There is a real sense of despair in the country. Perhaps it is a left over from the heady days when we celebrated the final departure of Mr. Mugabe from office and welcomed a 'new' government. Then the elections and sweeping changes in the composition of the Cabinet. What did we expect - 'nirvana'? A let-down was inevitable, compounded by the discovery of the magnitude of the problems that were inherited from the Mugabe era.
Perhaps the first order of business is the task of cleaning up the mess. This includes a deeply corrupt administration, a huge overhang of debt, near complete isolation from the world community, a treasury that was not just broke, but was printing money to cover a massive gap in fiscal revenues. It includes a pay roll with over 700 000 people on it and which absorbs the majority of our tax revenues leaving little for any other purpose. Then there is the problem of the fractured nature of the political Parties and their leadership.
As if that was not enough, the new administration faced deep rooted scepticism that anything would change. Business leaders expected a great deal - more open markets, fewer controls and less corruption, they were disappointed at every turn. Even what the new Administration was doing received little publicity, almost as if they were nervous of revealing what they were doing in case it evoked a backlash.
So I attended a dinner party last night with a few Zimbabweans and found the attitude totally negative. 'These guys will never change, it is a year since they took power, not a single person of any stature has been prosecuted for corruption and abuse of office', was one sentiment that seemed to have universal acceptance. New taxes without any attempt to cut costs, lavish lifestyles exhibited by people in power - the list grew longer as the evening progressed.
I see things a little differently and told them so, they listened but with almost total scepticism. So let's try to develop a score board.
Clean up the mess? This has started but it is going to take years. The new Team has dealt with the continual bleeding through the fiscal deficit - something many experts felt was impossible. I think the Team was a bit lucky, but the reality is that we have run a surplus for three months now and in December we will pay bonuses to the Civil Service with only a small (1 per cent) deficit.