OSISA - Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe: baseline information

Tue, 09 May 2006 13:10:03 -0400

Republic of Zimbabwe

Population [WHO 2006]: 12.9 million
Annual population growth [WHO 2006]: 1.1 %
HDI (and rank out of 177) [UN 2005]: 0.505 (145th)
Life expectancy at birth [WHO 2006]: 36 years
Currency: Zimbabwe Dollar
Main exports: tobacco, cotton, agricultural products, gold, minerals
Capital city: Harare
Provinces/ districts: 8 provinces (Manicaland, Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland West, Masvingo, Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South, and Midlands) plus Bulawayo and Harare (cities)

Links to more Zimbabwe resources

Background

Tue, 09 May 2006 08:23:14 -0400

(a) Social, Economic and Political

Probably the most rapidly developing and most complex governance crisis in the region, Zimbabwe is consistently in the international media headlines for human rights abuses, torture, and economic meltdown.

Gripped in a major governance, economic and humanitarian crisis that has seen its people experiencing shortages of even the local currency, Zimbabwe’s economy is rapidly collapsing, as illustrated by its contraction by at least 10 % per annum during the last three years.

The country remains on a knife-edge after deeply flawed and internationally condemned Presidential election in 2002 retained incumbent Robert Mugabe. Earlier Parliamentary elections in 2000 had seen a new, labour-backed opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC); win almost half of the 120 elected seats in parliament. The country remains, in practice, a de facto one party state.

A combination of both natural factors and the haphazard fast-track land ‘reform programme’ have pushed the country onto the precarious edge of an unprecedented food crisis, with half the population surviving on food aid.

MDC: no "run-off" amidst violence

Fri, 09 May 2008 12:26:41 -0400

Zimbabwe opposition rejects presidential run-off
Reuters Africa 9/5/2008
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's opposition MDC will not participate in a presidential run-off against Robert Mugabe, a top party official said on Thursday, after reports of escalating violence deepened a post-election crisis ... "Our official position still remains the same that we are not participating," MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti told reporters in Cape Town ... President Thabo Mbeki, who has been a primary regional mediator in Zimbabwe, will travel to Harare on Friday to meet political leaders. "During his visit President Mbeki is expected to interact with the Zimbabwean political leadership," said Ronnie Mamoepa ... Mbeki, who has faced a barrage of criticism for not taking a tough line with Mugabe, had said there was no crisis in his southern African neighbour. Tsvangirai has said Mbeki was no longer fit to mediate in Zimbabwe ... "We have had security agents going out to the farms, addressing the farm workers," Gertrude Hambira, general secretary of the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers' Union of Zimbabwe , told a news conference in Johannesburg. "Some of them saying that we need to discipline you because you voted for the opposition," she said adding, 400 workers were in hiding and three were in hospital after being assaulted ... Police on Thursday arrested the leaders of the country's main trade union over speeches they made during a workers' day rally last week, their lawyer said. Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) President Lovemore Matombo and Secretary-General Wellington Chibebe, who are critical of Mugabe, were taken into custody after surrendering to police ... Police have also arrested the editor of a privately owned weekly that is critical of the president ... Biti called for reconciliation and said any future government should include all parties, except for Mugabe ...

Zimbabwe arms shipment still at large

Fri, 09 May 2008 12:05:10 -0400

Arms ship heads for Congo

The Times 8/5/2008
The cargo of Chinese arms destined for Zimbabwe is now heading for Congo Brazzaville, according the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union, where the union believes a further attempt will be made to unload the weapons ... The Durban-based inspectorate of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), which has been monitoring the cargo ship Au Yue Jiang, is itself flying to Brazzaville to make sure that the weapons are not off-loaded there. A Satawu statement issued today said that the union could confirm that the ship docked in the port of Lobito in Angola and off-loaded building materials only ... Satawu said it condemned the Chinese government and the ship owners China Ocean Shipping Company (Cosco) for creating a false impression around the world that they had recalled the vessel. "This so-called recall was clearly only intended to deceive and remove the massive groundswell of political pressure ... "Both the Chinese government and Cosco have regrettably demonstrated that profiteering remains the overriding consideration over human solidarity and saving lives ... Satawu again called on all African governments and dock workers to refuse the vessel docking access and to refuse to handle the weapons with a view to ensuring that the vessel leaves African shores immediately ...

