Zanu-PF regime is putting its best Gucci-shod foot forward

It’s probably the country’s biggest infrastructural project since independence, delighted Zimbabweans tell me. From the buzz it’s caused around town, it’s clearly the most unexpected.

A populace, long inured to its authoritarian government’s apathy towards providing the basic requirements of a modern state, has watched goggle-eyed as construction crews have worked 24/7 to transform Harare.

In a country where there has been little arterial road development since independence 44 years ago, the National Road Administration has suddenly come to life.

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In the course of an impressively short period of a few months, it has slapped down over 30km of double-lane tarmac, heading north through Harare.

Starting at the airport, which has undergone a similarly unanticipated transformation, the new highway makes for a marked contrast to the shambles of the grubby national capital.

Against a backdrop of urban food plots and roadside entrepreneurs trying to eke out a living, it’s determinedly First World.

Unfortunately, none of this busyness has anything to do with the corrupt governing elite suddenly resolving to provide the infrastructural basics.

Instead, it has to do with appearances.

The highway, which has freshly tarred branch links to key city venues, has been constructed to impress delegates to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit, held in Harare until 18 August.

In addition to the road, the Zanu-PF government is also building 30 extravagant villas for SADCC dignitaries.

They are being built not by the skilled but underemployed Zimbabwean workforce, but by low-cost Indian and Pakistani labour carted en-masse from Dubai.

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The summit is a rare chance for President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his thugs to try to claw back some political redemption. Aftersome lean years of being ignored by the wider world – five blatantly rigged elections in a row will do that – the Zanu-PF regime is putting its best Gucci-shod foot forward.

And against the backdrop of an increasingly inward-looking international order beset with more pressing issues than autocracy in Zimbabwe, the signs are that it is succeeding.

By having the summit in Zimbabwe, SADC is indicating its tolerance of despotism, not only honouring Zimbabwe with the diplomatic recognition, but also with a tacit personal endorsement Mnangagwa, who reportedly delights in his sinister nickname, The Crocodile.

That does not entirely let Mnangagwa off the hook. He needs to maintain public order over the next couple of weeks.

He does not want the embarrassment of rowdy demonstrations by opposition and pro-democracy activists in full view of limousine-loads of SADC delegates.

Zanu-PF pre-emptively clamped down viciously on the opposition, with 79 members of the Citizens Coalition for Change, including interim party leader Jameson Timba, arrested and held without bail.

During the past week, another four people have been dragged off flights at Harare International, apparently on suspicion of planning protests, and badly beaten and tortured.

Among those arrested were two foreign tourists, a Czech and a Ugandan.

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It transpires that while travelling in Masvingo, 300km from the capital, they recorded some WhatsApp footage for the folks back home in which the Czech commented on Zimbabwe’s parlous economic state, including bad roads and long power cuts. Silly buggers.

If only they’d stayed in Harare, they could have been happily waltzing up and down the immaculate new highway and enjoying 24-hour electricity.

Well, at least until 18 August, when the summit ends.