A New Zimbabwe is what the people of Zimbabwe are expecting out of the newly formed inclusive government. Zimbabwe history is one of painful experiences, poverty, injustice and human rights excesses. 12 months on since February 2009 the economy of Zimbabwe has some signs of renewal. The current Zimbabwe situation is generally that of hope and promise. For many working in the civil service, the promise of a new and better Zimbabwe appears to be still elusive. Due to continued sanctions the new government of Zimbabwe is failing to access balance of payments support.
Civil servants in Zimbabwe are still earning meagre salaries of maximum $350 per month for the most senior professionals in government. Teachers have repeatedly threatened strike action to press for better salaries under the so called new Zimbabwe dispensation. Perhaps the question to be asked is what really constitutes a new dispensation in Zimbabwe. For many it's more than human rights, justice or access to long elusive freedoms. First and foremost in the minds of the generality of the people of this country a new Zimbabwe is a place where access to means of economic survival are free for all. It's first bread and butter issues before human rights and freedoms.
A new dispensation is defined by reasonable access to gainful jobs in Zimbabwe in all sectors including manufacturing sector. This is not hard to understand, over 80% of people in Zimbabwe are not employed and survive through informal selling and buying. However, with the stabilisation of the Zimbabwe currency and Zimbabwe economy in general, buying low and selling high as was possible during inflationary days is no longer possible. People are now in desperate need of formal jobs that can sustain them and their families month in and month out.
The new Zimbabwe hope that the new government brought in at the beginning of 2009 may slowly fade if nothing tangible is realised in the coming year by ordinary Zimbabweans the same people that carried the heaviest burden of 10 years of untold economic ruin.The signing of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) in Zimbabwe was absolutely welcome but there is much more that is required before the people's patience runs thin.
In Africa there is a popular saying "Not yet Uhuru" meaning not yet freedom. In Zimbabwe we might as well say not yet a new Zimbabwe until economic fundamentals are fixed! In the meantime the idea of a new and prosperous Zimbabwe will remain engraved in the minds and inspirations of a brave people of Zimbabwe. Until Zimbabwe's sons of the soil return from the scatter abroad perhaps it will still be not yet uhuru.
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