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ZIMBABWE’S unity government will mark its first anniversary this week but there is will be no popping of champagne corks.
On February 11 last year then opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as Prime Minister as part of a unity government that most Zimbabweans hoped would end an economic and political crisis that had gripped the country for nearly a decade.
The coalition government was the result of the September 15, 2008 power-sharing agreement signed by the two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formations led by Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara and President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF.
The marriage of convenience was forced by the inconclusive elections of March 2008 that were accompanied by political violence on a scale last witnessed during the Gukurahundi era.
A festive atmosphere enveloped Zimbabwe as most people saw the unity government as a chance for a complete break away from what was considered the worst economic and humanitarian crisis in decades.
The coalition’s immediate task was to deal with an economy in ruins, civil servants who had gone for almost a year without reporting for work, endemic political violence, an estimated 90% unemployment and a cholera epidemic that had killed close to 4 000 people.
However, a year later the number of Zimbabweans who still share that optimism is diminishing.
University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer, Eldred Masunungure whose Mass Public Opinion Institute (MPOI) has been tracking the performance of the unity government said it was no longer a theoretical assumption.
“The euphoria that greeted the formation of the unity government has greatly subsided and there is empirical evidence to support that,” Masunungure said.
“It has gone down from above 80% around March/April to 66% in December.”
Masunungure says Zimbabweans had underestimated the work that awaited the unity government to haul the country back to its former glory after it had reached rock bottom.
“We see that realism is now setting in on the general public who had great expectations for the new administration,” he said. “Many people had seriously underestimated the gravity of the situation.
“Zimbabwe had reached the bottom and for it to rise to the ground floor it would take time.”
He said the disillusionment was aptly demonstrated by the current unrest in the civil service over salaries.
Civil servants have downed tools because the unity government says it does not have money to improve their salaries of around US$150 a month for the lowest paid employee.
Tendai Chikowore, the chairperson of the APEC Council summed up the frustrations on Friday.
“When the GNU was formed, we all rejoiced thinking that it was the panacea of our social and economic problems but we have been proven wrong,” Chikowore told a mass rally of civil servants clamouring for strike action.
“There is a lot of bickering about this and that in the GNU but we are yet to hear them fight about our cause.
“It is painful to see them fighting over other things and yet continue to ignore our welfare.
“If you look closely at the bickering, it is all about increasing expenditure to improve their personal lifestyle. They fight about top-of the-range cars and nothing about their employees, we are as good as people without an employer.”
One of the biggest expectations was that the formation of a government with reform-minded people especially from the two MDC formations would see the return of traditional donors.
However, government revenues remain negligible because companies are still producing below capacity and key donors have taken a wait-and-see approach because of the coalition partners’ failure to fully implement their power-sharing agreement.
The crisis of confidence seems to be also taking its toll on the MDC-T, a party many Zimbabweans believed would take them to the promised land.
In a statement on the eve of the GNU’s first anniversary MDC-T secretary general Tendai Biti accused Zanu PF of working overtime to ensure that the unity government does not deliver on its promise.
“Over the past 12 months the MDC has repeatedly shown its willingness to work with Zanu PF to rebuild Zimbabwe, restore the people’s freedoms and deliver real change as agreed in the Global Political Agreement (GPA),” he said.
Biti believes Zanu PF is trying to create conditions for the total breakdown of the inclusive government.
The former ruling party recently announced that it would not make any more compromises in the ongoing talks to resolve outstanding issues in the GPA until sanctions imposed by the West were removed.
This position coupled with the renewed farm invasions and escalating violence ahead of the new constitution-making process has heightened fears that the inclusive government will not last another year. But Masunungure believes the uneasy coalition will run its course despite the seemingly insurmountable problems.
“It is in the nature of some of these regimes to wobble along,” he said. “It will survive.
“The problem is that people in the media tend to sensationalize some issues.
“How many times was the collapse of the previous Zanu PF regime predicted in the media?”
Both Zanu PF and MDC seem to be readying themselves for an election next year, which means that the unity government might only serve two years.
BY KHOLWANI NYATHI
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