Mugabe and his lost promise

And it wasn’t just the UN and the international community that got together to condemn the incident — South Africa made a rare criticism of its neighbour urging it to respect human rights.

What was the rallying point?

The rally in capital Harare was organised by civic groups, the church and the opposition including Tsvangirai. As head of the Movement for Democratic Change, Tsvangirai has been leading the movement opposing President Mugabe who has been in power for 27 years and now wants to change the Constitution so that he can stick around for another two years.

The MDC was formed in 1999 to oust Mugabe but two years ago it split into two factions. But both these factions came together at the rally and people believe it was this that got the government cracking.

Is this just politics? Or does it, in fact, reflect popular discontent?

With inflation now over 1,700 per cent (the highest in the world) and unemployment rate at around 80 per cent, people are bound to be more than anxious. And it could get worse. The International Monetary Fund predicts inflation could touch 4,000 per cent by the end of this year.

Once the breadbasket of Africa, Zimbabwe was one of the richest countries in the continent but now the country’s economy has all but collapsed. According to the International Crisis Group, it has the world’s fastest shrinking peace-time economy.

So, what’s at the root of the crisis?

Well, almost every one agrees that land is at the heart of the problem. Many say that it is Mugabe’s seizure of most of the white-owned land farms since 2000 that has destroyed its farming sector. Mugabe’s defence is that redistribution of land has reversed the unfair colonial land concentration in white hands and that he’s made land distribution more equitable. There is a huge food shortage in the country, which the government says is because of a prolonged drought.

In 2005, the government also launched an urban slum demolition drive that according to the UN left about 700,000 people without jobs and homes.

Hasn’t Mugabe been around for a long while now?

Yes. Mugabe played an important role in ending white rule in Zimbabwe — earlier known as Rhodesia. He and his Zanu-PF party have dominated Zimbabwe’s politics since it gained independence from the UK in 1980.

Mugabe was declared winner of the 2002 presidential elections and received a further shot in the arm when his party won more than two-thirds of the votes in parliamentary elections. The opposition called the elections fraudulent.

Now with opposition voices becoming louder, is it the beginning of an end? No one can be too sure.

In the past too, when resistance against him grew, Mugabe managed to outwit his opponents. He’s helped of course by a fractured opposition.

But there are some in his party who are getting impatient, waiting for their turn to come. But the 83-year-old leader is not in the habit of stepping down. Mugabe’s been quoted as saying that he would contest the election in 2008 if the party said so.Will it?