About Zimbabwe

1.0 General Facts About Zimbabwe.
Population (estimated in 2007):

• Population 12,311,143
• (Growth rate: 0.6%);
• Birth rate: 27.7/1000;
• Infant mortality rate: 51.1/1000;
• Life expectancy: 39.8;
• Density per sq mi: 82

Land Area

• Land area: 386,669 sq km;
• Total area: 390,580sq km.

Capital City
Harare
Monetary Currency
Zimbabwe Dollar (Z$)
Main Languages
English (official)
Shona
Ndebele
Ethnicity/ Race:

• African 98% (Shona 82%, Ndebele 14%, other 2%),
• Mixed and Asian 1%,
• White less than 1%.

Religion:
Part Christian & Part Indigenous beliefs 50%
Christian                                                  25%
Indigenous beliefs                                   24%
Moslems & Others                                    1%

(This debatable – information based on   2007 Internet data).
Literacy Rate:
91% (2003 estimated.) Now should be higher.
Economic summary Data:
GDP/PPP (2006 est.): $25.36 billion; per capita $ $2,100.
Real growth rate: –4%.
Inflation: 25 000 (Zimbabwe Reserve Bank Data, January 2008) This continues to go up on daily basis,
Unemployment: 20% pre year 2000 & declined to 80%. (Now believed to be more) 
Arable land: 8%.
Agriculture: corn, cotton, tobacco, wheat, coffee, sugarcane, peanuts; sheep, goats, pigs. Beef
Labor force: 3.96 million; agriculture 66%, services 24%, industry 10% (1996). 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
Natural resources: coal, chromium ore, asbestos, gold, nickel, copper, iron ore, vanadium, lithium, tin, platinum group metals.
Exports: $1.766 billion  (2006 est.): cotton, tobacco, gold, ferroalloys, textiles/clothing
Imports: $2.055 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.): machinery and transport equipment, other manufactures, chemicals, fuels.
Major trading partners: South Africa, Switzerland, UK, China, Germany, Botswana (2004). South Africa remains Zimbabwe’s powerhouse. Of late trading with UK has gone down due to soured political relations. The “Look East” policy in favour of China has not really improved the economic situation of the country.
Communications Systems:
Telephone Landlines: main lines in use: 331,700 (2006);
Mobile cellular: 832,500 (2006).
Radio broadcast stations:  FM 20 (plus 17 repeater stations) plus shortwave 1,
Radios: 1.14 million (1997).
Television broadcast stations: 16 (1997). Television Sets in the country: 370,000 (1997).
Service Providers (ISPs): 6 (2000). Internet users: 1 million (2005).
Transportation System:
Railway lines. : 3 077 km of rail (2002)
Highways: total: 97,440 km; paved: 18,514 km; unpaved: 78,926 km (2002 estimated).
Waterways: the Mazoe and Zambezi rivers are used for transporting chrome ore from Harare to Mozambique.
Ports and harbors: Binga, Kariba.
Airports:  Harare, Bulawayo, Victoria Fall, Kariba, Buffalo range, Charles Prince (are the main ones)
International disputes: dormant dispute remains where Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe boundaries converge.
2.0 .Geography.
Zimbabwe, a landlocked country in south-central Africa, is slightly smaller than California. It is bordered by Botswana on the west, Zambia on the north, and Mozambique on the east, and South Africa on the south.
3. 0. History

