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Abstract
Research on investmentFootnote1 climates and economic growth in developing countries is shifting from institutional ‘best practices’ towards ways in which developmentally successful regimes make use of economic rents. After discussing rent flows in Zimbabwe's history, the paper concludes that the country exhibits a pattern of centralised, short-term rent utilisation, with disastrous results, showing that the centralisation of rent-management by itself does not indicate a ‘developmental patrimonialism’.
Notes
1. This is an abridged version of M. Dawson and T. Kelsall (2011) Anti-developmental Patrimonialism in Zimbabwe. Working Paper 19: Africa Power and Politics Programme. The unabridged version of the paper is now available online at: http://www.institutions-africa.org/filestream/20111110-appp-working-paper-19-anti-developmental-patrimonialism-in-zimbabwe-dawson-and-kelsall-nov-11
2. Far from being a homogenous group, white commercial farmers were diverse and by no means united in their class interests and aspirations; see Selby (2006) for a comprehensive disaggregation which gives a rare insight into the internal political processes of this group.
3. ‘The danger is that the Zimbabwean leadership might be possessed by [the social and economic structures], rather than adapting them to the needs of the people’ (Brand 1981, 55).
4. In fact very similar to pre-UDI figures, when foreign interests were dominated by British (60%) and South African (30%) (Stoneman 1981, 118).
5. Some 200,000 school-leavers entered the market each year yet ‘Employment creation has averaged a mere 10,000 jobs per annum over the 10 years of independence, far short of the planned target of 144,000 per annum’ (Robert Mugabe speaking in 1990, cited in Brett Citation2005).
6. The ‘Willowgate’ Scandal involved leading politicians sourcing vehicles at controlled prices from and re-selling these for substantial profits.
7. See ‘ZANU-PF Raids Parastatals’, Independent, 9 September 2005, Paul Nyakazeya.
8. ‘For the period 1986–1991 subsidies and advances to some 12 parastatals and government companies exceeded $2 billion. State support for parastatals at an average of Z$429.9 million during the period 1986/1987–1989/1990 was very high as compared to an increase of public enterprises losses by 48% in 1988/1989 compared to 1985/1986 levels’ (Tambudzai Citation2003, 12). See ‘A Framework for Economic Reform (FER) 1991-95’, Government of Zimbabwe.
9. One minister, Frederick Shava, convicted and briefly imprisoned before being pardoned by Mugabe, continued in a senior post within the party, chairing ZIDCO until 1998. Geof Nyarota's (2006) autobiography, Against the Grain, gives an insight into the ‘Willowgate’ scandal.
10. John Robertson, a leading economist and commentator, maintains that the elimination of this rent market resulted in disaffection of those affected, who then cast about for new opportunities. The rise of the AAG and IBDC lend weight to this claim.
11. For a detailed analysis of the effects of ESAP in agriculture, see Makamure, Jowa, and Muzuva (Citation2001).
12. The initial shareholding in the EC included the Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union, the Affirmative Action Group, the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association, the Indigenous Business Women's Organisation and the Small Scale Miners Association of Zimbabwe, with 9% each; Integrated Engineering Group, owned by Leo Mugabe, 10%; James Makamba's Kestrel Corporation, 15%. The Zimbabwe Farmers' Union, Affirmative Action Group, and Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association subsequently sold their shares to Kestrel. See ‘Telecel Dogfight Escalates’, Independent, 22 July 2010.
13. See ‘World Bank Chihombori and Mawere’, Zimbabwe Times, 21 September 2009, Geoffrey Nyarota, at http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=22907.
14. See ‘The Executive Summary Report of the Investigating Team into the State of Governance and General Administration of the City of Harare’ (1998).
15. For a summary see ‘Case Study 3: The United Merchant Bank and Boka Group of Companies cases’ in Goredema (2003).
16. See for example, ‘Government to Undertake Yet Another Land Audit, the Eighth’, Financial Gazette, 20 December 2006. Reports include the unpublished Buka Report (2003), the Utete Report (2004) which named 13 cabinet ministers and four provincial governors as multiple farm holders, the Nkomo Report (2004), the Chiwewe Report (2005), a Ministry of Lands Report, and the Mutasa Report (2009) whose author, Didymus Mutasa, is alleged to possess at least 10 farms. See ‘Mutasa Owns 10 Farms’, Zimbabwean, 18 June 2009.
17. See Selby (2006) and Utete (Citation2003).
18. For example, ‘Weeds and Wasted Lives on the Farm Run by UN's Rural Kingpin’, Times, 27 June 2007. Note: GDP figures for 2004–2009 are very difficult to compare because of hyperinflation.
