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Tichaona Zindoga Political Editor
Zimbabwe has done well in the last 36 years of Independence by providing basic infrastructure to facilitate economic development and services in the social sector to improve the livelihoods of its people, analysts said at the weekend.

However, for the last 15 years, the country has been under diabolical illegal sanctions imposed by Britain and her Western allies, but it soldiered on.

The analysts told The Herald that gains in education where Zimbabwe has scored highest literacy rate in Africa, which stands at 93 percent according to the United Nations; and the universal access to primary health care, housing and water and sanitation were a testimony of how Government had invested in its people and their future.

This alone, analysts said, meant that Zimbabwe was not a hell-hole by any stretch of imagination and armchair critics quoted in The Daily News last week should be warned of what they wish for, the analysts said. They made these comments in response to an opposition daily that described Zimbabwe as a “hell-hole”.

“The characterisation of Zimbabwe as a hell-hole is made by people who have never travelled, people who think there is a paradise outside Zimbabwe’s borders,” said Mr Jupiter Punungwe, a UK-based political commentator.

“On average a black person living in Zimbabwe is better off than the average black person living anywhere else in Africa — including South Africa. Entire generations have been born in tin shacks in South Africa and some have no hope of ever living in a brick and mortar house in their lifetime despite what politicians say. Zimbabwe is not a hell-hole,” Mr Punungwe said.

In fact, Zimbabweans are among the most empowered people in the world, analysts argued. Political scientist Mr Maxwell Saungweme noted that Zimbabwe indeed, faced a “myriad of problems” and combination of crises that included drought and economic challenges with poverty and unemployment being high.

However, he said what made Zimbabwe functional was the fact that there was peace in the country and health and education sectors were operational, factors that lacked in many countries.

Even banks are still able to extend loans to some companies and individuals and unsecured short-term debt instruments are still operational, he noted.

“So as far as Zimbabwe still has a government, and has no war and people can still do their business albeit in tough conditions, describing the country as a ‘hell-hole’ may be too exaggerated and does not serve anyone.

“You need to go to Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia and so forth to see true hell on earth,” said Mr Saungweme.

The fact that Zimbabwe’s beauty is luring increasing numbers of tourists from across the world makes a case that Zimbabwe is doing well, says analyst and blogger Mr Bernard Bwoni

“It was only recently that the European Union Council on Tourism and Trade (ECTT) awarded Zimbabwe the Best Tourism Destination title. How can a “hell-hole” be the World’s Best Tourism Destination? Our infrastructure is still very much intact, yes it does need retooling and rehabilitation, but still very much intact and new developments are also taking place,” he said.

He noted that there were developments such as the New Airport Road in Harare, the newly completed Mutare-Plumtree Road that give an indication into some of the infrastructural developments taking place in Zimbabwe. Power and water challenges have been rectified, he said.

“The peace we have prevailing in the country must never be taken for granted and ‘hell-hole’ is what you have in Libya today, Syria, Iraq, Burundi, and many other countries around the globe where the word peace does not apply. There are challenges yes, but opportunities are plenty,” said Mr Bwoni, an agricultural economist and consultant.

Academic and businessman Dr Qhubani Moyo said Zimbabwe had even punched above its weight as a developing country.

“Zimbabwe has come far and has done fairly well for a young nation,” he said. “Thirty-six years might be a lot in the life of a human being, but very short in the life of a new nation. There has been so much done albeit under difficult conditions but there is more that can be done, we have to focus on collective approaches to nation building,” he said.

A West African diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said only a fool would characterise Zimbabwe as a hell-hole, and anyone who needs to understand the strides the country has made globally need only read the US State Department’s characterisation of Zimbabwe as a country that poses a “continuous and extraordinary threat to US foreign policy’’.