Harare — THE Unity Day holiday is well placed towards the end of each year.

It always affords us an opportunity to reflect on the year that is coming to a close and count the benefits of working as one and the losses of working at cross purposes with each other.

It is 22 years since the Unity Accord was sealed in a bond that the founding fathers of this nation, President Mugabe and the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo, hoped would continue into eternity. This was not to be.

A decade later Zimbabwe was divided along ideological lines. While the revolutionary forces remained solidly as one and sought to complete the independence programme by redistributing land from the white minority to the majority black farmers there emerged a strong reactionary group that effectively used lies and deceit to swing almost half of the population to its side.

For some time the revolutionary forces thought they could easily shake off this group. But those efforts were in vain. Forces behind this new group were formidable as they were fully backed by Western imperial powers and all their instruments of coercion and persuasion.

Wielding the instrument of illegal economic sanctions they made the economy scream and virtually brought the country to its knees. With each passing day the nation was being ripped asunder.

Political pragmatism required that a compromise be reached and we saw President Mugabe leading Zanu-PF to a painful decision to go into Government with the two MDC formations that were clearly in an unholy alliance with our former colonisers.

At least that brought a semblance of unity in the form of the inclusive Government. Whilst the political leaders are far from working as one, the Global Political Agreement has had the effect of rallying the people of Zimbabwe towards one goal of rebuilding their economy.

Today we can safely say the economy has been stabilised and could indeed register a growth of at least 3 percent by year end. Rapid growth could be achieved in 2010 if the political leaders clear the outstanding issues.

The biggest challenge that we face as a nation is that of reviving the economy -- our agriculture, mining, manufacturing, tourism, etc.

Production must go back to full capacity in the next few years.

This will only be possible if the yoke of sanctions is thrown off our necks. It is here that unity is most required. We plead with our leaders to speak as one against the economic sanctions. This is the time to shelve all euphemisms and call sanctions by their real name. They are an enemy to our country and to the aspirations of the people of Zimbabwe.

Whilst indeed the MDC formations may have genuine issues that need to be addressed they must stop equivocating on the issue of sanctions. Sanctions cannot be equated to the other outstanding issues as their effect is direct and painful.

We congratulate the principals to the GPA for making progress on some of the outstanding issues.

Only yesterday we reported on the breakthrough on the appointment of members of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission and the Zimbabwe Media Commission.

Before the year is over we expect the announcement of yet more agreements. This would clearly send a strong signal to the whole world that Zimbabwe is determined to move forward as one. Today the President is expected to launch the Medium-Term Economic Policy, a successor to the Short-Term Emergency Recovery Programme.

Its success will hinge on how much Zimbabweans are willing to unite and fully implement the programme.