Harare — There was no popping of champagne corks as Zimbabwe marked the first anniversary of its shaky unity government.

On February 11 last year then opposition leader and now Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai made a u-turn to join his former archrival President Robert Mugabe's ruling coalition.

The inclusive government was the result of the September 15, 2008 power sharing agreement signed by the two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formations led by Mr Tsvangirai and Professor Arthur Mutambara and President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF.

Zimbabwe had gone for a year without a government following inconclusive March 2008 elections.

President Mugabe's supporters had plunged the once prosperous country into chaos after the veteran ruler lost the first round of presidential elections to Mr Tsvangirai. The new government ushered in an air of expectation among long suffering Zimbabweans.

Its immediate task was to deal with an economy in ruins, civil servants who had gone for almost a year without reporting for work, endemic political violence, 90 per cent unemployment and a cholera epidemic that had killed close to 4 000 people.