THIRTY years ago, Zimbabwe declared its Independence and Robert Mugabe became its prime minister. But the dreams of the emerging nation were short-lived. "We have abundant mineral, agricultural and human resources to exploit and develop, for which we need perfect peace. Given such peace, our endeavours to transform our society and raise our standard of living are bound to succeed." (Robert Mugabe on the eve of independence in Zimbabwe, 17 April 1980).
In 1980, as Prime Minister Mugabe noted in his speech to the blossoming nation, Zimbabwe was a land of great prosperity, especially compared to its neighbours.
...
AllAfrica Subscription Content
You must be an allAfrica.com subscriber for full access to certain content.
You have selected an article from the AllAfrica archive, which requires a subscription. You can subscribe by visiting our subscription page. Or for more information about becoming a subscriber, you can read our subscription and contribution overview.
For information about our premium subscription services:
You can also freely access - without a subscription - hundreds of today's top Africa stories and thousands of recent news articles from our home page »
Already a subscriber? Sign in for full access to article