Mohadi, who is one of Zimbabwe’s two vice-presidents lamented the economic depression the country has gone through since independence from Britain in 1980.
Source: Zimbabwe VP blames colonisers for not teaching locals how to run economy | Fin24
Zimbabwe’s Vice President, Kembo Mohadi, has blamed the country’s former colonial ruler of not teaching native Zimbabweans to run the economy as the southern African nation battles a prolonged economic downturn.
Addressing the ruling Zanu PF provincial structures in Gwanda, south east of Bulawayo, Mohadi lamented the economic depression the country has gone through since independence from Britain in 1980.
“We got our independence but the white man never gave us knowledge on how to run our economy,” Mohadi said in an address broadcast on national television on Saturday. He said the only knowledge the locals had was to run bottle stores and general dealer businesses.
“That was it, nothing more than that,” he said.
Mohadi, who is one of the country’s two vice-presidents said the colonisers did not do much to impart knowledge to the locals.
Zimbabwe, which was once known as the ‘bread basket of Africa’ degenerated into economic chaos in the early 2000s under former president Robert Mugabe’s administration. The country’s controversial land redistribution programme which saw the seizure of white-owned farms was followed by political instability and hyperinflation that collapsed the local currency.
The Zimbabwean dollar, which was previously pegged at 1:1 with the green back is now worth just approximately 1% of its former value. The currency currently trades at 100:1 against the US dollar in the widely used parallel market.
More than 4.3 million Zimbabweans are rural areas are facing food insecurity, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, undertaken in February 2020.
COMMENTS
ERRR Stupid, why then did you take a thriving successful economy and rob it blind. Why did you not take some Colonisers and ask them to stay on and make a smooth transition? Ohhh you you did that but then you could not steal so you got rid of them.
We were expected to know how to run an economy. Is the VP saying we were not clever enough!
Yes, he’s saying the leadership is so ignorant that the only thing they knew how to do was steal… but they excelled at it, so instead of building the economy, they stole it for themselves.
Imagine if a white guy has said this? Oh the ‘outrage’.
Well Mr Mohadi how ill informed you are . Do you not remember a Party called the Rhodesia Party led by Olympic Gold medallist david Butler in opposition to the Rhodesian Front? Their manifesto urged an Independence based on a universal franchise yet to be done responsibly, which meant bringing in more Africans into government like Jasper Savanhu who served in the Federal Government under Welensky. The problem was that the Nationalists became the only voice and polarised the population ; what were called ‘Moderates’ like Chad Chipunza became known as ‘sell outs’ and consequently suffered. I suggest Mr Minister you cease to be such a lickspittle follower of a corrupt Capitalist leader and start to read a bit of Hansard and speak a little more responsibly.
Still blaming the white man? So nobody in Zim graduated in economics since 1980? Look at yourself.