Economics
Zimbabwe’s Lesson for Venezuela: It’s Not Easy to Fix a Broken State
- Four decades of rule by Mugabe has crippled economy, society
- Mnangagwa’s investment drive harmed by military crackdown
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Simukai Tabvura knew nothing other than Robert Mugabe’s strongman rule in Zimbabwe until his ousting little more than a year ago. The promise of change that accompanied the end of Mugabe’s near-four-decade reign has long since withered for the used clothes seller.
“It’s like a year of being able to speak freely never happened,” said Tabvura, 41, sitting on a home-made wooden stool at her second-hand stall on a broken sidewalk in the capital, Harare. “One day we were able to support who we wanted and the next they came back like before with guns and whips and batons.”