Sweden’s outgoing ambassador to Zimbabwe, Kristina Svensson, on Wednesday said the government’s “haphazard land reform programme” along with “bad laws and bad economic policy” were hastening economic decline. Speaking to journalists ahead of her departure from Harare, the Swedish envoy said “it’s not only the drought that led to the decline but also land reform”. “We think land reform was necessary but the way it was implemented was not within the confines of the rule of law,” Svensson said, since the “consequences of the haphazard land reform have led to the decline in agricultural production.” Svensson, who finishes a four-year stint in the southern African country at the end of the month, also blamed “bad laws and bad economic policy” for Zimbabwe’s decline. “Laws like the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), the media laws and the NGO (non-governmental organisations) bill scare away foreign investors,” she said. Zimbabwe’s economy has taken a steep dive since the late 1990s, shrinking by 30 percent over the past six years, with inflation now shooting up to over 500 percent. Over four million of Zimbabwe’s 11.6 million inhabitants face food shortages, according to UN agencies.

“The rules are changing every day and people ask themselves whether it’s wise to invest in the country when they don’t know what will happen to their business tomorrow,” said Svensson. She added: “When I was ambassador in (neighbouring) Zambia, we used to come here and there were lots of things to admire about Zimbabwe.” “We noticed big grain silos, herds of healthy, fat cattle, green pastures and well-developed infrastructure. “Now one sees abandoned tobacco barns, uncultivated fields, cattle looking thin and the general decline. It’s very sad.” A drastic change of policy however could restore Zimbabwe to its former status as southern Africa’s bread basket, she said. Government blames the economic drop on drought and targetted sanctions imposed by the European Union and the US government on Mugabe, members of his inner circle and their families following disputed presidential polls in 2002. Economic analysts however also blamed land reforms in which government seized farms from white commercial farmers and gave them to landless blacks. Critics say the majority of beneficiaries lack farming experience and rely on government handouts.

From AFP, 21 December
Source: WWW.ZwNews.Com