has been hit by runaway inflation, corruption continues unabated, land reform is incomplete, the mining sector is increasingly militarized, and the privatization of state assets has been fraught with false starts,” he wrote. “The international community should also proceed with extreme caution on economic support for the government, withholding support for debt relief or any new lending until clear and unambiguous progress has been made on reforms and respect for human rights.”

In a bizarre addendum, on Monday, Mnangagwa’s allies are considering finding him a safe haven in the Middle East –perhaps Qatar or Abu Dhabi -- if and when he decides to flee Zimbabwe due to turmoil in the country.