A global business magazine has ranked Zimbabwe one of the two poorest countries in the world in a damning verdict of President Robert Mugabe\u2019s 35-year-rule.<\/p>\n
On taking over power at independence in 1980, Mugabe was told by President Samora Machel of Mozambique and President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania that; \u201cYou have the jewel of Africa in your hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNow look after it,\u201d Nyerere and Samora added.<\/p>\n
35 years later, Mugabe now in the twilight of his career, has succeeded in disappointing the late liberation luminaries.<\/p>\n
The \u201cjewel\u201d is \u201cruined, dishonoured, disgraced\u201d, said writer Doris Lessing.<\/p>\n
The country, a former net food exporter, is perennially hungry; formal industry has all but collapsed and unemployment is around 90 percent – forcing more than a million citizens to resort to vending on the streets.<\/p>\n
Confirming Zimbabwe\u2019s precipitous fall from grace, Global Finance magazine ranked the country second bottom of its table of the world\u2019s poorest countries.<\/p>\n
The magazine used data from the IMF to rank the world\u2019s countries according to their GDP per capita.<\/p>\n
The analysis also used a Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) basis, which takes into account the living cost and inflation rates, in order to compare living standards between the different nations.<\/p>\n
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where citizens earn on average US$394.25 a year, ranks as the poorest country in the world. Above the DRC was Zimbabwe where, in 2013, people earned US$589.25 on average.<\/p>\n
The only other SADC country in the bottom ten with Zimbabwe is Malawi, which is ranked 8th poorest with average annual incomes reaching US$893 in 2013.<\/p>\n
Zambia, whose Kwacha Zimbabweans loved to mock not so long ago, ranks far higher with annual average incomes more than double Zimbabwe\u2019s at $1,800 in 2013 while in Mozambique citizens earned $1,200 on average in 2013.<\/p>\n