A fractured nation of resilient Zimbabweans sighs for a return to normalcy to a country that still brings death and poverty to them. Hope springs eternal that the country could be the pride of Africa again.
Close to three million Zimbabweans haven't seen the country in the past five years. Political and economic ructions drove tens of thousands off into neighbouring nations. Zimbabwean exiles scattered the world over mull over the prospect of going back, but the old fears of poverty and persecution still hold them at bay.
The country has suspended its own currency, naming the South African Rand as the currency of reference. The 80 per cent unemployment record still stands. Electricity is a rare visitor. Some hospital wards remain closed. Water taps have to wait longer before water can flow again. It's a blast furnace of hardships.
Still, yesterday's political archrivals are today's strange bedfellows. A year ago, President Robert Mugabe contested Zimbabwe's presidential run-off alone after Morgan Tsvangirai
refused to participate, out of protest against a campaign of torture
against his voters.
Today, we find the descent into socio-economic hemorrhaging ground to a halt
with the coalition government of president Mugabe, Tsvangirai and
Arthur Mutambara in February 2009. Now that a thin veneer of progress in the country exists, can Zimbabwe heal itself?
The unity pact has survived its first 100 days, but the former ruling Zanu PF party still appears desperate to call the shots. President Mugabe declared that the reserve bank governor, Gideon Gono will not go — he saved the country in its hour of need. Gono earned the reputation of raiding foreign currency accounts of institutions without consent.
But the Media and Information Commission that selectively licensed journalists has now been archived by law. Under the unity government, too, people are salivating at goods that now fill the shops, though the majority cannot afford them.
Strikes appear to be on hold for now. For the first time in ten years there is a promise of economic growth, no matter how small.
The international community is cautiously providing monetary support to resurrect dead services. The survivors of the catastrophe in civil society and the churches see hope.
Zimbabwe's post-independence churches, especially their leadership, have historically been divided, leading to silence over Mugabe's increasingly authoritarian rule. But the early 2000s saw grass-roots leaders in various denominations organising themselves against the government's dereliction of duty.
When 'Operation Murambatsvina'