Back in Never Never Land

UK and Irish residents are now being charged R550 (£50) for a tourist visa to enter Zimbabwe. This is bit like paying your way into a funpark knowing all the rides are broken. When the visa man at Bulawayo airport asked me how long I intended to stay and I replied a month he asked me why? Which is a good question. Why indeed would anyone want to stay a month in a country which looks like Haiti.

It's been four months since I was here last (see blogs passim) and little has changed. Power cuts are daily and at irregular times. Shop shelves are stacked with food which only the few can afford with prices almost double that of South Africa. (A 400ml bottle of 'Head and Shoulders' costs £6 !). The roads are potholed (made worse by the heavy rain right now) and the traffic lights don't work, which makes driving like a video game. But somehow, life goes on.

The new Unity government here continues in political stalemate. Mugabe hasn't helped matters by passing the new legislation (Economic Indigenisation and Empowerment Act) which demands that all major foreign companies in the country sign over 51 per cent shares to black Zimbabweans. (This all sounds very empowering until you read the small print which says the shares have to be bought. The only Zimbabweans who can afford this are Bob's golden circle of rich mates).

This latest move has sent jitters through the stock markets and put the frighteners on those thinking in of investing in a country which needs all the help it can get to pull itself out of the economic morass it finds itself in. Already, a number of multinationals who have a prescence in the country, have put a hold on expansion plans. If Zimbabwe was a football match, it would full of 'own goals'.