Mary Ndlovu

Although the outcome of last weekend’s SADC summit in Angola gave a finger of hope to some, many in Zimbabwe find it difficult to be optimistic about the immediate and even the medium-term future.

February 2010 marked one year of Zimbabwe’s Government of National Unity. It also marked ten years since the ‘no’ vote in Zimbabwe’s constitutional referendum. Both seemed hopeful events at the time and produced genuine celebrations. But neither has brought the positive results hoped for.

A season of fear has returned to Zimbabwe and it is unlikely that the patchwork performed on the fraying coalition government will reverse its impact, at least not in the short run.

The unholy alliance between Zanu PF (Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front) and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has now lasted four weeks.

Soldiers go on the rampage against civilians, nurses steal medicines to sell to patients, teachers abandon their schools, the government spends money to buy judges plasma screen televisions, while the nation starves and dies of cholera.