A Glossary of oppression in Zimbabwe

Fri, 09 May 2008 07:06:05 -0400

ZIMBABWE: Operation Glossary - a guide to Zimbabwe's internal campaigns
IRIN News 9/5/2008
JOHANNESBURG, 1 May 2008 (IRIN) - The Lancaster House Agreement in December 1979 paved the way for Zimbabwe's independence in April 1980. President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF government has been at the helm since the former British colony gained independence, and has increasingly used military-style campaigns to impose measures ranging from acts of alleged genocide to attempts to rein in hyperinflation ... Operation Mavhoterapapi was launched after the local government, parliamentary and presidential elections on 29 March 2008, in which the ruling ZANU-PF government lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since independence ... MDC have alleged that at least 20 people have been killed in post-election violence, orchestrated by the police, soldiers and so-called war veterans, as part of Operation Mavhoterapapi. There have also been widespread reports of torture, the razing of houses and killing of livestock, perpetrated against people in rural areas suspected of voting for the opposition in the recent elections ... In July 2007, in an attempt to control rocketing food and other commodity prices as a result of Zimbabwe's hyperinflation - then running at about 4,000 percent annually - the government compelled businesses and manufacturers to slash the prices of their goods by 50 percent. Teams of inspectors were sent to retail shops and other businesses, and owners and employees who did not comply were either imprisoned or given hefty fines. The price controls saw the shop shelves empty ... Operation Chikorokoza Chapera/Isitsheketsha Sesiphelile (No Illegal Panning) More than 25,000 gold-panners were reportedly arrested in this operation in November 2006, in a bid to curtail artisanal mining ... Operation Murambatsvina (see below) deprived small traders of their stalls and goods, and Operation Sunrise (see below) destroyed savings, many people were left with little option but to pan for gold ... Five weeks after Operation Murambatsvina, the government launched Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle, said to be a programme to build houses for the victims of their "slum clearance" operation ... The few houses that were built were reportedly given to civil servants, police and soldiers ... In an attempt to increase food production, the government deployed soldiers to farms in 2005 to oversee the production of maize, in an exercise called Operation Maguta ... The Third Chimurenga, otherwise known as the Fast Track Land Reform Programme, was launched in 2000 and resulted in most of Zimbabwe's 4,500 white-owned commercial farms being redistributed to landless blacks ...Zimbabwe's armed forces chief, General Constantine Chiwenga, is alleged to have received 17 farms since 2000. Chimurenga, the Shona word for "struggle", was the name given to the indigenous resistance mounted against British settlers between 1896-1897 after their land was seized by colonists ... Operation Gukurahundi (The rain that washes away the chaff before the spring rain) In 1983, the North Korean-trained 5th Brigade, under the command of Lt Col Perence Shire, once known as the "Black Jesus", but currently the commander of Zimbabwe's air force, was the vanguard unit in a campaign against alleged dissidents that has also become known as the Matabeleland Massacres. At least 20,000 people were killed in the operation. The target of Gukurahundi was members of the rival liberation movement, ZAPU, led by Joshua Nkomo and drawn mainly from Zimbabwe's Ndebele people ... Mugabe reportedly said in April 1983: "We eradicate them. We don't differentiate when we fight because we can't tell who is a dissident and who is not." ... A human rights pressure group based in The Hague, Crimes Against Humanity Zimbabwe, is campaigning for Gukurahundi to be recognised as genocide.

