Newlands Shopping centre in Harare, where we have our office, is unusually quiet today.

The bank queues are shorter, the vendors are fewer and the streets emptier. From various shops I can hear the drone of Mugabe’s voice. People are huddled around radios listening to the signing ceremony speeches. Out in the car park I’ve just walked past a couple of guys mimicking Mugabe . . . “We will not have regime change”.

Last night a group of us gathered to talk over a couple of beers. Most of us have been in the pro-democracy struggle for many years but none of us were feeling optimistic about today. We shook our heads saying that we never thought it would end like this, in a bloated government of unity. Or an arrangement that simply accommodates two political parties. Sure, like many people say, this is at least a shift. And if the MDC have their wits about them they’ll use this opportunity to take full control rather than continue to be maneuvered and choreographed by Zanu PF.

Most likely this small struggling nation of ours now has the largest government in Africa. This certainly isn’t anything to boast about. Are we looking down the barrel of two of everything: two motorcades, two portraits, two macho men commandeering our national airline? How much money will get gobbled up by this power sharing arrangement while politicians like Morgan crow for aid to come in and resuscitate our economy?

The average person on the street in Zimbabwe only welcomes this expedient political arrangement because they want their life to improve. But will it? Just recently we read about the new swathe of MPs getting brand spanking new cars to the tune of US$9 million whilst the majority of their constituents do not have access to a regular clean supply of water. Of immediate importance is the need to hold these politicians accountable. To make sure that they deliver on improving the abyssal conditions that Zimbabweans are surviving under. As many ordinary Zimbabweans have pointed out, whilst it is important that we work on issues such as a new constitution, we can’t eat a constitution.

And, by the way, people are dying of hunger.

Is Morgan more than the power and the glory? Before he jumps on a jet plane and tours the world let’s see him, with his supposed new powers, focus on improving the everyday lives of Zimbabweans.

This entry was posted on September 15th, 2008 at 2:40 pm by Bev Clark and is filed under Activism, Elections 2008, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.