Sliding backwards again
The Observer - 16 February 2014 - 11
T
Robert Mugabe’s government, free of its coalition partner, risks driving the country back down a road to poverty and despair
HE
potholes
on
Melbourne
Road
in
Southerton,
an
industrial district of
Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, are
bone-jarring. A van outside the J.
Lyons factory, a surviving outpost
of a once-grand British company, is
being loaded with jars of processed
food. Otherwise the street is
quiet. The offices next door have
whitewashed windows; the gates
of the factory opposite are firmly
shut. The empty buildings belong to
Reckitt Benckiser, an Anglo-Dutch
company whose brands, including
Dettol disinfectant and Nugget
shoe polish, span 60 countries—
but no longer Zimbabwe. The
Reckitt factory there closed before
Christmas and has not reopened.
Many other local firms have done
the same.
The closures are just one sign
that the economic recovery is
stalling. This began in 2009 when
the worthless Zimbabwe dollar was
replaced by a multi-currency system
based largely on the American
dollar. But in the run-up to
Christmas some banks were forced
to put limits on cash withdrawals.
SABMiller says lager sales tumbled
by 25% in the