Terror in Zimbabwe: shocking pictures

Thu, 08 May 2008 10:33:47 -0400

OPERATION MAVHOTERAPAPI (who did you vote for)
Kubatana.net
March 29, 2008 Post Election Violence & Retribution Perpetrated by Zanu PF Militia on MDC District/Provincial Office Bearers, Activists & Members ... THE FOLLOWING SLIDES CONTAIN SOME GRAPHIC IMAGES OF TORTURE AND MURDER VICTIMS. SENSITIVE VIEWERS BE WARNED ... HURUNGWE EAST MDC ORGANISING SECRETARY TAPIWA BWANDA 58 YRS BEATEN, STONED AND STABBED TO DEATH AT HIS HOME MHEREYENYOKA VILLAGE, KAROI ... T.L. FROM MUTEKEDE VILLAGE,UMP, MASH. EAST BURNED WITH PLASTIC FOR “BEING MDC” ... F. M. 38, DZIVARASEKWA EXT. BEATEN BY 12 SOLDIERS WITH CHAINS AND FAN BELTS. ALSO BEAT HIS SON (17) AND GUARD (24) BECAUSE HE FERRIED MDC SUPPORTERS TO PRE ELECTION RALLIES ... D.D. 46 YRS, NYAMANDANDARA VILLAGE MUDZI NORTH. BEATEN WITH IRON RODS BY ZPF MP NEWTON KACHEPA & PHINEAS KAMAPA ZPF YOUTH CHAIRMAN. SUSTAINED 2 FRACTURED ARMS & LEFT LEG ... MOSES BASHITIAWO FROM UMP CONSTITUENCY KAVAMBA WARD, WAS BEATEN BY ZANU PF AND THEN MADE TO CLIMB A TREE WITH A ROPE ROUND HIS NECK AND JUMP. RELATIVES WERE MADE TO BURY HIM IMMEDIATELY. ISAAC CHIPUPURIRA ZANU PF HEADMAN INVOLVED IN THE MURDER. TATENDA CHABIKA SHOT IN THE STOMACH AT CHIDYE SCHOOL, MUTOKO NORTH 17/4/08 (DIED IMMEDIATELY, BODY NOT RECOVERED ... This is a State planned militarised operation of retribution and intimidation on the opposition MDC officials, activists, members and supporters ...

Zimbabwe election crackdown continues

Thu, 08 May 2008 06:04:19 -0400

Zimbabwe: Lawyer's Arrest Raises Fear of Broader Crackdown
Reuters AlertNet 7/5/2008
(Johannesburg, May 7, 2008) � The Zimbabwe government's politically motivated arrest of prominent human rights lawyer Harrison Nkomo raises fears of a broader crackdown on government critics, Human Rights Watch said today. "The arrest of a leading human rights lawyer may signal the government's escalation of its crackdown on perceived opponents," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch ... Nkomo was arrested near his office in central Harare at 2:30 p.m. on May 7, 2008, and is being held at the Law and Order Section of Harare Central Police station. He faces the criminal charges of "insulting or undermining the authority of the head of state" under the Public Order and Security Act of 2002. Nkomo recently defended Barry Bearak, a New York Times correspondent arrested for working without accreditation on April 3 ... Since the elections, the authorities have arrested more than 100 presiding electoral officers. On April 25, 2008, they arrested more than 200 people who had sought shelter from the government's terror campaign at the headquarters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Harare ... Since the March 29 elections, Human Rights Watch has documented a pattern of increasing violence by the ruling ZANU-PF militia and the military ... "The ruling party's continuing brutality against the opposition makes a mockery of the runoff vote," said Gagnon ...

Zimbabwe election stalemate deepens

Wed, 07 May 2008 05:31:54 -0400

Zimbabwe parties challenge parliamentary results
Reuters Africa

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party and the opposition MDC have contested half the results of the March 29 parliamentary election, state media said on Wednesday, extending a stalemate that has triggered widespread violence. Official results showed ZANU-PF lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since independence in 1980, while the Movement for Democratic Change and a breakaway faction together secured enough seats to control the assembly ... The challenge will have no effect on the result of a parallel presidential ballot, however, which showed MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai won 47.9 percent against President Robert Mugabe's 43.2 percent, triggering a run-off since neither candidate won an absolute majority. The MDC has not said whether it will participate in the run-off. It believes Tsvangirai won the election outright ... The state-run Herald newspaper said ZANU-PF and the MDC had lodged 53 and 52 petitions respectively with the electoral court, citing irregularities they believed had affected the results. The challenges come after a recount of original results in 23 constituencies confirmed ZANU-PF's defeat ... independent Zimbabwean election monitoring group ZESN expressed doubt about the credibility of the results of the presidential election and accused ZANU-PF of attacking observers ... U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday he was talking to African states about how the world body could help make a run-off credible and expressed concern about the violence ...

