Mugabe down plays country’s woes

Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe virtually ignored his nation’s troubles on Wednesday in his state of the nation address to parliament, the first such speech he has ever given to an almost evenly split legislature, agencies reported. Mugabe noted that Zimbabwe’s economy “performed below expectations” in 2000, saying that the government expected to post a 10.5 percent decline in manufacturing, a 14 percent drop in mining, and a 16 percent decline in tourism. But the agricultural sector was expected to grow by three percent on good rains, he said.

Most crops were planted and nearing harvest when self-styled veterans of Zimbabwe’s liberation war began forcibly occupying some 1,600 white-owned farms in February. Economists have predicted food shortfalls next year because of the disruptions caused by the squatters, who say they want to see white-owned lands handed over to poor black farmers. Lawmakers from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) remained silent during the speech and did not applaud at its conclusion. The MDC won nearly half the contested seats in June elections, becoming the nation’s first significant opposition.

But Mugabe said his government’s budget for next year “steers the nation in the direction we want to go - that of economic recovery and stabilization.” He blamed external factors for his country’s economic crisis - marked by inflation, unemployment and interest rates that hover around 60 percent - including low commodities prices and donors’ decision to cut off most aid. Most donors followed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) when it cut off support to Zimbabwe, citing the government’s economic mismanagement and the expensive and unpopular war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where Zimbabwean troops are allied to President Laurent Desire Kabila’s regime against rebels.