• The remains of early humans, dating back 500,000 years, have been discovered in present-day Zimbabwe. The land's earliest settlers, the Khoisan, date back to 200 B.C. After a period of Bantu domination, the Shona people ruled, followed by the Nguni and Zulu peoples.
• Early white settlers came in 1890. They removed the indigenous people from fertile land and subdivided amongst themselves. They set up a government with the Queen as head of state. On Nov. 11, 1965, the conservative white-minority government of Rhodesia declared its independence from Britain, thus, Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI). The White minority government of Ian Smith resisted the demands of Africans, and Prime Minister Ian Smith withstood British pressure, economic sanctions, and guerrilla attacks in his effort to uphold white supremacy. On March 1, 1970, Rhodesia formally proclaimed itself a republic. Heightened guerrilla war and a withdrawal of South African military aid in 1976 marked the beginning of the collapse of Smith's 11 years of resistance.
• African nationalist movements were led by Bishop Abel Muzorewa of the African National Congress and Ndabaningi Sithole, who were moderates, and guerrilla leaders Robert Mugabe of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and Joshua Nkomo of the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), who advocated revolution.
• On March 3, 1978, Smith, Muzorewa, Sithole, and Chief Jeremiah Chirau signed an agreement to transfer power to the black majority by Dec. 31, 1978. The country was then known as Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. They formed an executive council, with chairmanship rotating but with Smith retaining the title of prime minister. Africans were named to each cabinet ministry, serving as co-ministers with the whites already holding these posts. African nations and rebel leaders immediately denounced the action, but Western governments were more reserved, although none granted recognition to the new regime.
• The white minority finally consented to hold multiracial elections in 1980 after the Lancaster House Agreement chaired by the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. That agreement is still the bone of contention to present day events. Robert Mugabe won a landslide victory. The country achieved independence on April 18, 1980, under the name Zimbabwe.
• On 22 December 1987, the ruling ZANU (PF) and main opposition PF-ZAPU signed a unity agreement, which saw the death of the former party
  New parties began to emerge in the late 1980s and early 1990s in preparation for the expected elections in 1995. Tekere's Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM) contested the 1990 elections with some success. The UANC, still led by Muzorewa, merged with ZUM in January 1994. In January, longtime Mugabe rival Sithole returned from exile and created his own party, also using the ZANU rubric of ZANU-Ndonga or sometimes ZANUSithole.
• In March 1993, former Chief Justice Enoch Dumbutshena launched the Forum Party, an outgrowth of the pressure group, Forum for Democratic Reform. The CAZ is still active, as is the Democratic Party, which has emerged from a split within ZUM.
  In 1996 elections for Executive President, Robert Mugabe, the longtime ruler of Zimbabwe, won 93% of the vote, while his party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, won 98% of the available seats in elections held a year earlier. However, in both elections it was widely accepted that the result had been predetermined. The Zimbabwe government made little pretense of conducting a free and fair election.
• Parliamentary elections were scheduled for April 2000, but were postponed until June. Two new strong political parties were formed to challenge Mugabe's ZANU-PF. The United Democratic Front (UDF) party was launched by Lupi Mushayakarara, former Rhodesian leader Ian Smith, Abel Muzorewa, and Ndabaningi Sithole, a pack of leaders that Mugabe dismissed as "ghosts of the past." A more formidable opponent emerged in the form of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Morgan Tsvangirai. The MDC successfully campaigned against a government-sponsored draft constitution in the national referendum held in February 2000 with the government securing 45% of the national referendum votes against 55% for the opposition. The opposition argued that the draft constitution further entrenched executive rule allowing Mugabe to dissolve cabinet and parliament, and to rule by decree. Led by the MDC, opposition parties won nearly half of the seats in the House of Assembly in the June 2000 elections.
• MDC won almost all urban Parliamentary seats in an election, which was viewed by many to have been rigged and held under violent environment.
• In March 2002, Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth of Nations.
  In 2000, veterans of Zimbabwe's war for independence in the 1970s began squatting on land owned by white farmers in an effort to reclaim land taken under British colonization—4,000 whites owned one-third of Zimbabwe’s arable land. In Aug. 2002, Mugabe ordered all white commercial farmers to leave their land with compensation for improvements done to the farms only.
• Parliamentary elections in March 2005 were judged by international monitors to be egregiously flawed.
• In April, Zimbabwe was reelected to the UN Commission on Human Rights, outraging numerous countries and human rights groups.
• In mid-2005, Zimbabwe demolished its urban slums and shantytowns, leaving 700,000 people homeless in an operation called Murambatsvina “Drive Out Trash.”
  In 2006, the government launched “Operation Roundup,” which drove 10,000 homeless people out of the capital.
• Since 2000, Zimbabwe has experienced precipitous hyperinflation. By 2007, inflation had reached nearly 7,000%, by far the world's highest.
• Unemployment ranges from 70% to 80%. According to the World Health Organisation, Zimbabwe has the world's lowest life expectancy.
• The opposition, clearly emboldened by the economic collapse and the lack of available necessities in Zimbabwe, attempted to hold an anti-government rally in March 2007 & the Police arrested and beat dozens of activists, including Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change MDC
• Representatives from the opposition MDC and the governing ZANU-PF party met in South Africa in September 2007 and agreed to constitutional changes that will allow presidential and parliamentary elections to be held simultaneously in 2008. The opposition, however, said the changes did little to dilute Mugabe's hold on power.
  The ZANU (PF) government announced that the elections would be held on 29 March 2008.
• In February 2008, Dr Simba Makoni (former Finance Minister) announced that he would stand against Robert Mugabe in the presidential election, as an independent candidate.

