No light at the end of the tunnel

I am desperately homesick after six years of exile from Zimbabwe. Yet the power-sharing deal between Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara has not brought me any relief that I can re-enter a new democratic country8230; What Zimbabwe desperately needs is a complete re-birth. A complete break with Mugabe8217;s political and economic insanity. This required a settlement in which he is not involved. But he remains in the driving seat. You cannot teach an old dog new tricks. At 85, Mugabe has not suddenly transmogrified from a murderous tyrant into a true democrat8230; His long, incoherent and rambling acceptance speech yesterday confirmed my worst fears. There was nothing in it to exemplify any vision for the reconstruction of his embattled country8230;

Mugabe remained stuck in his favourite, but hugely irrelevant, subjects: colonialism, blaming Britain for everything wrong in Zimbabwe and eulogising the 8217;70s liberation struggle. Not a word about how to move Zimbabwe forward from the dark dungeon into which he has plunged the country8230; In his own words, the power-sharing deal can only last as long as all the parties uphold certain 8220;salient principles8221; that he holds dear8230;

How will Tsvangirai revive Zimbabwe8217;s agro-based economy without reversing Mugabe8217;s destructive land reforms8230; How will Tsvangirai persuade investors to come, without entirely repealing unsustainable empowerment laws which prescribe majority shareholding by black Zimbabweans in all firms? How will Tsvangirai endeavour to accommodate international donor prescriptions for aid without being accused of compromising on national sovereignty?

Excerpted from a comment by Basildon Peta in 8216;The Independent8217;