A former South African Parliamentarian and diplomat says that a political solution to the Zimbabwe crisis should be implemented alongside a reconstruction initiative driven and bankrolled by the rest of Africa and the international community.

"The stark and undeniable reality is that Zimbabwe and its citizens, by themselves, are simply not in a position to turn the situation around," says Denis Worrall, chairperson of investment advisory and strategic marketing consultancy Omega Investment Research, in a new report entitled ‘The Reconstruction of Zimbabwe: a Proposed Strategy for Africa'.

Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) beat the ruling Zanu-PF in the election in March last year. Its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, defeated President Robert Mugabe in the race for State House, but did not garner enough votes to avoid a runoff on June 27, from which he pulled out, citing violence against his supporters.

The Southern African Development Community then brokered a power-sharing deal, the implementation of which has stalled over Mugabe's refusal to yield to MDC demands for an equitable distribution of powerful ministries in a proposed government of national unity.

Worrall, who has been South Africa's ambassador to Australia and is also a former academic, points out that a government of national unity in South Africa, installed in 1994, following the demise of white supremacist rule, succeeded because it inherited a fully functioning State, whereas Zimbabwe is now a failed State.

"The relevance of the proposed Reconstruction Programme . . . is obvious; it is an essential part of a successful transition in Zimbabwe," he says.

Worrall was not reachable on Tuesday but a colleague at Omega Investment Research said that the report had been distributed "to all the relevant people".

Under the programme, which should be implemented over 12 to 18 months, Worrall proposes that the African Union, in consultation with the United Nations and its agencies, establish a Reconstruction Commission chaired by an eminent African to drive the turnaround.

The commission would include internationally acknowledged experts, who would manage and formulate policies and programmes for the areas of government requiring assistance, and Zimbabwean civil servants, who would assist these experts, as coordinators.

The representative in Zimbabwe of each of the top four auditing firms would be appointed to receive and manage funding for the programme and to award and supervise any tenders the commission's work might require.

Worrall lists the Ministries of Finance (including the Central Bank); Economic Affairs; Agriculture; Health, Child and Social Welfare; Mining; and Home Affairs as particularly requiring assistance. He also proposes several prominent Africans as coordinators for these Ministries, including South Africa's Iraj Abedian, Chris Hart and Goolam Ballim, for the Ministry of Economic Affairs; former South African Reserve Bank (SARB) deputy governor James Cross and SARB deputy registrar Madoda Petros (Finance); Stellenbosch department of agriculture head Professor Nick Vink (Agriculture); international mining consultancy SRK Consulting (Mining); and the South Africa-based Institute of Security Studies' Naison Ngomo (State Security and Defence).

On the Ministry of Economic Affairs, he says: "The collapse in the Zimbabwean economy has its roots in the mismanagement of both monetary and fiscal policy. Government policy towards the commercial farming sector destroyed the tax base of the country, and this was followed by monetary policy debasement in order to pay the civil service. Hyperinflation was the result."

Worrall concedes that transforming the Ministry of Home Affairs - which controls the police and has been used by Mugabe to oppress his opponents - will not be easy. However, he suggests that guidance could be obtained from the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland (1993-99).

Mugabe's refusal to cede full control of Home Affairs to the MDC is seen as the main reason why the opposition party is refusing to join a government of national unity. The police and the intelligence service continue to abduct opposition supporters and other activists.

In addition to controlling the police, the Ministry of Home Affairs oversees the Registrar-General's department, which compiles the much-reviled voters' roll and has, in recent years, deprived many second-generation Zimbabweans of their citizenship and, therefore, the right to vote, under a law passed in 2001.

Mugabe's detractors claim that the new law was specifically aimed at disenfranchising former farmworkers, who found themselves jobless after the seizure of white-owned farmland and are believed to be antigovernment because of this. Many of the former farm workers are either immigrants from neighbouring countries or the children of immigrants.

A meeting on Monday aimed at breaking the Zimbabwe settlement deadlock, chaired by South African President Kgalema Motlanthe and attended by his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, Mozambican leader Armando Guebuza and the Zimbabwean protagonists, drew a blank.
Both Mugabe and Tsvangirai confirmed to reporters that the 12-hour talks had not resolved any of the outstanding issues.

Many analysts believe that, without a unity government, Zimbabwe will continue to languish in the doldrums, with inflation exceeding 250-million per cent, an unemployment rate of more than 80%, a dysfunctional health sector and shortages of basic commodities.