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Reconstructing Zimbabwe's ruins
Southern Africa Trust
June 09, 2009

http://www.southernafricatrust.org/changemakers/june2009/#sidelink1

After years of political strife, economic meltdown and runaway humanitarian disasters, Zimbabwe's fledgling unity government now has the unenviable - but mandatory - task of rebuilding a broken and suffering land.

With inflation reaching 230,000,000%; a deadly cholera epidemic; country-wide food shortages and an unemployment rate of more than 90%, a recent Physicians for Human Rights emergency report called the health and economic crises affecting Zimbabwe, 'man-made disaster'.

By early March, cholera had claimed more than 4,000 lives and nearly 90,000 Zimbabweans had been infected since the outbreak began in August 2008.

The fall-out from Zimbabwe's crisis continues to have a huge impact on the entire region, with an estimated three million economic migrants fleeing Zimbabwe in search of work. The social security systems of neighbouring countries - particularly South Africa, Botswana and Zambia - are struggling to deal with this influx.

On the one-year anniversary of the outbreak of xenophobic violence in South Africa (11 May), the South African press described the problem as 'a sleeping beast'. Experts warned that it was likely to rear its head again, particularly if large numbers of Zimbabweans continued to seek a better life elsewhere in the region. This, they say, would be exacerbated by the current global recession, which is seeing increasing numbers of jobs being lost, particularly in labour-reliant industries such as manufacturing and mining.

There is a real threat that, if concerted efforts are not made now, the Zimbabwean situation will continue to affect investment into the southern African community for a number of years to come. However, competing priorities mean the spread of limited finance across the various sectors of intervention has reached a critical point. Zimbabwe is facing a multi sector crisis: Food, health, water supply, sanitation and protection remain the main priorities at the moment.

Yet all is not doom and gloom: now that the political situation is improving and with the adoption of two stable currencies, some signs of hope are emerging. According to a recent BBC World Service report, the new Zimbabwe unity government's adoption of the US Dollar and South African Rand - an effort to forestall ongoing economic collapse - is beginning to stabilize the rampant inflation and Zimbabweans are starting to see signs of food prices decreasing.

For the ordinary Zimbabwean, living on less than US$2 a month (when the price of one liter of cooking oil recently cost US$2.50), this is welcome news.

Although critics argue that whilst President Mugabe is still in power, no substantial aid packages should be considered, recent studies have shown that the longer the SADC and the international community wait, the more funding will be required:

• In mid-2008, the humanitarian community in Zimbabwe estimated it would take around US$350 million to address just the immediate, humanitarian needs; by November 2008, that figure had grown to US$550 million. It is still increasing!
• The food security situation continues to deteriorate: the original United Nations' Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) 2009 projected five million Zimbabweans depending on food aid in the first quarter of 2009; two months later, that number has increased to seven million.

People like Jay Naidoo, chairman of the Development Bank for Southern Africa, believe there is a vested interest in rebuilding Zimbabwe, because of its potential to become the food basket of the region once again.

"Rather than focus on Mr Mugabe, we should focus on programmes which have a practical benefit for ordinary Zimbabweans, who today are living in absolute deprivation," he said.

Yet, despite the hard times, the spirit of the Zimbabwean people has not been destroyed. This is according to human rights lawyer Tinoziva Bere, who also is vice president of the Zimbabwe Law Association and legal counsel for United Methodist-related Africa University.

"We could have degenerated to racial and other hatred and we could have resorted to killing each other, but the only killing that has gone on has been by militias - paid, drugged and given beer to encourage them to do those things," Bere explained in a recent interview. "Ordinary people have remained what they have always been, the peace-loving Zimbabwean people."

Bere, who is based in Mutare, said that while temporary relief is coming to some quarters, poverty cannot be eliminated in the country until capacity is restored, people are able to grow food and produce products and dependence on imports is reduced.

Sources: BBC World Service, IRIN, PanAfrican News, SACIS, Physicians for Human Rights, United Nations, SARPN, Zimbabwejournalists.com, Zimbabwesituation.com, United Methodist News Service, SACSIS

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