A decade of turmoilwhich reached its peak during the election period in 2008 ended with relative calm in the aftermath of the political agreement reached between the feuding political parties, namely, the erstwhile ruling party ZANU PF and the opposition parties MDC-T and MDC-M. Known by its acronym ‘GPA’, representing the rather grandiose title Global Political Agreement, the agreement of 15th September 2008 led to the formation of the Unity Government, also known as the Inclusive Government in February 2009. It has to be mentioned, however, that this agreement has been blighted by so-called ‘outstanding issues’ – I was tempted to accord this term its own status under the letter ‘O’ but it ran a close second to the eventual winner.

First, the black market, also known as the parallel market, was in the trade of foreign currency but with shortages of basic commodities, including fuel and food more and more of these goods became available only on the black market. Certain places in Harare and Bulawayo became known as the ‘World Bank’ acknowledging their status as physical spaces where currency was traded openly and on a large scale.

But in the same context of the black market, ‘B’ must also represent a notorious phenomenon that was unique, imaginative and in some ways exploitative – ‘Burning Money’. As the central bank restricted withdrawals from individual bank accounts, ever-inventive Zimbabweans devised mechanisms of circumventing such limitations. One of these mechanisms was the so-called ‘Burning Money’ – enabling a person to withdraw far more than the restricted amount from the bank. But it also presented opportunities for individuals to make enormous wealth by exploiting the massive and unrealistic gap between the official and black market exchange rates. Consequently, ‘burning money’ represents a very efficient if unfair money-making invention that grew out of adversity and skewed policies, both of which are manifestations of a lost decade.

Although the making of the Lancaster House Constitution which gave independence to the new Zimbabwe in 1980 was a controversial process, the issue of the Constitution did not enter the public consciousness until later. Few ordinary people had any clue about the Constitution. No wonder it was relatively easy for the new government to amend the Constitution in 1987, giving extensive powers to the new Office of the President. It wasn’t until 1999-2000 period when the matter of constitution-making became a truly public affair, thanks to the efforts of organisations such the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA). Since 2000, the issue of the constitution has become a key battle-point but 10 years later, the country has yet to find common ground on the new constitution. Presently, it has to make do with a rag-tag constitution that is a pale shadow of the Lancaster House Constitution. In 2005 I referred in an article to our Constitution as bhurugwa rine zvigamba (a trouser with too many patches).

Throughout history the land that is now Zimbabwe has had its phases of migration. People have come and gone. But it wasn’t until the last decade that the word ‘Diaspora’ was popularly assigned to migrants who left the country. That is because for the first time, Zimbabweans left in their millions to settle in other countries. They mostly chose familiar places – countries with which there are some historical or cultural connections; where it would be easier to integrate and settle and there large communities of Zimbabwean migrants have grown – Britain, the US, Canada, South Africa, Australia. “Diaspora” doesn’t just represent a people – the place itself is known as kuDiaspora. So people say, ‘akaenda kuDiaspora’ (he went to the Diaspora). This word was hardly used in Zimbabwe before the last decade; now it is an integral part of the national vocabulary, complete with its own meanings and usages unique to Zimbabwe.

Commencing with the constitutional referendum of February 2000, it’s a fair bet that Zimbabwe has probably had more national elections than any other African country since the start of the New Millennium. After the Referendum there were Parliamentary elections in June 2000; then there was a bitterly controversial Presidential Election in 2002. There were Parliamentary elections in 2005 (including elections for the newly formed Senate). Then there were Presidential and Parliamentary elections in 2008. Yet ironically, those elections have delivered absolutely nothing of substance, confirming the view that elections are not necessarily indicative of democracy. Instead, elections have been synonymous with allegations of rigging, unfairness, fear, extreme violence and everything that is negative about politics. Going by what transpired in the last decade, it will be difficult to convince those who do not believe that elections can be an agent of change for as long as one of the contestants also plays the role of referee and enforcer of the rules.

Yes,the Final Push that never was. At some point, the then opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai called for what was called the Final Push, meaning the pressure leading to the eventual end of President Mugabe’s rule. But needless to say, the Final Push failed. Mugabe remained in power and eventually compromised with Tsvangirai after the chaotic elections of 2008 to form a government of national unity which presently presides over a shaky Zimbabwe.

The Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. It could have been the Global Political Agreement or the Government of National Unity but even those two fall in the shadow of the dominating Governor. Other than Mugabe and Tsvangirai, there is probably no other public figure who has loomed large in public life in Zimbabwe. Many believe that at his peak, the Governor was more than a mere central bank boss – that he was in fact the de facto Prime Minister. Through the so-called quasi-fiscal functions, the Governor literally ran government. No wonder Minister of Finance at the time, Herbert Murerwa threw in the towel – he was redundant. When the drama of the decade is told to future generations, “Your Governor” as he often referred to himself in his monetary policy speeches, will be a key and dominant character.

Everywhere its human rights this and human rights that! It has been the story of the decade. Human rights has been the subject of struggle in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in the world but it wasn’t until the last decade that human rights became popular in the language of ordinary people in Zimbabwe. In some ways it has been the equivalent of the Civil Rights Movement in 1960s America. There are countless organisations that bear the term ‘human rights’ and many more still that claim to champion the cause of human rights. In some ways, it could be said that whilst all other industries declined, one industry grew in leaps and bounds – it was the industry of human rights. It attracted well meaning individuals dedicated to the welfare of human kind. But it also attracted other unsavoury characters, attracted by the US dollar reservoir built in the catchment areas of many of the so-called civil society organisations.     

Students of economics will look back at Zimbabwe during the last decade for a perfect case study on the dynamics of inflation and indeed, hyperinflation. There were reports that inflation rose to at least 130 million per cent, a figure not known in a country that is not at war. It was like Weimar Germany, a return to a very hostile era when inflation ran riot, leaving ordinary people pulverised. Known to name offspring after key events or signs, it will not surprise anyone if some children of the last decade bear names such as Inflation or Hyperinflation – a constant reminder of the harsh realities faced by ordinary citizens at the time.

J is for Jonathan Moyo, the political science professor who has become one of the most conspicuous and, it has to be said, controversial politicians during his tenure as Minister of Information between 2000 and 2004. He arrived on the scene via Wits University as a key leader of the Constitutional Commission which sought but failed to lead the constitution-making process in Zimbabwe. For his efforts, he was rewarded with a post in government, as Information Minister. He is credited with crafting the draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) which severely emasculates media freedom. He is also credited with designing the repressive Public Order and Security Act (POSA), which essentially represents a resurrection of the colonial Law and Order Maintenance Act. He vehemently rejects these credits. But there can be no doubting the massive impact Jonathan Moyo had in public life – at one point he was probably the single most visible and hugely influential politician after Mugabe.

He will also be remembered for allegedly masterminding the so-called Tsholotsho Declaration by which a faction of ZANU PF sought to wrest the vice-presidency from a rival faction. In that episode, Joice Mujuru got the vice presidency effectively putting on hold the ambitions of Emmerson Mnangagwa. Moyo was fired from government and ZANU PF. But by the end of the decade the controversial professor was back in ZANU PF, his return reportedly receiving enormous applause from the audience at the party’s congress in December 2009. His career in a decade is an apt representation of the topsy-turvy world of politics in Zimbabwe during that period – the highs and lows, the contradictions and the senselessness of it all.

When you asked a Zimbabwean how they were managing in the difficult conditions, the answer would often be, “tiri kungokiya-kiya!”, meaning they were using all sorts of imaginative skills to make ends meet. Kukiya-kiya means many things; anything really to make a living, usually outside the formal forum. Everyone kiya-kiyad in order to survive.  It didn’t matter whether it was legal or illegal, some things just had to be done to create income. Indeed, by the time the unity government was formed, Minister of Finance Tendai Biti was asked where they were getting the money from his answer was ‘taka kiya-kiya’, leading his critics to label him Minister Kiya-kiya. The pejorative insinuations aside, this was a formal acknowledgement of how Zimbabweans had to survive in a decade when things got really twisted. They had to kiya-kiya and may still have to in the present decade, given the conditions.

Ever since the colonisation by the British of the land that is now called Zimbabwe the land issue or the ‘land question’ as it is sometimes referred to has always been a bitterly contentious matter. It was thought, naively and short-sightedly, it must be said, that the Lancaster House Constitution had provided a suitable mechanism for dealing with this hotly contested issue. The simmering tensions exploded in 2000 as this most legitimate but easily exploitable of questions became a convenient platform for political survival.

