COMMENT Images of Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe’s opposition leader, his face swollen and his head visibly wounded as he faced charges of illegal protest, testify to the deepening brutality, cynicism and desperation of President Robert Mugabe’s regime. Behind that desperation is an economic chain reaction that will, unless halted soon, lead to the collapse of the Zimbabwean state and turn the country into an anarchic hell.
Zimbabwe’s latest official inflation rate is 1,730 per cent. The real figure – for the median household at actual market prices – is almost certainly much higher. Price rises have accelerated sharply in recent months.
