Robert Mugabe's Policies - ZIMPREST

ZIMPREST

In the year 1998, Mugabe thought that ESAP was in a way benefitting his country, and decided to establish the second stage of the economic reform through the "Zimbabwe Program for Economic and Social Transformation", also known as "ZIMPREST". The aims and goals of ZIMPREST include:

• An outlined macro-economic reform
• Mugabe planned the GDP growth of Zimbabe to be at least 6% per year until 2000 for the wanted economic development
• He also thought that through this ZIMPREST, he would be able to create 44,000 new jobs every year. 
• He planned that the savings and investments to reach at least 23% of the country's GDP
• His last goal was to keep all budget deficit reduced to under 5%

Just like ESAP, ZIMPREST did not work out the way Mugabe thought it would. Instead of improving his country's economy, it remains stagnant at a low level with little to no development. Below is a chart, comparing Zimbabwe's GDP per capita with its neighbouring country, Botswana. 

Other Policies

Besides ESAP and ZIMPREST, Mugabe also attempted to create other policies in hopes to restructure and improve Zimbabwe's economy.

Land Reform

It is clear that land is the main economic resource which provides prosperity for the majority of the black population in Zimbabwe. The government supported the seizure of white population's land and property without giving any form of compensation to its owners. This according to Mugabe was the "only" way to even out and equalise the economy for the black majority in his country. This new land redistribution technique was said to aim to close the wage between the 6,000 white farmers who owns almost 70% of all the productive land in Zimbabwe, and the remaining black farmers. Moreover, Mugabe also asked Britain to pay for reparations for the land they seized from the black population during their colonisation. He claimed that he would seize the British land if they did not agree to pay. 

However, there was slow progress of land redistribution. The land that was promised to be unbiasedly distributed ended up still being used for political relations and support despite the promise of giving landless peasants the priority to receive this land. This is proven when Mugabe appealed to other countries for help to donate money for their land distribution, but the countries would only agree to help if the money donated was used to help the poor rural areas. Knowing this, Mugabe cut off the deal. This failed policy ruined not only their economy, but also broke off foreign relations between not only Britain but other countries as well. 

Socio-political Goals

This socio-political goal was said to be aimed for improving quality of democratic institutions. They were in a pursuit of a better governance and the complete elimination of corruptions. However, it was clear that Mugabe went against his own policies when he won the presidential elections through corruption, fraud and unfairness.