…let a paranoid psychopath rule it. Once the breadbasket of Africa, Zimbabwe is a nation in ruin thanks to Robert Mugabe.

A drive across Zimbabwe today reveals a desolate portrait of decline: Aimless mobs of people wait along the rural roads, each with a silent pleading gesture for a lift at every passing vehicle. With fuel almost dried up, unemployment at 80% and transport too expensive for most, movement is almost frozen.

Along the highways, brown grass stands high between the thorny acacias in a stunning vista of what Africa must have looked like before mechanized agriculture made farming Zimbabwe’s main export business. Now, most farms lie dormant.

Meat disappeared after the government shut down private abattoirs, transferring all slaughtering to a quasi-governmental organization that cannot meet demand. Fuel supplies dried up after the National Oil Co. of Zimbabwe was made the sole authorized distributor.

In towns, straggling queues form at any rumor of sugar, maize or bread. Most supermarket shelves are empty of basic staples: no meat, no sugar, no maize, no bread, no pasta, no rice, no milk.

Authorities have focused on one sector after another, accusing them of collaborating with the opposition, supporting regime change or engaging in economic sabotage.

Beginning in 1999, most white-owned and some black-owned commercial farms were seized, leading to a collapse in production, food shortages and hunger. More than 3 million people now need food aid.

In 2005 at least 700,000 people were left homeless by Operation Murambatsvina, or “clean out the filth,” which destroyed the shacks and livelihoods of informal traders.

According to the government’s figures, inflation has rocketed to 4,500%. Independent economists estimate it is closer to 7,000%.

The country’s leaders are now focusing on what’s left of the business community, accusing it of stoking hyperinflation to undermine the ruling ZANU-PF party.

The government last month forced businesses to cut their prices in half, leaving them to face catastrophic losses. Businesses risk a government takeover if they close.

Manufacturing and retail account for about 27% of what is left of the formal workforce.

Meanwhile, as black Africans in Zimbabwe suffer, no word of condemnation comes from Nelson Mandela.