[Mail and Globe] When will all this end? It's a common refrain in Zimbabwe. "Only when the old man goes," said Tinaye Garande, a street vendor.
Zimbabwe on Sunday marks 30 years of the rule of President Robert Mugabe, swept to power during the country's heady and optimistic independence in 1980. Three decades later, the country -- once an agricultural powerhouse and educational beacon -- is mired in a continuing political stalemate and an impoverished, stagnant economy.
Garande (27) sells cheap sunglasses and trinkets in a parking lot outside a suburban Harare store. He is of a generation known as the "born frees" who never suffered under British colonial rule. But the unkempt Garande, with worn clothing and untended dreadlocked hair, knows the hard life. He lost his menial job at a paper and packaging firm when it went broke in the economic meltdown four years ago. He has two children and like many Zimbabweans educated in Mugabe's post-independence boom in schools and health services -- making "born frees" some of the best taught and healthiest students in Africa -- he battles to survive and blames Mugabe for blocking real improvements in living standards. |