“That isn't true. Zimbabwe is the most highly developed country in Africa. After South Africa, I want to see another country as highly developed. [We have 14 universities and a literacy rate of over 90%, the highest in Africa. ] And yet they talk about us as a fragile state. We have a bumper harvest, not only maize, but also tobacco and many other crops. We are not a poor country. If anyone wants to call us fragile, they can. You can also call America fragile.”
When asked by Anton du Plessis of the Institute for Security Studies if he agreed that Zimbabwe was a failed state, as quoted by Carien du Plessis in Mugabe: Zim 'is the most highly developed country in Africa after SA' http://www.news24.com/Africa/Zimbabwe/mugabe-zim-is-the-most-highly-developed-country-in-africa-after-sa-20170504, News 24 (4 May 2017)
2010s
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Robert Mugabe 29
former President of Zimbabwe 1924–2019Related quotes

On 15 September 2019, as guest of honour at the Grace Bible Church in Pimville, Soweto, following his return to South Africa from the funeral of Robert Mugabe, as quoted by Baldwin Ndaba in Ramaphosa says xenophobic attacks 'a national shame' https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/national/ramaphosa-says-xenophobic-attacks-a-national-shame/ar-AAHjLX2?ocid=spartanntp, Weekend Argus (15 September 2019)

2010s, 2011, Q&A with Former President George W. Bush (January 2011)
Context: Yes. I also put in the book that I felt Hugo Chavez was the Robert Mugabe of our hemisphere. In other words, this is a case for – where leadership is destroying a country. Zimbabwe used to feed South Africa. Today it's a net importer of food because the rule of an incompetent government destroyed the economy of the country.

Ethiopia-Eritrea peace talks ‘providential’ https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2018-07/ethiopia-eritrea-peace-talks-franzelli.html (17 July 2018)

“I think South Africa is a great country.”
Source: Conversation: Elon Musk on Wired Science (2007)

Smuts on the rebuilding of South Africa after the Boer War, in The Theory of Holism, 1940, p. 133

“We do not want chaos in South Africa.”
Explaining why cinemas were not open to all races, House of Assembly, April 21, 1983, as cited by Andrew Donaldson, Sunday Times, 5 November 2006


President Hugo Chavez's Speech at the U.N. General Assembly, Wednesday, September 20, 2006