(TALKZIMBABWE) A vibrant, buzzing Zimbabwe is what I saw

A vibrant, buzzing Zimbabwe is what I saw
Posted by By Brett Mashingaidze at 4 May, at 04 : 29 AM

ON touchdown after three years, I expected the mood to be that of 2008, but it wasn’t. Zimbabwe has transformed, is transforming and those who are stuck outside the country are missing out. They might never be able to catch up with what is going on back home.

Do not get me wrong. There is still the intermittent power and water cuts and pockets of poverty, but Zimbabweans are doing their best to survive in that environment. In fact, most of them have found some very innovative means of dealing with such crises, although government needs to do more.

However, this is not the gist of my contribution. This has been reported elsewhere, sometimes honestly, sometimes spiced up to paint a bleak picture of the country.

Such reportage has been done by people who do not think they are safe when they go back home because of reasons best known to them.

The country is buzzing.

I attended the Harare International Festival of Arts (HIFA), and many other arts events in the country.

They say the arts reflect what is going on in a society. If this is a truism, then Zimbabwe is unstoppable.

The general mood in the country is that of optimism.

The political undercurrents do not seem to affect people anymore.

I travelled to Glen Norah, Mbare, Glen View and Highfields, places I grew up in. There were murmurings about what the government can and should do, but the optimism and hope for the future was still there.

Reading the online media, you’d think Harare is now a ghost-town. Do not be fooled it isn’t.

Young male and female entrepreneurs have emerged, who have no interest in party politics. They openly discuss politics, if they have to, and openly agree to disagree.

Every young person that I met is, in one form or the other, enterprising. We have indeed emerged from a bleak environment shining. We have shown our resilience as a people, although more still needs to be done.

Suited black and white young people – the latter generations – now run big organisations and institutions. They are building houses and drive the latest cars. They don’t know the politics of race reported in the media.

It was, therefore, sad to come back to the Diaspora and realise that the rest of the younger population is involved in mindless banter about who is or is not suited to run Zimbabwe.

Those who are back home know that certain politicians from all parties are corrupt, but not all. Some are greedy, some are not. Yet reading the media reports you’d think the MDCs are full of saints.

Don’t be fooled.


I saw some MDC-T ministers who looked thin only a few years ago, catching up on their Zanu-PF counterparts.

They are chauffer-driven in their Mercedes Benzes and have lost touch with the people.

They shop at Sam Levy’s Village, Arundel Village, Chisipite, Newlands and other affluent spots.

MDC and Zanu-PF politicians populate expensive hotel bars like Meikles’ La Fontaine Restaurant and Can Can Bar or Sheraton’s Jockey Club after Parliament sittings or after work and joke about their ‘vicious exchanges’ during the day.

White people look richer than ever; driving their 4×4 SUVs, Mercedeses, BMWs and Jaguars and filling up the coffee shops, cafes, expensive restaurants and bars.

They fill up all golf club bars and restaurants and run their own fairs, aware from the politics of the land.

Most of them now own expensive private schools where they educate their own children, aware from the multi-racial schools.

I saw a lot of white Zimbabweans on the same plane I was, and most of them proudly displayed their ‘green bombers’, Zimbabwean passports, at the arrivals desk at Harare International Airport.

Many black people, whom I suspect got asylum in the UK and subsequently British nationality, displayed their red passports (British passports) proudly.

Those who still have refugee status in Britain are said to be crossing the border in “special buses” into and out of Zimbabwe, aided by corrupt border agents in Zimbabwe and South Africa and bus drivers.

Rumor has it that the first destination of many Zimbabweans when they get refugee status is the UK is Zimbabwe, of course via South Africa. This is the same Zimbabwe they do not want to be associated with.

Seeing this side of Zimbabwe, I could only imagine that journalists who only report on the negatives in Zimbabwe are lured by the US dollar or British pound, or the prospect of getting better jobs if the MDC ever gets into power. Otherwise what is their motive?

The unsuspecting Diasporans live in perpetual fear, while their families, friends and colleagues battle it out and ultimately triumph.

Those Diasporans who do not make the move now, will only live to admire those who traversed the hard sanctions-filled road.

The time to contribute to Zimbabwe and make success is now or never.

*Brett Mashingaidze writes from the United Kingdom where he is a postgraduate student in oil and gas law.