From riches to rags in Zimbabwe

WHEN oil sanctions were imposed on Rhodesia in 1965, Ian Smith's Government set up a central petroleum buying agency to import petrol and diesel. This was then distributed to the oil companies for them to retail through their service stations. When Mugabe took over in 1980, this agency became NOCZIM -- the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe. After that, it was all downhill. NOCZIM became a slush fund to be plundered. It soon racked up so much debt and was such a tardy payer that no one would supply it. Not even Libya. The oil companies then came to the rescue. They organised their own imports and for a while, things went relatively smoothly. Then the Mugabe Government's systematic destruction of the Zimbabwean dollar led to hyper inflation. Even local subsidiaries of international oil companies like BP and Shell were unable to pay for imports. In stepped private enterprise. Those who had the money bought fuel in South Africa and stored it in oil company tanks for a fee. This is the fuel that is now being systematically robbed by Mugabe's thugs. When this fuel runs out, in a week if they are lucky, there will be no more. Mad Bob will have achieved his ambition. Zimbabwe will have been restored to its original pre-colonial pristine state -- a place where the wheel was unknown, where the chief ruled absolutely, where all ownership was communal, where people wore skins and the only legitimate ambition was to own a cow. Oh it was a paradise! And women did all the work. Well done, Bob! You truly deserve all the applause you get from your South African supporters.