Zimbabweans say free and fair elections first

Lot Hove paces up and down the hall at the government-run employment exchange in downtown Harare with a newspaper in his hand. He is one of several hundred job seekers in the place. Hove is clearly irritated with the main story in the state-controlled Herald newspaper. It says that southern African leaders have expressed support for President Robert Mugabe's land redistribution programme and have criticised Britain for dishonouring pledges to bankroll the reforms. "We do not have jobs because someone messed up the economy," the unemployed Hove told IRIN this week. "We want a free and fair election now so that we can choose someone to lead us through this crisis. Let those SADC (Southern African Development Community) people or anyone else accept this or they should just leave us alone." Zimbabwe's economy has been in decline since October 1999, when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) froze financial aid because of differences with Harare over policy and its failure to meet agreed fiscal targets. It hit rock-bottom after militant government supporters began seizing white-owned farms as part of the ruling ZANU-PF party's chaotic and politicised land reform process, according to analysts. As foreign capital and Western donors fled the lawlessness and violence this year, the economic crisis manifested itself in acute shortages of foreign currency and fuel. Now, looming food shortages, as a result of bad weather earlier this year, could spark civil unrest, observers warn. Fearful of the collapse of the region's second largest economy, SADC leaders in September formed a special committee to complement international pressure on Mugabe to halt the land invasions. This week, SADC ministers held two days of talks in Harare to audit the government's commitment to the land agreement, in which the authorities had pledged to act within the rule of law. In their final communiqué on Tuesday 11 December, the SADC ministers reiterated that land was at the core of Zimbabwe's problems and called on all stakeholders to ensure the problem was resolved amicably. But for Hove and many other Zimbabweans, the SADC initiative is too soft on Mugabe and misses the point. Outside the gate of the job centre this week, a woman fruit vendor who gave her name only as Chido, told IRIN that her concern was the presidential elections in March, rather than land. "Will this SADC you are talking about ensure the violence will end and that we will be able to vote freely? I also do not have land but I think if we can vote and have peace again then we can resolve this land issue," she said. "President Mugabe and even SADC are correct when they say land is a key problem, but that is not what most people here want now," said Peter Hana, a University of Zimbabwe graduate who has never been formally employed. Like most of his colleagues, the 27-year-old Hana was born and bred in the overcrowded townships of Harare. When his father, a street-side grocer, was knocked down in a hit-and-run accident 12 years ago, his mother took over the business to get Hana through school. But five years after coming out top of his class at the university, Hana still has to depend on the small income from his mother's vending business. Zimbabwe has an unemployment rate of 50 percent. Hana told IRIN he supported land reform because of the injustices of white settler rule that resulted in a mere 4,500 white farmers owning 80 percent of the best agriculture land, while some six million black villagers were crammed into the barren communal areas. But he said he believed, like most of his friends, that resolving Zimbabwe's multi-faceted crisis needed new management. "A new leader with a fresh mandate won through a free and fair presidential election who should then lead the way forward regarding not only land, but HIV/AIDS, unemployment and many other national problems," he said.