Independence: what independence?

He recalls how, as a young boy growing up in Harares Highfield working-class suburb, life seemed to offer endless possibilities. Schools were well-staffed and equipped, the countrys hospitals and clinics were the envy of many in the region and supermarket shelves were well-stocked with food and other provisions. He remembers the day his elder brother was offered a factory job by someone who just saw him walking in the capitals heavy industrial area.

Today average life expectancy is only 45, down from 61 at independence. More than 40 percent of the population is younger than 15 and 80 percent live in abject poverty. Many educated Zimbabweans have fled the country to escape economic hardships and persecution for choosing to exercise their right to elect their own leaders the same rights that thousands of their compatriots sacrificed their lives for during the 1970s war of independence.

My father was an ordinary factory worker but we could afford all the basics and never missed school because there were no fees. But look at me today, armed with a university degree and with a working spouse, but I cant afford to keep my children in school on my meagre salary, said Chiota. From what he has been told by his brothers and others older than

himself, Chiota can only imagine how life was like during the pre-independence era and often wonders if fellow blacks are worse than the racist white masters of 1970s Rhodesia.

Its unfortunate that some of us will never know the difference, he said.

Like thousands of other so-called born-frees, Factnoise sees very little to cheer about on Independence Day today. Zimbabwe celebrates 30 years of self rule today amid pomp and fanfare but analysts say there will very little to cheer about for long-suffering ordinary Zimbabweans struggling to beat a decade-long economic crisis and shake off the shackles of a partisan security and judicial establishment. Thousands of Zimbabweans will throng Harares National Sports Stadium to hear the usual rhetoric from President Robert Mugabe about how so-called Western sanctions and interference in the countrys politics are the reasons for their suffering.

But far from being a historic occasion, the celebrations look set to be low-key, dampened by the spirit of hopelessness among the majority of the people. Except for die-hard members of Mugabes Zanu (PF) party who will cheer his every statement, there will be very little to placate a restive populace anxious for solutions to a stagnant economy and unending

squabbles in the countrys shaky coalition government. Economist Eric Bloch says it will take more than rhetoric for Mugabe to convince the young generation who cannot relate to issues dear to the aging Zimbabwean leader. “Unless the economy is fixed, and fixed quickly, there is little to celebrate,” says Bloch. Ordinary Zimbabweans are frustrated with the slow pace of economic recovery and reforms towards democracy since Mugabe formed a coalition government with archrival Morgan Tsvangirai now Prime Minister in February last year.

As has become tradition over the past 10 years, Mugabe will offer no tangible solution to the plethora of problems facing the country and will instead use the celebrations to shift blame from his doorstep and attack his usual targets Britain and the United States for leading a campaign to remove him from power, observed a bank economist who cannot be named for professional reasons. Mugabe will hope to sell a controversial plan to force foreign-owned companies to cede majority stakes to local blacks to youths like Factnoise, hoping to win their support ahead of polls that could take place next year.

Critics say the move will damage the economy and discourage foreign investment but Mugabe insists on pressing on with plans to turn over control of foreign firms to locals under a black empowerment drive. The foreign ownership law reignites fears of another round of often violent seizure of white-owned property similar to the land reform programme Mugabe launched in 2000 under the pretext of correcting the colonialist imbalances that saw whites owning most fertile land. The ensuing chaos undermined the agriculture-backed economy, which shrank to half the size it had been in 1980.