Zim's 'mafia economy' taking a toll on locals

Harare - Zimbabweans battling the nation's economic crisis are living by their wits on the streets, in shops, on farms and at home, with everything from paying water bills to buying crop seed or property fraught with the risk of fraud.

Police say the southern African country has been hit by a rise in petty crime as shortages empty supermarket shelves and the jobless and inflation rates soar.

Critics say corruption and crime is also on the rise among Zimbabwe's business and government elite, where greed has created a race for wealth as political and economic tensions push the once-prosperous country to the brink of collapse.

Zimbabwe's economy has shrunk sharply in the last three years. Much of the problem is rooted in the key farming sector where production has dropped more than a half since the government's controversial seizures of white-owned farms for black resettlement.

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