HARARE, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- After enduring economic hardships for close to a decade, many Zimbabweans saw the year 2009 as the spring of hope and boding well for the future as the country's political leaders engaged each other to arrest the economic meltdown and ease political tension.

The year saw many basic commodities that had disappeared from shelves in retail shops become easily available, albeit at a cost, while health delivery services were resuscitated from the intensive care unit to provide a tonic to the country's poor. It was a year full of hope and promise.

The year started with inflation running in millions and prices rising every day, at times more than once a day. The education system was in tatters, with teachers spending more time at home or in staff rooms than in classrooms, while many workers spent hours on queuing outside banks for money that was rendered valueless as soon as they withdrew it.

A number of retail shops had closed down because of the shortage of goods and expenses incurred in retaining unproductive labor force. Fuel was not readily available and many motorists had to cross the borders into Mozambique and Botswana to obtain it.

Generally, basic commodities were scarce, with some producers being accused of channeling their products to the parallel marketwhere they fetched higher prices.

On the political front, there was a lot of tension following the presidential elections of the previous year. People were fighting and arguing with each other,

The formation of an inclusive government by President Robert Mugabe of Zanu-PF and his political rivals Morgan Tsvangirai of MDC-T and Arthur Mutambara of MDC-M was a turning point, heralding a new political, economic and social dispensation.

The inclusive government is a child of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) brokered by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and signed by the three as they sought to put the country back on rail.

It came about following the contested presidential election results of March 2008 and the absence of a clear winner in the parliamentary elections of the same year.

Among the major achievements of the GPA were the return to political stability, peace and economic resuscitation through the introduction of other currencies.

According to the Central Statistical Office, the annualized rate of inflation for the first 10 months of 2009 was -9.6 percent, thanks to the introduction of multi-currencies.

Under the GPA, the parties agreed to give priority to the restoration of economic stability and growth in Zimbabwe and committed themselves to working together on a full and comprehensive program to resuscitate economy, address issues of production, food security, poverty and unemployment and the challenges of high inflation, interest rates and the exchange rate.

They recognized that one way to fight inflation and boost employment levels was to increase the industry's capacity utilization and set themselves a target of 60 percent of capacity utilization by the end of the year. This target has since proved to be ambitious and experts predict that industry will achieve around 30 percent of capacity utilization, although some companies have vastly improved their operations.

The parties also committed themselves to working together in re-engaging the international community.

Despite restoring hope, the country is not yet generating enough money to pay salaries, attend to social and health programs and rehabilitate dilapidated infrastructure.

Despite the gains made, the country's health and education sectors still remain a far-cry from the time when they had become the envy of the African continent.

Moves to engage the international community in rebuilding the economy have so far not yielded tangible results as donors still wait to see if the new government meets their expectations on the issues of governance and human rights and sticking to humanitarian assistance.

Sanctions remain the major obstacle for the government, with the little assistance which the country is getting from the international community going directly towards humanitarian assistance via nongovernmental organizations.

Mugabe and his party wanted Tsvangirai and his party to call for the removal of sanctions, arguing that it was them that had called for the imposition in the first place.

However, Tsvangirai's party said it can not go further than asking for what it calls "restrictive measures" to be removed. It further argued that the "restrictive measures were imposed on the Zanu-PF so that it could address issues of concern to the international community, and as such, it was up to the Zanu-PF to convince the international community that it had addressed the issues."

The International Monetary Fund has given Zimbabwe 510 million U.S. dollars support to weather the storm of the global recession. The money has, however, been subject to disputes between the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono and Finance Minister Tendai Biti over how it should be used.

Other lines of credit so far secured are being directed to strategic sectors in industry and manufacturing as the government seeks to boost employment opportunities, support exporters and enable the local production of basic commodities. One major obstacle is that locally-manufactured basic commodities are still more expensive than imported ones, prompting local companies to seek protection from the government.

The zeal and enthusiasm that characterized the performance of the inclusive government soon after its formation has also fizzled out as the parties quarrel over issues which they argue are still outstanding in the GPA.

The larger MDC faction led by Prime Minister Tsvangirai has raised a number of outstanding issues which it said Mugabe's Zanu-PF was failing to address, and at one time announced a partial disengagement from the inclusive government. The disengagement was reversed following SADC intervention on November 5.

Among other issues, the party wanted the appointments of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gono and Attorney-General Johannes Tomana to be reversed.

It also wanted Mugabe to swear into office its treasurer Roy Bennett as deputy minister of agriculture, mechanization and irrigation development. Mugabe has said he will not swear Bennett into office until he is cleared of insurgency and banditry chargeshe is facing in the courts of law.

Together with Mutambara's smaller MDC faction, Tsvangirai's party also wanted the appointment of provincial governors to be done on the basis of which party prevailed in the provinces during the March 2008 harmonized elections.

The Zanu-PF has declared that the appointments of Gono, Tomana and provincial governors were non-issues in the GPA, although it has softened a bit on provincial governors, saying negotiators could reach an agreement on these.

Among its demands, the Zanu-PF wanted Tsvangirai's party to make an unequivocal call for the removal of economic and travel sanctions on its members, as it was promised in the GPA, while the international community has maintained that the sanctions are targeted, and ordinary Zimbabweans have also been affected.

The party also wanted MDC formations, especially Tsvangirai's party, to call for the stopping of radio broadcasts beaming into Zimbabwe from beyond its borders. The broadcasts are generally anti-Zanu-PF, although some party officials have granted interviews to the radio stations.

In its argument on the radio stations, Tsvangirai's party was calling for the opening up of the media landscape to allow other players to compete with the national broadcaster, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. It also said it does not own or support any radio station.

These issues are now before negotiators from the three parties, who had been meeting. A summit of heads of state of the SADC troika on politics, defense and security held in Maputo on November 5 directed that the parties meet to iron out their differences.

It is expected that with the facilitator to the GPA, South Africa, monitoring the situation and reporting back on progress tothe troika, negotiators will now resolve their differences once and for all.

Many Zimbabweans who have invested into the future of the inclusive government do not want it to crumble and lead the country into political and economic chaos.

"Most Zimbabweans, unless if there are some who are benefiting from the previous chaos, want this experiment of the inclusive government to succeed. SADC should, therefore, wake up from its slumber and interfere in a constructive manner in the problems the government is experiencing," Eldred Masunungure, a professor of political science at the University of Zimbabwe, told Xinhua in an earlier interview.

His sentiments were echoed by the spokesman for Tsvangirai's party Nelson Chamisa who, in reviewing the first seven months of the inclusive government, said although outstanding issues remained, the GPA was still the best answer to the challenges besetting the country.

For now, it is not possible to look into the crystal ball and see where Zimbabwe is going, but many people want security, peace and prosperity. They also want investor confidence restored so that jobs are created to reduce the unemployment rate in the country. Most of all, they do not want hunger to stalk them again.

"I believe that all the gains made so far are a direct result of the inclusive government. These political leaders should, therefore, cast away personal interests and work for the benefits of all Zimbabweans. We know that this is a transitional arrangement, but neither Mugabe nor Tsvangirai can go it alone and they have to learn to work together until the next election," said Harare resident David Chikwanha.

According to the GPA, the country should come up with a new constitution before general and presidential elections. While the constitution-making process has started, there are fears that it will not meet the 18 months deadline. A failure to meet the deadline will mean that the inclusive government will exceed the two years it is meant to last.