Zimbabwe was hot stuff for a long time, but the media have mostly cooled off to the nation’s woes. The Armchair Globalist takes a snapshot of the continuing saga and fleshes out the details.

When Morgan Tsvangirai embarked on his inaugural international trip as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe in June, going on a three week tour of the EU, Scandinavia and America, he left knowing Zimbabwe needed around US$8 billion to get its economy back on its feet and to begin addressing the dilapidated sanitation and health infrastructure that had succumbed to the cholera epidemic. For the most part, though, the MDC man’s efforts resulted more in guidelines and promissory notes than hard cash. As a sign of lingering mistrust and scepticism of the country’s ‘government of unity’, most of the pledged credit and aid has gone to NGOs and not into state coffers. The international community to which Tsvangirai was appealing highlighted their concerns surrounding the rule of law, media freedom, and humanitarian concerns generally. They all reiterated the same view that they want to see ‘real’ reforms before providing any further development aid. Despite some progress in curbing inflation (down from hundreds of billions to single digits) and easing food shortages, the unity government has been paralysed by disagreements between the parties. Within Zimbabwe’s frantic political climate, and amidst a global recession, further lobbying for funds by Tsvangirai seems inevitable.

What financial humanitarian aid Tsvangirai did manage to drum up will certainly help to finally eradicate the cholera epidemic. For the most part, the outbreak has tapered off significantly, but at its height the epidemic was one of the most visible signs of Zimbabwe’s rapid deterioration and infrastructural breakdown. A WHO report released on 30 May indicated that 98,424 cases had been reported and that 4,276 people had died from the disease. All the while, Robert Mugabe claimed that the epidemic was a British plot. He later threw his 85th birthday party, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

One of the most prominent cracks in the Tsvangirai-Mugabe government fuelling international scepticism currently is the split between the parties in adopting the Kariba Draft, dubbed the ‘people’s constitution’. Tsvangirai has said the process should be started afresh and that there is no point in consulting the people if there is a fixed document already. The timetable projects the new constitution should be accepted and entrenched by late 2010.

Zimbabwe is currently in a state of transition to what the world hopes will be a truly democratic state. Regime change seems a likely prospect, but it remains uncertain whether it will come sooner or later. The immediate concern for now is clean water, sanitation, healthcare, food, aid, relief and security. On 1 July, former Finance Minister and Zanu-PF politburo member Simba Makoni launched his Mavambo-Kusile-Dawn (The Beginning of a New Dawn) party in Harare. Makoni certainly won’t be able to usher in a new beginning on his own, but a pluralistic political system is the starting point of any democracy. A new dawn will come, but the sun could be a way off yet.

Nathan Sarkas is in second-year, studying English Literature, Media & Writing and Politics. He is a subcom member at The Cape Town Globalist.