February's Business

February 11 was the beginning of a new government in Zimbabwe; opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as Prime Minister by the country's President Robert Mugabe. Reading Tsvangirai's speech I wondered whose voice was I hearing in all this? A dreamer who prefers to bury their head in the sand or a realist with a skewed image of reality? He promised civil servants would be paid in forex, human rights would be respected and no Zimbabwean would ever go hungry. Mr Prime Minister; promises are only as good as their deliverance - how and when will the public sector be paid in forex. From where will these funds be sourced when already the forex reserves are insufficient to do everyday business? If human rights are to be respected when will this come into effect - when the State is done with its ludicrous detention of Jestina Mukoko, Roy Bennett and many other brave, innocent citizens? Of course I've no wish to rain on Morgan's parade, I just wish to point out a few things he might's happily ignored in his speech - if it was Barack Obama he wished to emulate in his words then he might have been more realistic and told the Zimbabwean people the work to re-build Zimbabwe will be a long and hard job that requires the effort of everyone. There will be no instant solutions and more sacrifices will have to be made before stability can be won; more will hunger, more will be oppressed, more will go poor because change does not come overnight in a house run by three fathers, each governing with very different mandates. Whether these mandates can work together remains to be seen. Needless to say there will be casualties as these parties attempt to work out their differences, and there will be greater sacrifices demanded of all three stakeholders. Its a question of their willingness to sacrifice their political differences to work for the common, greater good of the people.