Mugabe rounds up opposition, observers

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:01:14 -0400

Zimbabwe police in election raids
BBC news 25/4/2008
Riot police in Zimbabwe have carried out raids on headquarters of independent poll monitors and the opposition MDC ... vote-counting material was taken from the MDC office and activists hiding there were arrested. It was not clear whether anything was taken from the office of the monitors, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network. But the group said it feared the authorities wanted to hide evidence of an MDC win in last month's poll ... Witnesses at the MDC raid said at least 100 opposition supporters who had been taking refuge from the authorities in its Harvest House headquarters had been arrested ... activists had been fleeing political violence. "They took everyone in the building, including those who had come just to seek medical care. They are trying to destroy evidence of their brutality," Mr Chamisa said ... An anonymous source at the Zimbabwe Election Support Network said police had arrived at the group's headquarters shortly after the MDC raid and were searching through files and documents. The network is considered the only reliable source of information about the 29 March elections ... The electoral commission says it cannot release the presidential results until it completes a recount in 23 of the 210 constituencies. Three recounts of the parliamentary results have been completed - all confirmed the original results. President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party lost control of parliament for the first time since independence in 1980 ... Meanwhile, the Herald newspaper has condemned Zimbabwe's neighbours as "myopic stooges" for refusing to let a cargo of Chinese weapons cross their territory to landlocked Zimbabwe. "Zimbabwe is... under attack from the former coloniser and its allies. As such, Zimbabwe probably needs to arm itself more than any other country in Africa ...

Communiqué of the African Emergency Summit on Zimbabwe (Dar es Salaam)

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:48:13 -0400

COMMUNIQUÉ OF THE AFRICAN EMERGENCY SUMMIT ON ZIMBABWE

DAR ES SALAAM, 21 APRIL 2008

We, the undersigned representatives of civil society from 21 countries in Africa, after meeting in Dar es Salaam on the 21 April 2008, and

after debating, interrogating and considering the events subsequent to the 29 March 2008 elections held in Zimbabwe,

and after noting the following:

the groundbreaking convening of such a diverse range of civil society organisations from all regions of the African continent, all mobilising for a solution to the Zimbabwean crisis;

Zimbabwe weapons ship doubles back

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:06:28 -0400

Zimbabwe weapons ship doubles back
IOL 23/4/2008
The United States has asked China to order the ship carrying weapons for Zimbabwe to return home. On Tuesday as the ship, identified as the An Yue Jiang, was spotted off Cape Town, US State Department spokesperson Tom Casey said Beijing had been told "to refrain from making additional shipments and, if possible, to bring this one back". ... "We don't think that under the present circumstances, given the current

Foreign tanks in transit in South Africa

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 10:20:14 -0400

Tanks spark Zim arms fears
News24.co. 22/4/2008

Johannesburg - A truckload of "Chinese-looking" tanks spotted by a military buff outside Pietermaritzburg early on Tuesday caused a brief stir over whether the controversial arms consignment bound for Zimbabwe had slipped through the net. "Tanks? Did you say tanks?" said Defence Secretary January Masilela. "I know nothing about that." ... ship's clearing agent Anton van Rensburg said: "They are going to the military in the Northern Cape for joint military exercises between Singapore and South Africa. "They have been temporarily imported for the exercises which will take place next week and finish in May. They are Singaporean tanks and they arrived yesterday (Monday). "I can assure you, and Zimbabweans, that they are definitely not going to Zimbabwe ... Van Rensburg said members of the Singaporean armed forces also arrived in South Africa, as they are the only people permitted to drive the tanks. The An Yue Jiang lifted its anchor off Durban on Friday night moments after the Durban High Court ordered it to dock in Durban and offload its controversial cargo into the custody of the sheriff of Durban. Meanwhile, Nicole Fritz, director of the Southern African Litigation Centre, which secured the court order, said they were monitoring two other ships, the Feng Shun Shan and the Le Shan, which arrived in Durban and Richards Bay on April 20 and 21 respectively ...

