Introduction

After years of bitter armed conflict, Zimbabwe became independent in 1980 full of promise and hope that the future would be one of economic prosperity, political freedom and a generally decent livelihood for all and that the nightmarish past of the colonial period was gone forever. For the first decade, with the exception of the people of Matebeleland who were subjected to the horrors of the Gukurahundi massacres which were hidden from the rest of the population through rigorous press censorship, it seemed as if the good times had, indeed, arrived. There were many pro-people policies that made a real positive difference in people’s lives. The incoming government expanded the country’s education facilities and provided free primary school education and free health services to the poor majority. It subsidised basic consumer products such as the main staple food mealie meal (corn meal), milk and cooking oil to lessen cost of food for the poorest, while at the same time decreeing a minimum wage law to ensure a decent standard of living for the hitherto marginalised segments of the population.

By the mid 1990s, however, the optimism of a good life for all was fast dissipating. In its place was a deepening sense of despair in the face of mounting inflation and unemployment, declining household incomes, the informalisation of the economy, growing poverty, particularly in the urban areas, and severe housing shortages for the urban poor.