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| Robert Mugabe |
Zimbabwe’s
93-year-old president, Robert Mugabe, on Thursday told a panel discussion that
his country is the second most developed country in Africa after South Africa.
Mugabe,
whose government is struggling with a debt crisis, said the country is not a “fragile
state”.
A fall in
foreign exchange inflows, and acute shortages of cash that have forced banks to
limit withdrawals, as well as growing resistance to his three-decade rule, are
other challeneges to his government.
He told a
panel discussion on “fragile countries” at the World Economic Forum for Africa
in the South African city of Durban that Zimbabwe’s economy was on the mend.
“Zimbabwe is
not a fragile state, it is one of the most highly developed countries, second
after South Africa. You cannot even talk about us as a ‘fragile state’ from an
economic point of view,” he said.
Critics have
accused Mugabe of wrecking one of Africa’s most promising economies and causing
unemployment of currently around 80 per cent through policies such as violent seizures
of white-owned commercial farms and money printing.
Him and his
party say the economy has been undermined by Western powers.
“This year
we will have a bumper harvest. Not just maize, we have cotton and tobacco … we
are not a poor country,” Mugabe said.
Inspite of
numerous protests against his leadership, he said many people still supported
his government, adding: “Economies cannot grow as quickly as our people expect
them to. Investment should have come long ago.”
He is due to
lead his ZANU-PF party as its candidate for the next presidential election
expected in mid-2018, when he will be 94.
Finance
Minister Patrick Chinamasa said on Friday that Zimbabwe had met all conditions
to clear arrears to the World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB), paving
the way for possible funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which
last lent Zimbabwe money in 1999.
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