| | Zimbabwe's go-it-alone policies of the 1980s were not as socialist as the rhetoric suggested, but to a degree they were left nationalist, with a good record in the provision of education and health care, after the termination of the IMF programme in 1984. Yet these policies were remarkably successful in very difficult circumstances: destabilisation by South Africa requiring a defence expenditure of nearly 10 per cent of GDP, including fighting Renamo in Mozambique in defence of trade routes through Mozambique (even so most trade still had to take the much more expensive routes through South Africa); four years of drought; the suspension of most programme aid and all the US aid after 1987, whilst Zimbabwe spent 5 per cent of GDP paying all its debts without resorting to rescheduling. |
