The ongoing political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe, where
Robert Mugabe's embattled ZANU-PF government is struggling to
cling to power amidst mounting unemployment and food
shortages, has led to an ominous surfacing of antisemitic
conspiracy theories designed to find a scapegoat for the
country's many ills. Rumors of an alleged Jewish plot to
destroy the Zimbabwean economy were further fueled by a 3000-
word "expose" which appeared in the Bulawayo Chronicle,
a Government-supported daily.
Entitled "Company closure racket unearthed," the report
accused "prominent members of the Jewish community" of being
behind the closure of most industrial companies in Bulawayo,
the purpose being to cripple the Zimbabwean economy and force
the government out. The collapse of Merspin Private Limited,
once the country's leading textile manufacturers, was
allegedly "engineered by a closely-knit community of Jews
with interests in India, Germany, South Africa, Namibia and
the United Kingdom."
While focusing mainly on the dealings of one particular
Jewish family, the report clearly intimated that "the
racketeers" were part of a wider Jewish conspiracy. The
attempted closure of Merspin Limited in Bulawayo was said to
have been "crucial in saving numerous Jewish-owned firms from
going under." An unidentified source was cited as saying that
if the owners had succeeded in shutting down the company,
"they would have taken the plan to their kith and kin."
Zimbabwe, a landlocked southern African republic, has been
ruled by Mugabe since attaining its independence in 1980. At
the end of August this year Mugabe, in the course of an
address to workers of Merspin Limited, was quoted as saying:
"Jews in South Africa, working in cahoots with their
colleagues here, want our textile and clothing factories to
close down. They want Zimbabwe, and Bulawayo, to remain with
warehouses to create business for South African firms."
Mugabe's remarks were condemned by the South African Jewish
Board of Deputies and the African Jewish Congress as being
racist and antisemitic. Board of Deputies chairman Russell
Gaddin commented that Mugabe's back was up against the wall
and he was trying to get support by attacking Jews.
Mervyn Smith, President of the African Jewish Congress, said
that the African Jewish Congress strongly objected to the
fact that the affair had been turned into a Jewish issue.
"The pointed and gratuitous references to the fact that those
accused of misdoings are members of the Jewish community is
totally unacceptable," Smith said. "The effect of continually
pointing this out is to create the erroneous and highly
offensive impression that there is a Jewish-led conspiracy to
undermine the Zimbabwean economy. As such, it is reminiscent
of many other conspiracy theories that have been invented
over the centuries in order to stir up hatred against the
Jewish people."
Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft, spiritual leader of the African
Jewish Congress, has been in touch with the Zimbabwe Jewish
Board of Deputies over the issue. He confirmed that the
Zimbabwe community, which today numbers about 750 after
peaking at around 8000 in the mid-1960s, was extremely
concerned about the rise of antisemitism in the country.
It has been suggested that the intention of the article was
not to attack the entire Jewish community but to target a
particular individual, the prominent economist and business
consultant Eric Bloch. Bloch wrote a column in the opposition
newspaper and was a known critic of Mugabe.