The forced removals of white farmers from the land and the subsequent seizure by the government attracted much negative international attention. The process, known as Fast Track Resettlement Programme, has had its fair share of problems, not least the virtual diminishing of property rights system that supported commercial agriculture and with it a significant reduction in productivity. Corruption and multiple farm ownership, compensation, etc remain contentious issues which will no doubt spill into this and coming decades. This matter is sure to haunt Zimbabwe for a very long time, despite the political rhetoric. Nyaya yeminda icharamba ichinetsa (The land question will remain problematic).

As ever he remains a towering and domineering figure in Zimbabwean politics. Many thought he would be basking in retirement by the end of the decade but he has now entered his fourth decade in power and it would be foolish to bet against him entering the fifth.

When the history of the decade is recorded, the name Nathaniel Manheru and his contributions to the media will be an integral part of it. Some say the Herald columnist was initially Jonathan Moyo, the political science professor and ZANU PF politician who headed the information ministry at the time. And they say when he left without ceremony in 2004 the column was penned by George Charamba, permanent secretary of that ministry. One thing for sure, Manheru was a gifted wordsmith but his words were harsh, unkind and the pen spewed much vitriol against real and perceived opponents. The propaganda was astounding but for those following Zimbabwean politics, beyond the vitriol, there was also a wealth of information about internal workings of government and ZANU PF from this Manheru character. Students of history will learn a few things about the chaos of the decade if they have the patience to read a collection of Manheru’s articles.

O is for Operation Murambatsvina (2005) also referred to as Operation Drive Out Trash but also known officially as Operation Restore Order. Although the literal translation, i.e. Operation Drive Out Trash is often favoured by the media and commentators alike, it is the official version which truly represents what this controversial process was about: it was to ensure that ‘order’ as defined by the then ruling party was resorted, on its terms – that is, a measure to deal with real or perceived opponents. This involved the bulldozing of homes and other commercial structures used by ordinary people in urban areas. However justifiable the concerns may have been, the manner in which it was brutal, prompting the United Nations to dispatch an Envoy, Ms Anna Tibaijuka on a fact-finding mission. It left many homeless, bitter and without means to earn income, driving them further into the depths of poverty.

Zimbabwe was not the first and as the global economic crisis has unravelled, it will not be the last to print money. However, over the last decade, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe became synonymous with a money making machine, known to print millions of worthless Zimbabwe dollars. Even when new denominations were created after knocking off some zeroes, it did not take long before the little zeroes returned, often in large numbers. The enormous hyperinflation was blamed partly on the indiscriminate manner in which the central bank printed money. It was indeed a decade when money was printed with reckless abandon. Even when the German firm supplying printing paper stopped its service, the inventive bankers at the central bank continued to print. However, after countless resuscitation attempts, in early 2009 the Zimbabwe dollar finally went into a deep comma from which it is still to recover.

Queuing is not unique to Zimbabwe. But these were no ordinary queues. People didn’t just queue. They queued in large numbers. They queued for days and nights. They queued at fuel stations, banks, shops – they queued for everything. They said if you were walking in town and saw a queue, you just joined the queue only to ask the purpose of the queue once you had secured your place. Waingomirawo muQ (You just waited in the queue). Some joked that someone once joined a queue only to discover that it was a queue into a funeral parlour! It was indeed, a decade of queues. Even now, Zimbabwe remains in a queue to achieve democracy.

Students of politics and history will forever grapple with the following question: would the result of the parliamentary elections of June 2000 have been any different had there been no Constitutional Referendum in March 2000? That’s because there is a view that the referendum on the new constitution that was held in February 2000 and the historic defeat suffered by government then may have awakened ZANU PF to the real probability of electoral defeat in any future elections. Observers point to the orgy of violence that was escalated between March and June 2000, culminating in a very narrow and controversial victory over the MDC, a party formed barely a year earlier. They believe that the Referendum changed the course of history, giving ZANU PF a chance to test the depth of the river, not with its legs but with a very long and dispensable stick. As it happened, ZANU PF retained parliamentary majority and the constitution is still to be remade.
 

