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PRESENTER: In signs of a diplomatic thaw, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has call for a fresh start with those Western nations that have spearheaded global condemnation of his 30-year rule.

However the 85-year-old leader continues to insist that the sanctions he blames for Zimbabwe's economic woes must be lifted. In recent years Western media have been arrested or deported.

But Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai recently invited the ABC's Africa correspondent Andrew Geoghegan into the country for this report.

01:00:00

ANDREW GEOGHGAN, AFRICA CORRESPONDENT: After years of paralysis, Zimbabwe is showing signs of life. The shops are open, as are the schools and hospitals.

01:00:11

Twelve months on from the deal that saw the country's bitter political enemies enter a unity government, change is under way.

01:00:20

MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, ZIMBABWEAN PRIME  MINISTER: We will not suffer another 10 years in this world of despair.

01:00:29

The situation for the average Zimbabwean is much better because they have food, they can afford basic goods.

01:00:35

Will you stand with me in the struggle to deliver democracy and freedom?

01:00:45

ANDREW GEOGHGAN: Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is telling Zimbabweans that now he shares Government with Robert Mugabe, the culture of fear and intimidation is being swept away.

01:00:53

MORGAN TSVANGIRAI: Before the inclusive Government, there was fear pervading the whole society, but now it is gone.

01:01:03

ANDREW GEOGHGAN: The promise of greater freedom and a recovering economy has prompted many of the three million or more Zimbabweans living in exile to contemplate returning home.

01:01:13

CATHERINE NGWARU, ZIMBABWEAN EXILE: I came to Jo-berg because the company I was working for had closed down and

01:01:24

there was actually nothing in Zimbabwe, like no food, no work.

01:01:29

ANDREW GEOGHGAN: Catherine Ngwaru left her one-year-old daughter behind in Zimbabwe, in search of work in South Africa.

01:01:35

CATHERINE NGWARU: She really doesn't know her mother because all in all I've been here for four years.

01:01:41

It's been hard for me, really hard. I really missed home but I thought maybe one day things are going to change, but they never really did.

01:01:46

ANDREW GEOGHGAN: Word that life is improving in Zimbabwe has encouraged her to return.

01:01:57

CATHERINE NGWARU: I am just hoping I will get a job. I will try my best.

01:02:02

ANDREW GEOGHGAN: As Catherine Ngwaru begins her trip home I begin a parallel journey into Zimbabwe.

01:02:07

In the past, I had to enter the country undercover, most foreign journalists were banned. But with a new unity government in place, Robert Mugabe has reluctantly opened the door to Western media.

01:02:15

DIDYMUS MUTSASA, MINISTER OF STATE FOR PRESIDENTIAL AFFAIRS: When they were reporting about us before, they were talking a lot of rubbish. Lies. And naturally that offended us.

01:02:27

ANDREW GEOGHGAN: Didymus Mutsasa is one of the President's closest confidantes. He agreed to talk to the ABC because, as he puts it, he wants Australians to know the truth.

01:02:38

ANDREW GEOGHGAN: Can I ask you: what do you believe has been the cause of Zimbabwe's economic collapse?

01:02:49

DIDYMUS MUTSASA: Well, one chief cause has been the sanctions that were exposed against us  by your country, Australia, most of the white Commonwealth countries.

01:02:56

PROF. JOHN MAKUMBE, POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE: It is not true. The sanctions which are hurting this country are sanctions imposed by the Mugabe Government on the people of Zimbabwe through, you know, their misgovernance, through violation of human rights, through, you know, perpetration of violence.

01:03:19

ANDREW GEOGHGAN: Catherine Ngwaru has been living with such threats for most of her life. However she is most fearful of not being able to find a job and look after a daughter.

01:03:42

Catherine Ngwaru quickly learns from her sister that life in Zimbabwe is just as tough as it was four years ago.

01:04:03

CATHERINE NGWARU: I am happy to see my family. But I don't think there is much hope for me. Because when I talk to my sister and told her I am going to look for a job, she was like, "What kind of a job? Are you mad?"

01:04:14

MORGAN TSVANGIRAI: Oh, we can't even talk about job creation. You can't create jobs in six months, where you have an almost collapsed economy.

01:04:28

ANDREW GEOGHGAN: Prime Minister Tsvangirai is desperately lobbying the international community for financial support.

01:04:37

MORGAN TSVANGIRAI: We can't force them to give us assistance.

01:04:43

We need the assistance, but we can't force them to give us assistance.

01:04:45

DIDYMUS MUTSASA: People of Australia are the people who are making us flop. They are the people who are causing all these ills that they referred to be happening in Zimbabwe. And that annoys us.

01:04:50

ANDREW GEOGHGAN: Many Western nations have made it clear sanctions will stay and investment will be withheld for as long as Robert Mugabe remains leader.

01:05:09

ANDREW GEOGHGAN: Is it fair to say the only real stumbling block is Robert Mugabe, as far as they're concerned?

01:05:17

MORGAN TSVANGIRAI: You're personalising the issue. The real stumbling block to progress is when we say we've agreed to implement something and the other side of the bargain does not follow through, so don't place it on the individual.

01:05:22

ANDREW GEOGHGAN: Do you confront him and say, "this must stop"?

01:05:39

MORGAN TSVANGIRAI: Oh, yes, yes, yes.

01:05:41

ANDREW GEOGHGAN: And what is his response?

01:05:42

MORGAN TSVANGIRAI: Well, I will look into it. I will look into this, I will look into that. And to me it is not satisfaction. It is not satisfactory because it's procrastinating and procrastination is frustration.

01:05:43

So we don't want that kind of relationship.

01:05:53

ANDREW GEOGHGAN: Does he take you seriously?

01:05:55

MORGAN TSVANGIRAI: Of course he does.

01:05:56

ANDREW GEOGHGAN: Morgan Tsvangirai's belief that he and Robert Mugabe should share power equally is, according to the President's lieutenant, fanciful.

01:05:58

DIDYMUS MUTSASA: Tsvangirai takes his orders from the President, who in fact appointed him as the Prime Minister.

01:06:07

ANDREW GEOGHGAN: After more than 30 years, there's still no sign Robert Mugabe is prepared to loosen his grip on Zimbabwe. Until that happens, talk of change is meaningless to Catherine Ngwaru.

01:06:21

ANDREW GEOGHGAN: Other people here say thing will only change if Mugabe goes.

01:06:34

CATHERINE NGWARU: Yes. If he goes completely. That's how I feel.

01:06:37