Zimbabwe
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Zimbabwe is a land-locked nation in southern Africa, between South Africa and Zambia. It is mostly high plateau with higher central plateau (high veld); mountains in east. . The Zambezi River forms a natural riverine boundary with Zambia which includes the famous Victoria Falls.
Zimbabwe's major environmental issues include: deforestation; soil erosion; land degradation; air and water pollution; the black rhinoceros herd - once the largest concentration of the species in the world - has been significantly reduced by poaching; and, poor mining practices have led to toxic waste and heavy metal pollution. It is susceptible to recurring droughts; and, rarely, floods and severe storms.
The United Kingdom annexed Southern Rhodesia from the [British] South Africa Company in 1923. A 1961 constitution was formulated that favored whites in power. In 1965 the government unilaterally declared its independence, but the UK did not recognize the act and demanded more complete voting rights for the black African majority in the country (then called Rhodesia). UN sanctions and a guerrilla uprising finally led to free elections in 1979 and independence (as Zimbabwe) in 1980. Robert Mugabe, the nation's first prime minister, has been the country's only ruler (as president since 1987) and has dominated the country's political system since independence. His chaotic land redistribution campaign, which began in 2000, caused an exodus of white farmers, crippled the economy, and ushered in widespread shortages of basic commodities. Ignoring international condemnation, Mugabe rigged the 2002 presidential election to ensure his reelection. The ruling ZANU-PF party used fraud and intimidation to win a two-thirds majority in the March 2005 parliamentary election, allowing it to amend the constitution at will and recreate the Senate, which had been abolished in the late 1980s. In April 2005, Harare embarked on Operation Restore Order, ostensibly an urban rationalization program, which resulted in the destruction of the homes or businesses of 700,000 mostly poor supporters of the opposition. President Mugabe in June 2007 instituted price controls on all basic commodities causing panic buying and leaving store shelves empty for months. General elections held in March 2008 contained irregularities but still amounted to a censure of the ZANU-PF-led government with significant gains in opposition seats in parliament. MDC opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the presidential polls, and may have won an out right majority, but official results posted by the Zimbabwe Electoral Committee did not reflect this. In the lead up to a run-off election in late June 2008, considerable violence enacted against opposition party members led to the withdrawal of Tsvangirai from the ballot. Extensive evidence of vote tampering and ballot-box stuffing resulted in international condemnation of the process. Difficult negotiations over a power sharing agreement, allowing Mugabe to remain as president and creating the new position of prime minister for Tsvangirai, were finally settled in February 2009.
Geography
Location: Southern Africa, between South Africa and Zambia
Geographic Coordinates: 20 00 S, 30 00 E
Area: 390,580 km2 (386,670 km2 land and 3,910 km2 water)
arable land: 8.24%
permanent crops: 0.33%
other: 91.43% (2005)
Land Boundaries: 3,066 km. Border countries: Botswana 813 km, Mozambique 1,231 km, South Africa 225 km, Zambia 797 km
Coastline: 0 km (landlocked)
Maritime Claims: none (landlocked)
Natural Hazards: recurring droughts; floods and severe storms are rare
Terrain: Mostly high plateau with higher central plateau (high veld); mountains in east. Its lowest point is the junction of the Runde and Save rivers (162 metres) and its highest point is Inyangani (2,592 metres).
Climate: Tropical; moderated by altitude; rainy season (November to March)
Government
Government Type: Parliamentary Democracy
Capital: Harare
Independence Date: 18 April 1980 (from UK)
Legal System: mixture of Roman-Dutch and English common law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal
International Environmental Agreements
Zimbabwe is party to international agreements on: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, and Ozone Layer Protection.
People and Society
Population: 12,382,920
Age Structure:
0-14 years: 37% (male 2,314,527/female 2,270,998)
15-64 years: 59.4% (male 3,704,689/female 3,656,173)
65 years and over: 3.5% (male 197,821/female 238,712) (2008 est.)
Population Growth Rate: 0.568% (2008 est.)
Birth Rate: 27.38 births/1,000 population (2008 est.)
Death Rate: 21.7 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.)
Net Migration Rate: NA; note: there is an increasing flow of Zimbabweans into South Africa and Botswana in search of better economic opportunities (2008 est.)
Life Expectancy at Birth: 39.73 years (2008 est.)
Total Fertility Rate: 3.03 children born/woman (2008 est.)
Languages: English (official), Shona, Sindebele (the language of the Ndebele, sometimes called Ndebele), numerous but minor tribal dialects
Literacy: 90.7% (2003 est.)
