Africa

BBC back in Zimbabwe

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The BBC returns to Zimbabwe with a special day of live broadcasting from the African country. The ‘Africa Have Your Say’ program comes from Chitungwiza, a ‘Soweto-like’ township outside Harare. It happens to be the hometown of host Farayi Mungazi. Marco Werman talked with him.

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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH Boston. Zimbabwe is a country in transition. For decades it’s been led by President Robert Mugabe. During his tenure Zimbabwe went from being Southern Africa’s bread basket to the region’s basket case. The country suffered hyperinflation, food scarcity, and devastating rates of HIV. The challenges remain but there have been some changes. Last year Mugabe formed a power-sharing government with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangarai. And it’s easier now for foreign news outlets to get into Zimbabwe to report on conditions there. Today Farayi Mungazi hosted the BBC program Africa Have Your Say from Zimbabwe. Farayi Mungazi you’re actually hosting from the township of Chitungwiza. This is your hometown. When was the last time you were there?

FARAYI MUNGAZI: It was just over 18 months ago and things have changed. I mean you can go through what has happened in this country and you know have things remain the same. There is absolutely no chance of that happening. And yes a lot of things have changed. The state of the roads, the state of the houses. You know the way people view their futures. Everything has changed.

WERMAN: What about basic needs? You know food and healthcare. I mean if you go into a supermarket in your hometown, what do you find in there?

MUNGAZI: You find the shops are full. The food is there. You can get anything you want but the million dollar question is: Do you have the money to buy it? If you look back two years ago – maybe actually a year ago – I mean these shelves were empty. Nothing in the supermarkets. Nothing in the shops to buy.

WERMAN: Yeah where’s that food coming from then?

MUNGAZI: Well some of it is manufactured locally. A lot of it is imported. And I think things have drastically improved. I mean the food is coming since the dollarization of the economy because people now can have access to hard currency. They’ve got proper money. You can go to petrol station and get some gas. You couldn’t do that just over a year ago. You know you had to cue overnight. But these days just drive up to a gas station and off you go.

WERMAN: So there are things there but can people afford them? I mean do people have jobs?

MUNGAZI: The majority don’t. I think the unemployment figure in this country is close to 80%. I mean that is an astronomical figure indeed. So it is a question of there are those who can afford but the overwhelming majority cannot afford it. I mean especially those in the rural areas. I mean the dollarization of the economy has managed to bring down inflation. That’s fine. Everybody you know likes that. But where do people have access to US dollars from? They don’t. And that is the big problem.

WERMAN: The government of Zimbabwe has placed restrictions on international reporters for years. President Mugabe has often accused the media of being biased against him. And the BBC, which co-produces our program, has not been able to operate freely inside Zimbabwe for eight years. Are we seeing an opening up of Zimbabwe with your permission granted to go inside and host this program?

MUNGAZI: Absolutely. In fact I had a meeting last week with the minister of information who welcomed me and the BBC with open arms and said look let’s burry the hatchet. What happened in the past should be in the past. We want to show people that Zimbabwe is open for business and we want to show people that we have nothing to hide. As such we want the BBC, CNN, wherever you are, if you want to come in as a journalist you know come in and report whatever you’d like to report. And I have to say that I mean I’ve been here going t different places, meeting different people, and there is absolutely no restrictions whatsoever on my movement so one has to say that the Zimbabwean government is keeping its side of the bargain. And luckily because they want to give a different image of the country. They want people to have a different perspective of Zimbabwe.

WERMAN: Robert Mugabe said this week that he was open to fresh, friendly, and cooperative relations with all those countries that have been hostile to us. However a state department spokesman urged Mugabe to end politicized arrests and to replace what he described as Zimbabwe’s corrupt attorney general and reserve bank governor. So obviously things are not as rosy as some of the descriptions you’ve given us.

MUNGAZI: No it isn’t rosy. Certainly not from the political side. I mean if you’re looking at the political side that is a totally different perspective. I think this is what the international community; this is what the state department overseas will be looking at. This is what the international governments, the European Union, will be looking at. How is the political agreement? Is it working or not? Now they have to say there are so many disagreements from the parties involved and that is obviously you know at the end of the day that is what is going to make Zimbabwe either prosper or fail. Because at the end of the day people aren’t going to judge Zimbabwe by the fact you know there are things in the shops. They are going to be judged on what’s happening on the political side and there there are so many disagreements. Nobody can dispute that.

WERMAN: That was the BBC’s Farayi Mungazi, host of Africa Have Your Say, speaking to us from his hometown in Zimbabwe.

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