Zimbabwe needs reform not familiar rhetoric from Robert Mugabe's State of the Nation address

There’s an old joke, perhaps doing the rounds again in Harare today;

Q: Why is Robert Mugabe giving a rare State of the Nation address? A: Because the nation is in a rare state.

It won’t win any Edinburgh festival awards; but it makes a point.

According to News Day Zimbabwe, the last time the President made such a speech to Parliament was back in 2007, at the height of the hyper-inflation that almost washed the Zimbabwean economy away.

The crisis now is not quite so acute, but the gloom is gathering fast.

As many as 20,000 Zimbabweans have lost their jobs in recent weeks after a Supreme Court ruling made it easier for employers to hire and fire.

It is a massive vote of no confidence in Zimbabwe’s ailing economy.

Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party has rushed to change the law; but the new legislation hasn’t yet received Presidential assent, and in any case the problems run much, much deeper.

These days, many have to rely instead on the informal economy - the capital’s streets are lined with people selling what they can to make ends meet.

Africa’s one time bread basket has fallen on hard times.

What is needed, say both international analysts and domestic critics, is root and branch change.

But many Zimbabweans have long lost faith in a President, who at 91 and in failing heath, is most likely to rely on familiar rhetoric than embark on fundamental reform.