In 1980, President Mugabe was alive to the link between national unity, peace and progress and his words at independence sought to provide a guide as to what was to be expected. As we look back, we are compelled to review the progress made during the last 33 years.

President Mugabe said: "Let us rejoice over our independence and recognize in it the need to dedicate ourselves to national unity, peace and progress."

The promise of independence has yet to be fully realised by all and there is consensus that the prosperity that was promised has not been shared.

In the face of poverty, inequality and unemployment, there are many people who believe that state intervention holds the real promise.

The agenda of changing the lives of the majority remains important now as it was at independence even to those who have been privileged to lead the nation.

It is ironic that the forthcoming elections will be fought on the basis of which party can deliver the promise of shared prosperity when in 1980 this was the primary objective.

Notwithstanding, debate on indigenisation still rages on but the divergent views on how best to approach the financial sector exposes the glaring lack of leadership on this key and fundamental public policy issue.

As South African troops prepare for deployment to the violence- racked east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the enemy is gearing up for full-scale war.

A 1000-strong South African contingent is expected to be deployed to the region within a month as part of an African intervention force. It will almost certainly be drawn into conflict with the heavily armed and battle-hardened M23 rebel group after the collapse of peace talks between the rebels and the central government in Kinshasa.

One of 33 rebel groups in the region, the M23 has 40t of munitions looted from DRC army armouries in clashes in the east of the country last year.

The M23 routed DRC government forces in November in a fight for the capital of the country's eastern region, Goma, where South African peacekeepers were deployed. In the battle for Goma, South African soldiers were caught by surprise and the M23 forces - whose officers have over 20 years of jungle combat experience - were able to take the town within days.

Mugabe is adamant the vote will take place on June 29, but Tsvangirai and Ncube say this will be impossible.
With 50 days to go before the unity government's tenure expires, political parties are drawing battle lines over dates for the general election.

President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party insist that the polls will be held on June 29, come what may.

But the bickering between Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Industry and Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube, who leads the smaller MDC-N party in government, over election dates has intensified infighting within the government.

Informed Cabinet sources say government principals and party leaders on Tuesday received a report from a committee comprised of Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Eric Matinenga on how to break the impasse over election dates.

Exporting coal to Newcastle - that's what Eskom proposes. The coal-to-Newcastle idiom arose because England's Newcastle prospered for centuries by exporting coal. Importing or keeping it sub-optimally would have been as foolhardy as it would be for us to ignore the lessons of history.

Stripped of obfuscation, Eskom wants the government to perpetuate the moribund electricity policy inherited from the 1920s by extending its failed monopoly indefinitely, increasing electricity prices by nearly 500% in nine years and curbing coal exports. If it agrees, the government will reduce employment and investment, force marginal, small and black economic empowerment (BEE) mines out of business, and make consumers finance Eskom's capital.

It is rational for Eskom to lobby for its own interests - that's what vested interests do. Our energy catastrophe is not Eskom's fault. Eskom and South Africa are victims of policy failure. That Eskom lobbies for extreme benefits is natural. The duty of responsible governments is to be sceptical of seductive lobbies. The left hand should know what the other left hand (sic) is doing. The government diverts resources to "export promotion". Yet Eskom wants the opposite: export reduction. It wants the government to be like a mother feeding her baby and throttling it simultaneously.

In 1980, the international community was watching as the new nation-state of Zimbabwe was born.

The transition from conflict to peace though generally unexpected; the speed with which it occurred gave people hope that the future could only be better and not bitter.

The expectation that the exclusion that characterised the colonial era would end with independence has largely been betrayed by experience.

Zimbabwe in 2013 remains divided along racial and class lines.

The ethnic divide that many hoped would end with independence has remained a constant feature of the post-colonial experience.

President Mugabe comes from one ethnic tribe and to the extent that he has been the only leader of the nation, albeit via democratic means, has not allowed a member of another tribe to call himself or herself, "head of state, commander-in-chief and head of government."

Nearly 260,000 people died during the famine that hit Somalia from 2010 to 2012, a study shows.

Half of them were children under the age of five, says the report by the UN and the US-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fews Net).

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said humanitarian aid needed to be provided more quickly.

The crisis was caused by a severe drought, worsened by conflict between rival groups fighting for power.

The number of deaths was higher than the estimated 220,000 people who died during the 1992 famine.