Michael Gwanda had never contemplated the day he would say life under the white minority government of Rhodesia was far better and much more affordable than under black majority rule.
Having experienced the worst excesses of the Ian Smith regime as it tried to ward off Robert Mugabe's guerrillas in the late seventies, Gwanda, 56, says it pains him to confront the reality that he is now worse off than at independence in 1980.
"Ian Smith was indisputably a cruel man. He killed thousands of freedom fighters, but he was a better manager of the economy than Mugabe. The facts speak for themselves," Gwanda says.
He recalls that on the eve of Zimbabwe's independence in 1980 he earned 12 Rhodesian pounds a month. But he could send his three children to school and rent decent accommodation in a middle-class suburban area. He never ran short of food. Today he lives in the slum suburb of Highfield.
When Zimbabwe had its first fuel crisis in 1982 after the Zimbabwe dollar had already lost about 20 percent of its value against the US dollar, Gwanda could forgive the new government. "He was investing in free education and free health care. He also had thousands of comrades to look after. So we never anticipated the worst. We hoped things would recover," he says.
But 23 years after independence, Gwanda, a professional mechanic, now finds himself far worse off than he was in 1980. It was therefore no surprise that instead of celebrating his country's 23rd independence anniversary, he chose to join an anti-Mugabe protest. A week before the anniversary, he had to flee his country, fearing for his life, and seek refuge in Hillbrow, Johannesburg.
Other Zimbabweans who gathered at the Union Buildings in Pretoria with Gwanda for the anti-Mugabe march to the nearby embassy also had stories to tell about why they had fled.
In Zimbabwe itself, the atmosphere was subdued. Most shunned the independence celebrations at the sports stadiums across the 10 provinces of Zimbabwe. Those who trickled into the main National Sports Stadium in Harare as Mugabe delivered his keynote speech were mostly coming for the free soccer match between the country's top two teams. - Foreign Service