In Zimbabwe's economic crisis, the rich elite prosper

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Ruinous government management has left Zimbabwe's once vibrant economy in shambles, and some of its millions of people are forced to sell their furniture to survive -- if they have any.

But agencies selling limousines and even luxury cosmetics have reported record sales and the few rich in the country enjoy boom times.

"The people who could fix the situation are the ones who are making a fortune out of it," said Harare economist John Robertson.

The chaotic government seizures of thousands of white-owned farms have been blamed for three years of political violence and disruptions in the agriculture-based economy that have led to acute shortages of food, fuel, power and medicines.

President Robert Mugabe's ruling party elite and their business associates control much of the hugely profitable black market in goods and hard currency. Meanwhile, nearly half of the population will need food aid this year to avoid starvation, according to the U.N. World Food Program. About 80 percent of the population lives in poverty.

In regular stores the shelves are bare, but advertisements in the main state newspaper offer foodstuffs, cooking oil and even bank note counting machines to help traders in the hyperinflationary economy do their business.

Ordinary Zimbabweans "get up in the morning and try to find something to survive on," Robertson said.

About 6,000 Zimbabwe dollars now buy what 100 Zimbabwe dollars bought in 1995. The official exchange rate rose from about 8 Zimbabwe dollars to the U.S. dollar in 1995, to 824-1 this year, alongside a current black market exchange rate of up to 2,700-1.

Mugabe, 79, who has been in power for 23 years, traveled to Libya this week to discuss resuming gasoline supplies that were cut off after Zimbabwe didn't pay $62 million in arrears for previous shipments.

Anti-government strikes called by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change shut down much of the economy June 2-6 but street protests demanding democratic reform were thwarted by a massive show of force by police, soldiers and ruling party militiamen.

The protests appeared to be of little concern to one pro-Mugabe businessman who threw his 50th birthday party soon afterward. He hired a replica of a Mississippi paddle steamer on Zimbabwe's northern Lake Kariba.

The calligraphy for the handwritten dinner place name cards alone cost five times Zimbabwe's average annual per capita income.