REGION F – AFRICA

SECTION 130

The Official Story

NEW WORLD ORDER: ZIMBABWE
(Region F – Africa)

Estimated Population (2022): 16,411,000

Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozambique to the east. The capital and largest city is Harare. The second largest city is Bulawayo. A country of roughly 15 million people, Zimbabwe has 16 official languages, with English, Shona, and Ndebele the most common. It was once referred to as the “Jewel of Africa” for its great prosperity during the early years of Robert Mugabe.

Beginning in the 9th century, during its late Iron Age, the Bantu people (who would become the ethnic Shona) built the city-state of Great Zimbabwe which became one of the major African trade centres by the 11th century, controlling the gold, ivory and copper trades with the Swahili coast, which were connected to Arab and Indian states. By the mid 15th century, the city-state had been abandoned. From there, the Kingdom of Zimbabwe was established, followed by the Rozvi and Mutapa empires.

The British South Africa Company of Cecil Rhodes demarcated the Rhodesia region in 1890 when they conquered Mashonaland and later in 1893 Matabeleland after a fierce resistance by Matabele people known as the First Matabele War. Company rule ended in 1923 with the establishment of Southern Rhodesia as a self-governing British colony. In 1965, the white separatist minority government unilaterally declared independence as Rhodesia. The state endured international isolation and a 15-year guerrilla war with black nationalist forces; this culminated in a peace agreement that established universal enfranchisement and de jure sovereignty as Zimbabwe in April 1980. Zimbabwe then joined the Commonwealth of Nations, from which it was suspended in 2002 for breaches of international law by its government under Robert Mugabe and from which it withdrew in December 2003.

Mugabe became Prime Minister of Zimbabwe in 1980, when his ZANU–PF party won the general election following the end of white minority rule; he was the President of Zimbabwe from 1987 until his resignation in 2017. Under Mugabe’s authoritarian regime, the state security apparatus dominated the country and was responsible for widespread human rights violations. From 2000 to 2009 the economy experienced decline and hyperinflation before rebounding after the use of currencies other than the Zimbabwean dollar was permitted, although growth has since faltered. On 15 November 2017, in the wake of over a year of protests against his government as well as Zimbabwe’s rapidly declining economy, Mugabe was placed under house arrest by the country’s national army in a coup d’état, and Mugabe resigned six days later. Emmerson Mnangagwa has since served as Zimbabwe’s president.

Zimbabwe is a member of the United Nations, the Southern African Development Community, the African Union, and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa.

Government

Zimbabwe is a republic with a presidential system of government. The semi-presidential system was abolished with the adoption of a new constitution after a referendum in 2013. Under the constitutional changes in 2005, an upper chamber, the Senate, was reinstated. The House of Assembly is the lower chamber of Parliament. In 1987 Mugabe revised the constitution, abolishing the ceremonial presidency and the prime ministerial posts to form an executive president—a presidential system. His ZANU-PF party has won every election since independence—in the 1990 election the second-placed party, Edgar Tekere’s Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM), obtained 20% of the vote.

Politics

During the 1995 parliamentary elections most opposition parties, including the ZUM, boycotted the voting, resulting in a near sweep by the ruling party. When the opposition returned to the polls in 2000, they won 57 seats, only five fewer than ZANU-PF. Presidential elections were again held in 2002 amid allegations of vote-rigging, intimidation and fraud. The 2005 Zimbabwe parliamentary elections were held on 31 March, and multiple claims of vote rigging, election fraud and intimidation were made by the Movement for Democratic Change party and Jonathan Moyo, calling for investigations into 32 of the 120 constituencies. Moyo participated in the elections despite the allegations and won a seat as an independent member of Parliament.

In 2005, the MDC split into two factions: the Movement for Democratic Change – Mutambara (MDC-M), led by Arthur Mutambara which contested the elections to the Senate, and the Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai (MDC-T) led by Morgan Tsvangirai which was opposed to contesting the elections, stating that participation in a rigged election is tantamount to endorsing Mugabe’s claim that past elections were free and fair. The two MDC camps had their congresses in 2006 with Tsvangirai being elected to lead MDC-T, which became more popular than the other group.

In the 2008 general election, the official results required a run-off between Mugabe and Tsvangirai. The MDC-T challenged these results, claiming widespread election fraud by the Mugabe government. The run-off was scheduled for 27 June 2008. On 22 June, citing the continuing unfairness of the process and refusing to participate in a “violent, illegitimate sham of an election process”, Tsvangirai pulled out of the presidential run-off, the election commission held the run-off, and President Mugabe received a landslide majority. The MDC-T did not participate in the Senate elections, while the MDC-M won five seats in the Senate. The MDC-M was weakened by defections from members of parliament and individuals who were disillusioned by their manifesto. On 28 April 2008, Tsvangirai and Mutambara announced at a joint news conference in Johannesburg that the two MDC formations were co-operating, enabling the MDC to have a clear parliamentary majority. Tsvangirai said that Mugabe could not remain president without a parliamentary majority.

In mid-September 2008, after protracted negotiations overseen by the leaders of South Africa and Mozambique, Mugabe and Tsvangirai signed a power-sharing deal in which Mugabe retained control over the army. Donor nations adopted a ‘wait-and-see’ attitude, wanting to see real change being brought about by this merger before committing themselves to funding rebuilding efforts, which are estimated to take at least five years. On 11 February 2009 Tsvangirai was sworn in as prime minister by Mugabe.

In November 2008, the government of Zimbabwe spent US$7.3 million donated by The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. A representative of the organisation declined to speculate on how the money was spent, except that it was not for the intended purpose, and the government has failed to honour requests to return the money.

In February 2013, Zimbabwe’s election chief, Simpson Mtambanengwe, resigned due to ill health. His resignation came months before the country’s constitutional referendum and elections.

The status of Zimbabwe politics has been thrown into question by a coup taking place in November 2017, ending Mugabe’s 30 year presidential incumbency. Emmerson Mnangagwa was appointed president following this coup and was officially elected with 50.8% of the vote in the 2018 Zimbabwean general election, avoiding a run-off and making him the third president of Zimbabwe.

The government has received negative comments among its citizen for always shutting down the internet in the past amid protests such as the one planned on the 31st of July. 2020.

Source: Wikipedia