Mugabe: Power, Plunder, and the Struggle for Zimbabwe's Future by Martin Meredith

Author:Martin Meredith [Meredith, Martin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Africa, Autobiography, Biography, East, History, Political, Zimbabwe
ISBN: 9780786732937
Google: ddTkhjThAR8C
Amazon: B003P9XDGG
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 2009-04-27T23:00:00+00:00

farming sector." But no information about this scheme had previously been disclosed. It had been operated in secret. Under questioning, Kangai refused to divulge any names.

Further newspaper investigations revealed that scores of government-owned farms intended for resettlement had been handed out on leases to ministers and senior officials. Among the beneficiaries were Charles Utete, the powerful head of Mugabe's office; Per-ence Shiri, the air force commander who had once commanded 5 Brigade; Augustine Chihuri, the commissioner of police; and Solomon Tawengwa, Harare's first executive mayor. In many cases, only nominal rents had been charged; in some cases, no rent at all.

Bowing to popular outrage, Mugabe agreed to cancel seventy-two farm leases. "The land should not have been leased out in the first place," he said. Yet once the furore had died down, the black elite continued to get their hands on government land, leaving the redistribution exercise contaminated by corruption. Britain, having spent £44 million on land resettlement since independence, decided to cut off further support for it.

The land scandal added to the government's growing unpopularity. While the population at large faced rising unemployment, high inflation, and deteriorating social services, Mugabe and the ruling elite were seen to be using every opportunity to enrich themselves. Following the 1995 election, Mugabe increased the size of his cabinet from twenty-nine to forty-two ministers, in defiance of the World Bank, the IMF, and Western donors, who had urged him to slim down the cabinet and drastically curb government spending. The World Bank suggested that no more than fifteen ministers were needed for the cabinet to function effectively. To compound the extravagance, the cabinet then awarded Mugabe, all ministers, and members of parliament lavish pay increases of 133 percent, while at the same time cutting health spending by 43 percent and

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