Politicians still top the agenda as crippled Zimbabwe starts long climb to Ground Zero
Decades of economic damage make recovery uncertain, Paul Radley, in Harare, writes
The hustle and bustle of Harare’s Josiah Tongogara Street reflects the beating heart of a capital city and the short history of Zimbabwe as a nation state.
Named after a guerrilla fighter from the struggle for independence from what was Rhodesia, heavy traffic makes the busy road a natural venue for newspaper sellers.
Billboards advertising the latest headlines are a reminder of how Zimbabwe, for now at least, cannot avoid the past – even if people are crying out for a new future.
“Mugabe to lose properties”, says one referring to the president who was ousted in November last year. “Mugabe fights back”, reads another.
The many potholes drivers steer around feel like a metaphor for the struggle that lies ahead. Zimbabwe’s economic fabric is shattered. Unemployment is 80 per cent.
“Mugabe killed us. We are starting from zero,” John Sibanda, a maize farmer from a town east of Harare, tells The National.
Among tens of thousands to suffer during the agricultural collapse of the nation once known as Africa’s bread basket, Mr Sibanda came to the capital to boost his income by working as a driver.
He is pleased with what the new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has done so far, although little has changed.
“It is like trying to raise a ship that has sunk,” Mr Sibanda says. “It will be difficult but the new president wants to do business. He wants to get investment for Zimbabwe.”
Josiah Tongogara, 41, died in a road accident in neighbouring Mozambique in 1979, just days after the Lancaster House Agreement was signed that paved the way to the creation of the republic.
Many suspect there was foul play because he was a rival to Robert Mugabe, who would go on to lead the country from its infancy to his eventual demise at the hands of the military.
The street named after Mr Tongogara has seen better days. Long-since disused street lights bow over junctions.
As the “robots” – or traffic lights – turn red, hawkers flood the junction peddling wares as diverse as phone chargers, packets of crisps, oil paintings and giant maps of Africa.
Lamp posts and trees bear hand-written advertisements for services such as tree felling and building repairs.
Everyone is trying to eke out a living. The newspaper sellers are focused exclusively on Zimbabwe’s politics and politicians. There is nothing about Donald Trump or North Korea. Pop or sport stars do not feature, neither do celebrities.
Zimbabwe is awaiting the first presidential election since the end of Mr Mugabe’s 37year rule. Voting is due to take place at some point between June and August.
Mr Mnangagwa said in January that the elections would be “free, credible, fair and indisputable”.
What comes next, most people say, cannot be as bad as what went before. Hence the voracious interest in news about the country’s leaders, past and present.
“The rock stars of our country are our politicians, which is a tragedy if you think about it,” says Larry Kwirirayi, presenter of a prime-time radio talk show in Harare.
“It means aspects of other things, such as culture, disappear through the cracks. It also tends to be clasped within a collective pessimism. We are a bit British in that way.”
President Mnangagwa, 75, set out a plan to reinvigorate the economy when he was sworn into power.
He has spoken of the need to attract foreign companies, of his desire to re-engage with the West, and reiterated that he wants Zimbabwe to rejoin the Commonwealth 16 years after its suspension over human rights abuses attributed to his predecessor and his cohorts.
But Kwirirayi queries the idea that Zimbabwe is at “zero”, suggesting there is still a long way to go before things are even that good, no matter what experts from the International Monetary Fund might think.
“Things got so bad that it is going to take a while for it to become even just OK. People can use clever terms like ‘austerity measures’ but people are so hamstrung,” he says.
“Our budget is $5 billion or $6bn for our whole country. We hear there are deals that have been signed and what not, but things were minus-20. It is going to take a while just to get to zero.”
The IMF has told Zimbabwe not to clear its $1.75bn foreign arrears by borrowing from lenders, as it would worsen the national debt. Instead it has suggested cuts to already poor public sector wages, reducing farm subsidies and improving transparency in mining.
While political candidates attract air time with pronouncements about ambitious projects such as a bullet train to dramatically cut the travel time between Harare and Bulawayo, Kwirirayi believes the focus needs to be more basic. There is a scarcity of services, food and cash, he says.
Even now, that contrasts starkly with Mr Mugabe’s personal wealth. A report in the state-owned Sunday Mail says Mr Mugabe “for years received his salary in cash, and has demanded that the same apply to his pension lump sum of nearly half a million dollars and monthly pension payments of over $13,000”.
Ordinary citizens have to queue, sometimes for days, to access amounts as low as $20 from a bank.
“In 2016 you had products but people didn’t have access to cash, and even now people don’t have access to cash,” Kwirirayi says.
Goodson Chikowore, who works as a supervisor in Harare, is not certain if the elections will be as transparent as Mr Mnangagwa has said.
He points to how the president previously served as the head of Mr Mugabe’s main intelligence service as a reason to doubt.
“The president is doing his job properly at the moment,” says Mr Chikowore.
“But he was in the same bracket as Mugabe, so we don’t know if it will be fair. The [election] result will determine the future. This is the short term. We don’t know what the long term will be.”
One thing that has changed is the mood towards speaking about the man in charge, compared to even four months ago, when “people were probably scared the even think about criticising the president”.
There are also a lot of younger candidates seeking office, which is also contributing to a better outlook.
“People feel less distrusting of the political processes at the moment than they were under Mugabe,” says Kwirirayi.
“They aren’t quite trusting but they are less distrusting.”