Robert Gabriel Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe for 33 years since 1980. Mugabe unilaterally assumed control of ZANU after the death of Herbert Chitepo on 18 March 1975. Later that year, after squabbling with Ndabaningi Sithole, Mugabe formed a militant ZANU faction, leaving Sithole to lead the moderate Zanu (Ndonga) party. Many opposition leaders mysteriously died during this time (Including one who allegedly died in a car crash, although the car was rumoured to have been riddled with bullet holes at the scene of the accident). Additionally, an opposing newspaper's printing press was bombed and its journalists tortured.
The Economy of Zimbabwe shrunk significantly after 2000, resulting in a desperate situation for the country and widespread poverty and an 80% unemployment rate. The participation from 1998 to 2002 in the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo set the stage for this deterioration by draining the country of hundreds of millions of dollars. Hyperinflation has been a major problem from about 2003 to April 2009, when the country suspended its own currency. Zimbabwe faced 231 million per cent (231,000,000 %) peak hyperinflation in 2008. The economy deteriorated from one of Africa's strongest economies to the world's worst.
Government spending is 97.8% of GDP. It has partly been financed by printing money, which has led to hyperinflation. State enterprises are strongly subsidized, taxes and tariffs are high. State regulation is costly to companies, starting or closing a business is slow and costly. Labor market is highly regulated, hiring a worker is cumbersome, firing a worker is difficult and unemployment has risen to 94% at the end of 2008; the figure was 80% in 2005.
Taxes and tariffs are high for private enterprises, while state enterprises are strongly subsidised. State regulation is costly to companies; starting or closing a business is slow and costly.
Poverty and unemployment are both endemic in Zimbabwe, driven by the shrinking economy and hyper-inflation. Poverty rates run near 80%, while the unemployed in ranked as the world's largest, at 95%.
Tourism was an important industry for the country, but has been failing in recent years. The Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force released a report in June 2007, estimating 60% of Zimbabwe's wildlife has died since 2000 due to poaching and deforestation. The report warns that the loss of life combined with widespread deforestation is potentially disastrous for the tourist industry. [source: wikipedia]
Government spending is 97.8% of GDP. It has partly been financed by printing money, which has led to hyperinflation. State enterprises are strongly subsidized, taxes and tariffs are high. State regulation is costly to companies, starting or closing a business is slow and costly. Labor market is highly regulated, hiring a worker is cumbersome, firing a worker is difficult and unemployment has risen to 94% at the end of 2008; the figure was 80% in 2005.
Taxes and tariffs are high for private enterprises, while state enterprises are strongly subsidised. State regulation is costly to companies; starting or closing a business is slow and costly.
Poverty and unemployment are both endemic in Zimbabwe, driven by the shrinking economy and hyper-inflation. Poverty rates run near 80%, while the unemployed in ranked as the world's largest, at 95%.
Tourism was an important industry for the country, but has been failing in recent years. The Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force released a report in June 2007, estimating 60% of Zimbabwe's wildlife has died since 2000 due to poaching and deforestation. The report warns that the loss of life combined with widespread deforestation is potentially disastrous for the tourist industry. [source: wikipedia]
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Herald Zimbabe
President Mugabe wins
written by Staff
Saturday August 3, 2013
President Mugabe has been declared winner of the presidential election giving him another five year term as President of the Republic of Zimbabwe.
Harmonised elections results percentages :
President Mugabe - 2,110,434 votes - 61,09%
Morgan Tsvangirai - 1,172,349 votes - 33,94%
Welshman Ncube - 92,637 votes - 2,68%
Dumiso Dabengwa - 25,416 votes - 0,74%
Kisinoti Mukwazhi - 9,931 votes - 0,29%
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Nehanda Radio, Zimbabwe news
written by Staff
Saturday August 3, 2013
Zimbabwe’s elections management body, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has suffered a major blow after one of the commissioners resigned on Friday citing some irregularities in the manner in which ZEC conducted last month’s harmonized elections.
In a development which exposes rifts in the elections management body, Mkhululi Nyathi, a seasoned lawyer and a senior partner at Mabhikwa Hikwa and Nyathi Legal Practitioners in Bulawayo tendered his resignation from serving as ZEC commissioner in protest over the way the elections management body had conducted the July 31 harmonised elections.
“I hereby tender my resignation from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission with immediate effect. I do not wish to enumerate the many reasons for my resignation, but they all have to do with the manner the Zimbabwe 2013 Harmonised Elections were proclaimed and conducted,” reads part of Nyathi’s letter, addressed to President Robert Mugabe and copied to ZEC chairperson Justice Rita Makarau, Global Political Agreement leaders and MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube, who heads the MDC party and heads of accredited election observer teams.
Nyathi said his resignation was not informed by the outcome of the election which he is still not privy to as ZEC has not announced results for presidential elections and in some constituencies has not finished proclaiming victors of the parliamentary polls.
The senior lawyer said though Zimbabweans had conducted themselves with dignity and calm throughout the whole electoral process, these were not the only benchmarks for “free, fair and legitimate elections.”
He said all efforts to retain some measure of hope that integrity of the whole electoral process could be salvaged along the way had been futile.
The remaining ZEC commissioners include Makarau, Joyce Kazembe, the deputy chairperson, Daniel Chigaru, Professor Geoff Feltoe, Theophilus Gambe, Dr Petty Makoni, Bessie Fadzai Nhandara and Sibongile Ndlovu.
Nyathi becomes the second commissioner to resign from ZEC after Justice Simpson Mutambanengwe, who chaired the elections management body upon its appointment in 2010 and who resigned in February this year before Makarau was appointed as the substantive head of the commission.
In December, Professor Reginald Austin also resigned from the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission citing inadequate resources and the commission’s lack of independence to carry out its mandate.
Nyathi’s resignation comes a day after Tsvangirai dismissed the election as a farce. This was after the MDC-T leader’s main rival President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party claimed a landslide victory. On Thursday, a dejected Tsvangirai said the harmonised election was “null and void.”
On Friday, his party’s spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora said party supporters could stage protests to challenge Mugabe’s victory.
Patrick Chinamasa, the Zanu PF deputy secretary for legal affairs told journalists that Mugabe had won the election with a landslide victory even before ZEC had announced results for presidential elections.
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