Water
Total Renewable Water Resources: 20 cu km (1987)
Freshwater Withdrawal: Total: 4.21 cu km/yr (14% domestic, 7% industrial, 79% agricultural). Per capita: 324 cu m/yr (2002)
Agriculture
Agricultural Products: corn, cotton, tobacco, wheat, coffee, sugarcane, peanuts; sheep, goats, pigs
Irrigated Land: 1,740 sq km (2003)
Resources
Natural Resources: coal, chromium ore, asbestos, gold, nickel, copper, iron ore, vanadium, lithium, tin, platinum group metals.
Energy
| Energy in Zimbabwe | |||||
| Production | Consumption | Exports | Imports | Reserves | |
| Electricity | 9.95 billion kWh (2005) | 12.27 billion kWh (2005) | 0 kWh (2005) | 3.013 billion kWh (2005) | |
| Oil | 0 bbl/day (2005 est.) | 16,000 bbl/day (2005 est.) | 0 bbl/day (2004 est.) | 13,370 bbl/day (2004 est.) | 0 bbl (1 January 2006 est.) |
| Natural Gas | 0 cu m (2005 est.) | 0 cu m (2005 est.) | 0 cu m (2005 est.) | 0 cu m (2005) | 0 cu m (1 January 2006 est.) |
| Source: CIA Factbook | |||||
Health
Prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Adults: 24.6% (2001 est.)
Major Infectious Diseases: Degree of risk: high
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
vectorborne disease: malaria
water contact disease: schistosomiasis
animal contact disease: rabies (2008)
Conflict
International Disputes: Botswana built electric fences and South Africa has placed military along the border to stem the flow of thousands of Zimbabweans fleeing to find work and escape political persecution; Namibia has supported, and in 2004 Zimbabwe dropped objections to, plans between Botswana and Zambia to build a bridge over the Zambezi River, thereby de facto recognizing a short, but not clearly delimited, Botswana-Zambia boundary in the river
Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons: refugees (country of origin): 2,500 (Democratic Republic of Congo) - IDPs: 569,685 (Mugabe-led political violence, human rights violations, land reform, and economic collapse) (2007)
Economy
The government of Zimbabwe faces a wide variety of difficult economic problems as it struggles with an unsustainable fiscal deficit, an overvalued official exchange rate, hyperinflation, and bare store shelves. Its 1998-2002 involvement in the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo drained hundreds of millions of dollars from the economy. The government's land reform program, characterized by chaos and violence, has badly damaged the commercial farming sector, the traditional source of exports and foreign exchange and the provider of 400,000 jobs, turning Zimbabwe into a net importer of food products. The EU and the US provide food aid on humanitarian grounds. Badly needed support from the IMF has been suspended because of the government's arrears on past loans and the government's unwillingness to enact reforms that would stabilize the economy. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe routinely prints money to fund the budget deficit, causing the official annual inflation rate to rise from 32% in 1998, to 133% in 2004, 585% in 2005, passed 1000% in 2006, and 26000% in November 2007. Private sector estimates of inflation in 2007 are well above 100,000%. Meanwhile, the official exchange rate fell from approximately 1 (revalued) Zimbabwean dollar per US dollar in 2003 to 30,000 per US dollar in 2007.
GDP (Purchasing Power Parity): $2.211 billion (2007 est.)
GDP (Official Exchange Rate): $1.726 billion; note: hyperinflation and the plunging value of the Zimbabwean dollar makes Zimbabwe's GDP at the official exchange rate a highly inaccurate statistic (2007 est.)
GDP- real growth rate: -6.1% (2007 est.)
GDP- per capita (PPP): $200 (2007 est.)
GDP- composition by sector:
agriculture: 18.1%
industry: 22.6%
services: 59.3% (2007 est.)
Population Below Poverty Line: 68% (2004)
Industries: mining (coal, gold, platinum, copper, nickel, tin, clay, numerous metallic and nonmetallic ores), steel; wood products, cement, chemicals, fertilizer, clothing and footwear, foodstuffs, beverages
Exports: platinum, cotton, tobacco, gold, ferroalloys, textiles/clothing
Export Partners: South Africa 16.4%, Democratic Republic of the Congo 11.6%, Japan 11.5%, Botswana 10.4%, Netherlands 7.4%, China 6.9%, Italy 5.8% (2006)
Imports: machinery and transport equipment, other manufactures, chemicals, fuels
Import Partners: South Africa 39.1%, Zambia 28.4%, China 5.5% (2006)
Economic Aid Recipient: $367.7 million (2005 est.)
Currency: Zimbabwean dollar (ZWD)
Ports and Terminals: Binga, Kariba
Further Reading