Our Image of the Day today has the caption: Of Hopes, Dreams and Illusions. It is a picture taken inside the Harare International Conference Centre (HICC) on 15 September 2008, the day ZANU-PF and the two MDC factions agreed to share power and form a Government of National Unity (GNU).
Zimbabwe in Pictures Publisher, Chris Kabwato was at the HICC and this is what he wrote in the short Editorial we put out in the 13th Edition of our e-newsletter: I had to be there on Monday 15 September. Up and early I struggled into a suit – jeans are my preferred item of clothing – but on this occasion I thought a suit might just be appropriate. I wasn’t exactly in a celebratory mood. Deep down I still felt that this was an unjust resolution to a simple problem – the lack of ZANU PF’s legitimacy. Mugabe had lost an election, had lost the support of the people. Now he would need to be accommodated – very much the way the National Party had to be accommodated by the African National Congress. It need not have ended this way. But our leaders had said this was the best compromise deal…
The Editorial was short because mostly, the pictures spoke for themselves; the jubilation, the animated atmosphere and the goodwill that seemed to prevail on that day. You could bet your Zim Dollar – for it was worth then – that a new Zimbabwe had arrived. And the people were ready to welcome it.
Last Friday’s announcement that the MDC was temporarily withdrawing from the GNU because ZANU-PF has been “dishonest and unreliable” throughout the life of the September 15 agreement may not have come as a surprise to many. However, a lot of Zimbabweans and those who are interested in matters affecting this country still did not see this coming – the MDC temporary withdrawal from the GNU.
Yes, we have been told of the tactical strategy the MDC move is all about – to pressure SADC, Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF into at least owning up to the greater part of the agreement. That remains for them to sort out at that level. At the most important level, however, the level of the ordinary people of Zimbabwe, the masses who came to the HICC in September last year and sang songs of freedom, songs of liberation and songs of renewed hope, this is a rude awakening.
Of course, the food is now there in the supermarkets albeit all being charged in the elusive US Dollar currency; it is something to hold on to, perhaps. Yet, a hope renewed once it fades again will be difficult to fathom and reclaim. Did we really hope and dream from September 15 2008 onwards or was it all just an illusion to which we are becoming disillusioned?
Levi
