Zimbabwe Post Independence Economic Policies: A Critical Review

Zimbabwe attained its independence in 1980 following victory in its armed struggle. This historical reality is of great importance to the country and has remained a pivotal factor in national policy decision making to date. At independence, the new government faced the pressing challenge of reconstituting and realigning the inherited national policy making structures in line with the new socio-political-economic dispensation that had set in. The congenital national policy making systems and processes needed to be transformed from minority-focused to majority-focused societies. The inherited economy was also fraught with embedded inequalities in income and wealth distribution, with the agricultural, education, industrial and banking sectors being the most visibly affected. Against this background, the need to address inequalities and injustices created by yesteryear policies buttressed policy making during the first decade. This write up is a trajectory of the more than a dozen economic policies that the government of Zimbabwe has come up with post independence and makes interesting reading to academics, scholars, politicians, economic analysts and business consultants among others.