Zimbabwe Essay

“...However desirable it may be, the members of the two races should live together side by side with equal rights. As regards the holding of land, we are convinced that in practice, probably for generations to come, such a policy is not practicable or in the best interest of the two races, and that until the Native has advanced very much further on the path of civilization, it is better that the points of contact in this respect between the two races should be reduced…” This is the result of an overrunning of a black society by white europeans. Inequality formed in Zimbabwe during the colonial period due to the fact that the area of which it was located offered great land resource benefits which many people strived to consume. Unfortunately,

The ushering in of a new political dispensation generated a lot of expectations, especially among the black population who were looking forward to the reversal of the colonial inequalities with respect to access to resources, social services and social amenities. The first post-independence economic policy was the “Growth with Equity”. The Policy aimed “to inform the people of Zimbabwe and to enlist their participation and active support in the development process”. The Policy intended rapid regrowth of economy, employment, and of course their resources and that all these things would be distributed equally. The new government viewed development planning as an instrument for achieving rapid socio-economic development and raising the living standards of the people. As a result, the Government launched, in 1982, the Transitional National Development Plan (1982-1985), followed by the First Five-Year National Development Plan (1986-1990). This again promised to eliminate all inequalities across the society in each department such as economy and employment. The government tried it’s best to recover all that was broken during the colonial period. This meant that job and economical restoration was a must in order to reduce inequality. Although these issues were successfully addressed during the first 10 years of independence, the rise of

While these political and physical conflicts have come to an end with the new compromise in the government, other results from this conflict are still around such as the hyperinflation that has destroyed Zimbabwe’s economy. This problem again stems back to the colonial times. Later when the new government declared independence Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s new leader, blew these percentages out of proportion in order to justify his redistribution of land to the poorer population. While this did move the nation a very small step closer towards equality, it destroyed the production of cash crops that the economy was based on, destroying the economy and blowing inflation far out of control.
As mentioned before the colonialism and inequality in Zimbabwe’s past costed a hardship filled future. Not only is Zimbabwe’s economy down, but by the beginning of 2008, an estimated nine million people were facing severe hunger in Zimbabwe. The gradual dollarisation of the Zimbabwean economy is stabilising the prices of goods and services. However, the majority of the working population in the formal sector, including the civil servants, has no access to foreign currency, hence inequalities are still