19. For a selection of chefs who received farms, see Justice for Agriculture (Citation2002).
20. The shifting sands of who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out’ continue to entertain Zimbabweans; see for example, ‘Chiwewe Weeps Over Chop’, Radio VOP, 28 August 2008’, Chiwewe to Expose Officials with 10 farms’, Zimbabwe Times, 16 September 2009, ‘Mliswa Case Shakes ZANU-PF to the Core’, Zimbabwe Standard, 11 July 2010.
21. For example, ‘Top Cops in Massive Looting Spree’, Financial Gazette, 9 August 2007.
22. For example, ‘Police Zero in on Forex Barons’, Sunday Mail, 8 July 2007.
23. For example, ‘Double Standards as Elite Gain from Price Controls’, SWRA, 18 July 2007; ‘As Business Plans Audit’, Zimbabwe Standard, 15 July 2007.
24. See ‘As Business Plans Audit’, Zimbabwe Standard, 15 July 2007; ‘Soldiers Storm Police Station to Recover Looted Food Items’, Zim Online, 13 August 2007.
25. For example, ‘Money for Nothing’, IRIN, 4 January 2008; ‘Zimbabwe Central Bank Adviser Off Hook’, Zim Online, 29 December 2007.
26. ‘Report exposes Mnangagwa and Mujuru involvement in Marange’, SWRA, 14 June 2010.
27. For example, ‘Marange Diamond Rush, the Race that Brought Instant Riches’, Mirror, 8 January 2007; ‘Diamonds are Mutare's Best Friends’, IRIN, 6 August 2008.
28. See ‘Police Officers Arrested over Diamond Bribes in Zimbabwe’, Monsters and Critics DPA, 31 August 2007.
29. ‘Chiadzwa – Army Sent in to Quell Gun Battles’, Financial Gazette, 6 November 2008.
30. See ‘Grace Mugabe Fingered in Diamonds Looting’, Radio VOP, 30 July 2010.
31. These links were somewhat tenuous prior to Independence since Rowland favoured Nkomo's ZAPU –while funding Muzorewa and Sithole as well but after 1980, they were useful, for instance, in squashing reporting of the 5th Brigade massacres in Matabeleland. See Hall (Citation1987) and Nkomo (Citation1984).
32. The Joshi family were pivotal after 1980 until early 2004 when they fled Zimbabwe in the face of an internal investigation into ZANU-PF businesses. See ‘Directors flee as ZANU-PF probes own companies’ Sunday Mirror, 4 April 2004.
33. ‘ZANU-PF pockets $10.5 mln dividends from associate firms, Financial Gazette, 4 January 2007.
34. The committee included Karimanzira, Solomon Mujuru, Obert Mpofu (then Matabeleland North Governor) and Thoko Mathuthu (then ZANU-PF deputy secretary for transport and welfare). ‘ZANU-PF Probe Turns Ugly’, Financial Gazette, 13 August 2004; ‘Mnangagwa Emerges Unscathed’, Financial Gazette, 9 September 2004.
35. See ‘Mnangagwa Elbowed Out of Race’, Independent, 12 June 2004.
36. ‘Succession Stirs ZANU-PF Probe’, Independent, 13 October 2006.
37. ‘Mugabe's Generals’, Newsweek, 22 July 2008.
38. ‘Zanu P F Kabila in secret deal’, Financial Gazette, 30 August 2001.
39. Also ‘Fight over mineral wealth shifts from battlefields to boardrooms’, Business Report, 22 July 2007.
40. Board members included Lieutenant-General Vitalis Zvinavashe, Job Whabira, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence, Onesimo Moyo, Director, Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe, and Isaiah Ruzengwe, General Manager, ZMDC. General Zvinavashe's brother, Colonel Francis Zvinavashe, retired Major-General Dauramanzi and Brigadier Moyo represented Osleg in the Congo.
41. ‘Payback time for uncle Bob’, Zimbabwean, 18 January 2007; ‘Zimbabwe Troops in Action in the Congo’, Zimbabwe Today, 18 November 2008; ‘MDC Criticises Deployment of Soldiers to DRC’, Zimbabwean, 15 December 2008; ‘Ebola Kills 2 Zim Soldiers in DRC’, Zim Daily, 2 January 2009.
42. ‘Our party must continue to strike fear in the heart of the white man. They must tremble. They think because they are white they have a divine right to our resources. Not here. The white man is not indigenous to Africa. Africa is for Africans’, Mugabe, 2000 ZANU-PF Congress; ‘White Ally Scorned by Mugabe’, Observer, 17 December 2010.
43. For example, Uncovering how Zimbabwean Tycoon Takes Advantage of Political Crisis’, Afrikcom, 3 August 2008.
44. Literally ‘at home’ but signifying far more than a situational reference.