Alright, not necessarily the senate itself but what the issue of the senate sparked within the then united MDC which was leading a strong charge against ZANU PF. In late 2005, ZANU PF introduced an amendment to the Constitution which resuscitated the Senate which had been abolished in the late eighties. The MDC was not sure what to do – to participate or boycott the senatorial elections. Some wanted to boycott as a matter of principle whilst others thought it best to participate to protect the democratic space. The MDC decision-making body met to decide and the result was disputed and controversial. This acted as the spark for the split of the party, leading to the two factions now referred to as MDC-T led by Tsvangirai and MDC-M led by Arthur Mutambara. Clearly the Tsvangirai faction has the large slice of power but this has not stopped the Mutambara faction, hence the tripartite arrangement in which the two now share power with ZANU PF.

T is for Tsvangirai, Mugabe’s arch-rival and nemesis since the formation of the MDC in 1999. Tsvangirai, a former trade union leader rose to become perhaps the most potent opponent Mugabe has ever faced in his political life. A man popular among ordinary Zimbabweans, any weaknesses have so far been outshone by his bravery at confronting a feared regime. He rose in the last decade to become a truly alternative national leader, persuading even those who staunchly doubted his credentials in the early days. Along with Mugabe, Tsvangirai looms large in the politics of Zimbabwe and the fear has to be that his status may give rise to the same cult personality that has been so negative in Zimbabwean politics.

After nearly a decade of heated struggle, ZANU PF and the two MDC parties eventually agreed to form a government of national unity in 2008. This came into being in February 2009 and although shaky, it continues to run the country’s affairs in the current decade. Its lifespan is not certain and outstanding issues remain to be resolved but it’s fair to all of them agree that this is probably what they have to live with for now at least.

The history of Zimbabwe is full of victims – victims of violence, exploitation, war, poverty, etc. The last decade had its fair share of victims. Indeed, many ordinary people suffered like never before. The violence, especially during election periods was horrendous. The images of tortured and murdered men and women will live long in the memory of those who were unfortunate to witness them. Some of those who lost their lives are known. But it is fair to say that perhaps many are not. Some of those who lost or damaged their limbs are known and have been honoured in some ways. But there are many more silent victims who will never receive awards or airtime. “V” is for all victims of the last decade but most of all for the Unknown and Silent Victims – we’ll call it the Tomb of the Unknown Victim.

The veterans of the liberation struggle rose to prominence at the end of the previous decade and their role continued to be influential in the last one. First, under the leadership of Chenjerai ‘Hitler’ Hunzvi and Joseph ‘Chinoz’ Chinotimba, the self-styled commander of the farm invasions, the veterans led the charge against white farmers displacing them violently from the commercial farms. The veterans and indeed some who claim to be veterans were an influential factor in the politics of the last decade, propping up an otherwise shaken ruling party. When the story is told, the role of the veterans will no doubt be a prominent factor. 

Zimbabweans in South Africa, along with many other migrants in that country suffered horrific assaults in 2008 at the hands of locals. Victims of troubles in their own country, they sought refuge and opportunities for work in South Africa. Yet for some this appeared like jumping from the frying pan into the flames as they experienced xenophobic attacks which left many dead, injured, homeless and traumatised.

Alright, they were not really referred to as the youth brigade – this is more of an eighties term. In the last decade they were known mostly as the notorious Green Bombers but they were too many candidates for ‘G’ and they were beaten to it by the Governor. Yet, the story of the decade would be incomplete without the youths who were trained under the Border Gezi programme, named after the late ZANU PF politicians who is credited with designing this mean machine that invoked fear among ordinary citizens as they championed the cause of the then ruling party.

Z is for ‘Zhing-Zhong’, a term that became popular in the last decade following the huge influx of Chinese goods in Zimbabwe’s retail markets. Apparently, they are notorious for poor quality and lacking durability. The joke was that you could buy a pair of shoes in the morning but by the end of the week they would be worn out.

But ‘Z’ also represents the Zimbabwe Ruins, a term of description used so often during the miserable years of the last decade. It is derived of course from the name given to the remains of the ancient city based in present day Zimbabwe. It is from that ancient kingdom that Zimbabwe ironically derives its name. Also known as Great Zimbabwe, Zimbabweans soon came to refer to the country after which they are named as Zimbabwe Ruins, denoting the social, political and economic collapse of the country. Whether or not a new civilisation emerges from these ruins is a key task of this and the coming decades but last decade will probably be known as the period when Great Zimbabwe was truly reduced to the Zimbabwe Ruins.