Zimbabwe declared independence in 1980, having finally released itself from the clutches of Ian Smith and his Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI). At the time Robert Mugabe took office - becoming the country's first fairly elected Black President - Zimbabwe was recognised throughout the African continent as “the bread basket of Africa". Its farmlands were lush, its beef and animal husbandry second in the region only to that of South Africa, its tobacco and tea plantations were thriving and its tourist industry was growing yearly. Work for the people was plentiful and upward mobility was a distinct possibility for all.

Zimbabwe boasted a happy people, well fed, well educated and healthy. The country was a long-standing member of the World Health Authority's (WHO) immunisation programme and was recording high levels of live births per capita of population (always the most telling indication of a successful economy). Like other countries within this programme, Zimbabwe was within a year of eradicating the disease of polio, and HIV Aids was a little known disease of small proportion.

The Shona people are known for their gentleness, and although the Smith regime left much to be done for the indigenous population as a whole, Zimbabwe could boast to be a country, which was working towards improvement for all. The total population were poised and ready for a “new beginning". When Mr. Mugabe took the reigns of Zimbabwe there was above all things “hope". The economy was strong, the people were free and ready to help build the country into a great Nation.

The land itself was, and still is, achingly beautiful. A land which is synonymous with the inland tiger-fishing sea of Lake Kariba, with the great granite boulders of the Matopos Hills (burial place of the great Oxford scholar and explorer Cecil Rhodes), with the champagne air and log fires of the Eastern mountain cottages and the game-filled wilderness of the Zambezi shores and above all, the timeless thunder-mist of Dr. Livingstone's Victoria Falls.

But now that hope is dead. The farms no longer produce lush vegetation - they lie idle - the beef sector is all but gone, there are few jobs anymore and crime and corruption are rampant. Those who do have jobs seek pay rises of 1000% at a time and the Zimbabwe dollar is at an all time low. Zimbabwe today is a shadow of its former self. The people who were ready to help make the country great are, in the main, starving and poverty stricken. The great promise of a chicken in every pot lives only in the minds of the elderly Zimbabwean; a pipe dream rather than a reality. Mr Mugabe is responsible for much, if not all, of the destruction of hope which existed in 1980. He is directly responsible for the great terror which exists in Zimbabwe today, and the free world holds him responsible for the genocide which took place in Matabeleland; a crime of untold magnitude which still remains unpunished to this day.

One will probably never know if the trauma of eleven years in prison, which indirectly led to Mugabe's populist persona, is to blame for his irrepressible greed and lack of democracy towards his own people. What one can say, however, is that Robert Gabriel Mugabe failed to take up the challenge to use his popularity - both within Zimbabwe and the outside world to forward his country. Instead he has inflicted untold misery and cruelty upon his people in order to retain total power.

Mugabe is a stage orator. The African street love him. He has a reputation for academic achievement having collected degrees, but in truth he has a very poor education, having little or no knowledge of history, economics, sociology and above all, people. Like others of his ilk he revels in confrontation and insults, and for those he cannot convince, he does not hesitate to use his police force, his soldiers or his teenage militia to quell their criticism. But perhaps the worst indignity inflicted by Mr Mugabe and his courtiers, is that he has succeeded in morally corrupting the Nation. The police look for bribes, the civil service survives by moonlighting, the judges (with one or two very brave exceptions) are subdued and browbeaten, the army is merely a security blanket for Mugabe and his cronies, and violence of the crudest sort is used against anyone who stands up or protests.

Under Mr. Mugabe's leadership, Zimbabwe is now a different country to that of 1980. There is 80% unemployment. Inflation is running at 1800%. There is mass emigration (25% of the population). One in five of Zimbabwe's population has HIV Aids. Water, power, fuel, education and health facilities have collapsed. Basic items, for example bread, are often absent from the shops for weeks at a time. In one week the grocery bill can rise by as much as 60% and pensions no longer provide for survival. Many Zimbabweans exist only with the help of the young who send funds from the United Kingdom or South Africa. In the poverty stricken rural areas many schools have no teachers, no clinics and no medicine. There are no longer any busses to town and women and children walk miles each day to fetch water.

Mr Mugabe likes to blame Zimbabwe's demise on Tony Blair and George Bush, or on “sanctions". But, the truth of the situation is that sanctions only exist on travel by Mugabe's coterie, on foreign bank accounts and on military equipment. And, if it were not for British and American aid and European food, Zimbabwe's people would indeed starve. Even Mugabe's “men” would have difficulty finding meat for their weekend braai (barbeque), which they hold at their newly acquired farms - farms which no longer support whole families of farm workers producing high quality farm produce.

But through it all Zimbabweans, both black and white, are resilient. They retain their incredible sense of humour in the most dire of conditions. One need only stand in a bread queue to hear the jokes about the potholes in the road, or the cars with only one light. People share a single packet of crisps whilst waiting for hours, or even days, at the petrol station for a little fuel and when, just one year ago, Mugabe destroyed the houses and tuckshops of 750,000 urbanites to get rid of the rubbish, the good natured “Zimbos” referred to this atrocity as their “tsunami".

But, the land is still achingly beautiful. There are now few visitors to Zimbabwe, but the sun still shines and the tiger fish still swim in Lake Kariba, Rhodes still lies in the peace of the Matobos, the Zambezi still flows and the Victoria Falls still thunder. In many ways the Whites “the Rhodesians of yore” created Robert Mugabe through the guerrilla bush war they fought for 15 years. Only 40,000 Whites of the original 250,000 remain. The best of Zimbabwe's farmers are now doing wonders in Mozambique or Zambia or Nigeria where they are welcomed with open arms. Those that remain will probably stay. When asked why, they are reluctant to admit that they have no money now or they are Zimbabweans with Zimbabwe passports and nowhere else to live. Or, they whimsically comment.

but my deah, the bougainvilleah is so loveleah this yeah, “morning tea"?