A five-part series about the struggle for power In Southern Africa
3: Zimbabwe - Land of Hope
When Robert Mugabe took over as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe in 1980, his hard-line Marxist reputation preceded him with a vengeance. Whites fled the country at the rate of nearly 2,000 a month, and the disappearance of their expertise began to threaten both the stability of the economy and the new government's hopes of strengthening it for the future. But the hard-line Marxist failed to appear and instead an apparently pragmatic, flexible and for the most part, diplomatic Prime Minister is persuading powerful White businessmen and successful White farmers that there is a good future for them in a multi-racial Zimbabwe. Can he continue to appease liberal capital and at the same time hold in check the many undoubtedly hard-line advisers he has all round him?
Presenter John Parry Producer
GWYNETH WILLIAMS