Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe: baseline information
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
(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.
Zimbabwe: "We have degrees in violence"
"We have degrees in violence": a report on torture and human rights abuses in Zimbabwe (December 2007)
Since early 2007 Zimbabwe has been subject to an upsurge in political violence that has seriously undermined the democratic process and created a presumption that elections will not be free and fair. State-sponsored violence directed toward any individuals or groups who are perceived to be critical of President Robert Mugabe, his government or his policies, manifests a strategy to demobilise Zimbabweans from mounting or supporting an organised opposition campaign.
The international community and Southern African Development Community (SADC) have attempted to play a role in encouraging a democratic process by introducing South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, as mediator between the ruling and opposition parties. However, the international community remains ineffective in its efforts to stop state-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe.
Available in pdf format [959KB].
MDC: no "run-off" amidst violence
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 ...