Zimbabwe armaments ship flees SA

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 03:35:04 -0400

Zim generals met over arms ship

News24 21/4/2008

Harare - Generals in the Zimbabwean army were to have an emergency meeting on Sunday afternoon to consider alternative ways to bring its shipment of Chinese weapons into the country as soon as possible. Beeld was told by a reliable source that the meeting took place after the governments of Mozambique and Tanzania refused to let the Chinese ship the An Yue Jiang deliver the cargo to one of their ports. The ship fled the Durban harbour on Friday night shortly after the Durban High Court granted a court order to prevent the 70 tons of weapons from being transported through South African territory. The court also ordered that the cargo be off-loaded in Durban for inspection ... The cargo contained, among other things, three million rounds of ammunition, 1 500 rockets and 3 500 mortar bombs and launchers. International political pressure would also put the Angolan government in the spotlight. Nicole Fritz of the Southern African Litigation Centre who was involved in getting an interim high court order in Durban on Friday, said on Sunday that negotiations were already taking place with the Angolan office of a human rights organisation, the Open Society Initiative, to consider further legal steps if the ship docked there ... Insiders thought that because of the controversial nature of the cargo and a fuel shortage, the ship would be forced to dock in one of Angola's harbours south of Luanda. Namibe and Lobito would possibly be used ... If the ship delivered its cargo to Angola, getting it to Zimbabwe would still be problematic because of the lack of train connections between the two countries. The load of about 70 tons might have to be transported by aircraft and would then require at least two flights of an IL 76 cargo plane.

SA to facilitate arms for Zimbabwe?

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:03:51 -0400

Armscor role in arms for Zimbabwe
Mail & Guardian 18/4/2008
The South African government is determined to allow the export of a large consignment of Chinese weapons and ammunition to the Zimbabwe Defence Force (ZDF). The Mail & Guardian has confirmed that AB Logistics, state-owned Armscor's transport arm, has been approached to handle the transport of the weapons to Zimbabwe ... The government's role flies in the face of growing evidence of a campaign of human rights abuse intended to intimidate supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) -- and independent observers' assessment that there is a de facto military government in Zimbabwe ... six containers of weapons destined for the ZDF were shipped to Durban by the Chinese government-controlled conglomerate Poly Technologies for onward transport to Harare. The consignment comprises three million rounds of AK-47 ammunition, 1 500 rocket-propelled grenades and more than 3 000 mortar rounds together with mortar tubes. It is aboard the Chinese vessel An Yue Jiang ... government spokesperson Themba Maseko said on Thursday that South Africa was "not in a position to act unilaterally and interfere in a trade deal between two countries" ... Indications are that the consignment is a rushed delivery. It left China on March 15, days before the Zimbabwean elections ...

ZDF soldiers beat Harare residents

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:28:47 -0400

Zim soldiers 'beat up citizens'
News24.com 18/4/2008

Harare - Zimbabwean soldiers went house to house in a poor suburb of the capital Harare on Friday, beating up men and youths shortly before embattled President Robert Mugabe was due to give his first address to the nation since last month's elections. A Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa correspondent saw between 30 and 40 soldiers travelling in two army trucks ordering families to come out of their homes in Glenview suburb. The soldiers then told the women and the elderly to get back inside and turned on the men and boys, raining down blows on them with batons ... President Robert Mugabe, leader since 1980, was due to address the nation for the first time since March 29 elections the opposition claims he lost at an annual Independence Day rally in Harare's Gwanzura Stadium. A military display, a feast and a soccer match usually form part of the celebrations but most people said they had little appetite for merrymaking ... MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai claims he defeated Mugabe squarely. Mugabe's Zanu-PF party claims neither Tsvangirai nor Mugabe won outright and that a run-off is required ...