President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has denied that the country was a fragile state. He said they have over 14 universities and their literacy rate is
over 90 [%] - the
highest in Africa," he said, adding that the economy was improving.
Zimbabwe has been struggling to pay its civil servants recently and is
ranked 24th on the UNDP's Human Development Index for Africa.
"We have more resources, perhaps more than the average country in the
world." Mr Mugabe said, during a panel discussion on fragile states at the
World Economic Forum on Africa in South Africa's costal city of Durban.
"We have a bumper harvest, maize, tobacco, and other crops. We are not
a poor country," Mr Mugabe added, while acknowledging that Zimbabwe
had problems.
Last year, more than four million people were in need of food aid in
Zimbabwe after rains failed. The country was once known as the
breadbasket of southern Africa.
The opposition accuses
Mr Mugabe, who has ruled since independence in
1980, of ruining the economy.
Zimbabwe has faced a severe cash shortage since last year and has
introduced so-called bond notes as a substitute for the US dollar, the main
currency people use.
Hyperinflation forced the government to abandon the Zimbabwean dollar in
2009.
After Mr Mugabe came to power in 1980, he was widely praised for
improving access to education in the country and in the 1990s, it did have
among the highest literacy rates in Africa.
However, schools have also been affected by the country's economic
problems and rates have now dropped back.
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