The economy in Zimbabwe has virtually collapsed, inflation is running at 1,700 percent and unemployment is currently at 70 percent. Zambian president, Levy Mwanawasa, described Zimbabwe as a “sinking Titanic” which millions were abandoning. This is the picture that George B.N. Ayittey paints of Zimbabwe in his recent article which calls for “an urgent resolution” to the country’s crisis. Ayittey explains that South Africa’s ineffective policy of “quiet diplomacy” toward Zimbabwe has not produced results and that past efforts to resolve the crisis have failed because they appealed to the good sense of the Mugabe regime to initiate change. Ayittey suggests that that the depth of the crisis cannot be solved by Mugabe or a single individual or political party, rather, it will take the “collective action of all Zimbabweans.”
Ayittey is a native of Ghana, an economist at American University (Washington, DC) and president of the Free Africa Foundation.
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