A Brief Look at Mugabe’s Legacy: New at Reason

Zimbabwe’s dictator, Robert Mugabe, is going to have to die someday.

Marian Tupy writes:

They say that it is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future. Back in 2000, when Robert Mugabe started to expropriate commercial farms in Zimbabwe, thus consigning that country to economic ruin, I predicted that the good people of Zimbabwe would revolt rather than see their country go down the tubes. Sixteen years later, Mugabe is still in charge and Zimbabwe’s economy has been, by and large, destroyed. Having learned a lesson—note to Bill Kristol—I have not made another prediction since.

On the upside, Mugabe will have to die someday. According to South Africa’s Mail & Guardian, the 92-year-old has recently relinquished many of his responsibilities, works only 30 minutes a day and had his Singaporean doctors flown in to Harare for an unspecified medical procedure. Assuming that the dictator really is on his final, unlamented, leg, let us look at three highlights of his 36 years in office. (To put Mugabe’s legacy in perspective, I will compare Zimbabwe with its regional neighbors: Botswana, Namibia and Zambia.)

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