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'Nothing to celebrate'
18/04/2007 13:47 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe marked 27 years of independence on Wednesday amid an economic meltdown and spiralling political tensions which have turned the one-time African role model into a pariah in the West.
This year's celebrations in the former British colony of Rhodesia are being held under the theme "Uniting Against Sanctions", a pointed reference to the boycott imposed by the European Union and United States against the regime of President Robert Mugabe over claims that he rigged his re-election in 2002.
Mugabe, the 83-year-old strongman who has ruled since independence, led the main commemorations at a football stadium in Harare where the inaugural independence celebrations were held.
Smaller gatherings were held in other cities, but analysts say with most people living below the poverty threshold and an on-going crackdown against perceived enemies of the state, independence day has lost its relevance.
Nothing to celebrate
Takura Zhangazha, a political analyst, said for many, celebrating independence will be insignificant.
"Apart from the fact that it is a public holiday, independence day is now insignificant," Zhangaza said.
"The majority of people are suffering and they have nothing to celebrate. Maybe the political elite will celebrate, but political celebrations are not going to solve anything."
The southern African country of 13 million people, once regarded as the region's breadbasket, is now trying to cope with an inflation rate of 1 730% and unemployment levels of 80%.
Political unrest which has accompanied the economic meltdown has been met with a brutal crackdown against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Relations with the West hit a new low last month when MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was arrested and then beaten in police custody as he and fellow opposition activists tried to stage a protest rally.
Mugabe responded to criticism of the police tactics by threatening diplomats with expulsion and insisting that Tsvangirai only had himself to blame.
Mugabe was a role model
It was a very different scenario 27 years ago when Mugabe won widespread admiration with an offer of reconciliation to the minority whites after they had handed over power at the end of a civil war.
"In 1980 there was genuine jubilation, Mugabe was a role model and the rest of the world respected us as a country. Now you even feel ashamed to say you are from Zimbabwe," said the veteran political commentator Bill Said.
"The independence euphoria is gone and unlike in the 1980s there is no longer that keenness to want to attend the ceremony and hear Mugabe's address. Nobody is interested in listening to him attacking (British Prime Minister Tony) Blair and the West.
"The leaders are too absorbed in themselves and looking after themselves while the majority is living in poverty. It's a real tragedy that some people are even saying life was better under (Rhodesian prime minister) Ian Smith's regime."
Source of pride
Government Chief Whip Rugare Gumbo said however that independence day should be a source of pride despite the economic challenges facing the country.
"We are now masters of our own destiny. It's a pity that some people politicise independence day," he told AFP.
Gumbo added that unlike in the past, many people in the country now have opportunities to do things which were initially reserved for the minority whites.
"In the past blacks were not even allowed to walk within the city centre."
In the last few weeks, state-run radio channels have been playing liberation war songs while other stations have special programmes on the independence celebrations.
But Arthur Mutambara, leader of the breakaway faction of the MDC, argued that talk of freedom rang hollow.
"Instead, starvation, unemployment, deplorable working conditions, unmitigated suffering and unprecedented hopelessness now define our national psyche," he said in an opinion article.
"We live in an undeclared state of emergency where our basic freedoms of assembly speech, movement and association are heavily curtailed by repressive legislation."
- AFP
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