Zimbabwe Flag.
Meaning of colours and symbols on the flag
The Green represents -Country's vegetation and land resources.
The Yellow represents- the country's mineral wealth.
The Red represents the blood spilt during the liberation struggle.
Black represents the black majority.
The Zimbabwe Bird is the National Emblem of Zimbabwe.
White triangle for peace and the "way forward".
Red Star for internationalism. 
4.0. Marketing & Tourism.
Harare, The capital City.
Harare is capital city of Zimbabwe, and is a beautiful, light-filled, open city; high on the country's central plateaus .It has modern buildings, wide thoroughfares, numerous parks and gardens. A city whose streets are lined with flowering trees and a wonderful and invigorating climate.
There is a strong appreciation for the city's cultural and historical heritage and a number of the older buildings have been preserved.
The city was laid out with large open spaces like the 68ha National Botanic Garden with more than 900 species of wild trees and shrubs from all over the country.
If you want to experience shopping the way it is traditionally done in many African countries, you need to stroll around at the open flea market at Mbare. Here tourists can feast their eyes on a colourful array of baskets, food, clothing and other items.
The Kopje, a granite hill rising above the southwest corner of central Harare, is a great place to go for views of the city.
Victoria Falls/ Mosi-oa-Tunya  “The Smoke That Thunders”
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
The Victoria Falls, locally known by the African name of Mosi-oa-Tunya, meaning  “The Smoke That Thunders” is 1 708 meters wide and 92 m deep, making it the largest curtain of water in the world. It is found alone the Zambezi River, which separates Zimbabwe and Zambia. In the full flood months of March & April, over 500 million litres of water flows over the brink. Victoria Falls constitutes one of the most spectacular seven natural wonders of the world. The Victoria Falls is believe to have been discovered in 1860’s by David Livingstone, a Missionary, but the authentic truth is that there were local Zimbabweans living in the area, from eternity past.
The falls and the surrounding area have been declared National Parks and a World Heritage Site, thus preserving the area from excessive commercialization. A number of activities can be undertaken. The 'Flight of Angels' provides a fabulous vista of the falls, the upstream river and its many islands and for the more adventurous there is micro lighting with stunning views of the fall. Rafting the wild rapids below the falls is a very popular adventure. Activities inter alia, are, rafting, bungee jumping, game viewing, a crocodile farm/ranch, traditional dancing, a traditional village, golf, fishing, horse-riding, kayaking, canoeing, go on guided walking safaris, and lunch and dine on the Livingstone’s Island.
Historically, about hundreds of thousands of years ago, the Zambezi River started cutting through the softer clay and lime deposits and formed the first of a series of retreating waterfalls through the eight gorges below the falls. The sides of the gorges are made up of basalt lava and can be seen as exposed rocks. The Zambezi continues to cut back thorough the softer fissure areas and it is guessed that the Devil’s Cataract, the lowest point of the falls, is the beginning of the next gorge.
Great Zimbabwe Ruins.
Great Zimbabwe is the name given to the remains of stone, sometimes referred to as the Great Zimbabwe Ruins, derived from the Shona name Zimba Remabwe, meaning a “house of stone”. This is where the country got its name from. Great Zimbabwe was built by the Shona empire (sometimes referred as Munhumutapa/ Monomotapa Empire) between 1100 and 1400 AD and stand the as the largest ruins in sub-Saharan Africa and the oldest in Southern Africa. Amazingly, the entire structure was built using a dry stone technique ( with no binding  mortar)  and has stood the test of time with much of the Great  Enclosure’s walls remaining virtually intact .Great Zimbabwe is modern Zimbabwe's national shrine, where the Zimbabwe Bird (a national symbol of Zimbabwe) was found. It is currently an archaeological site. The ruins span 1,800 acres (7 km²) and cover a radius of 100 to 200 miles (160 to 320 km). See photos below.
Kariba Dam wall.
Completed in 1959, the structure is 420 feet (128 m) high with a crest of 1,899 feet (579 m) in length and a volume of    1,032,000 cubic m. The dam creates Lake Kariba, and it supplies some    6,700,000,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, saving both Zimbabwe and Zambia. Its    creation required the resettlement of more than 30,000 Tonga / Batonka people mostly from the   Zambia side) and the evacuation of thousands of wild animals known as "Operation Noah”.
Eastern Highlands (Manicaland Provence).
The Eastern Highlands encapsulates the diversity of Zimbabwe's visual riches. It is a story of mountain, valley, waterfall and stream. This includes the following places of intrinsic interest and pleasure:
Nyanga
Nyanga lies at the north end of a long mountain chain, thus, Mt  Nyangani, which has an  altitude of 2 133 m, and  2 592 m high – a  summit  where the unwary are said to become invisible and disappear forever on its mist-shrouded slopes.
Gracious hotels of international repute offer every comfort, from roaring log fires and traditional teas to the castanet song of the roulette wheel.
Pungwe Falls.
Pungwe is Nyanga at its most majestic with the Pungwe Falls plunging 243 metres through a deep, densely wooded gorge. Only 8 kms away from Honde View there is a panoramic vista of the vast valley linking the mountains. Here, one can view the Mutarazi Falls, Zimbabwe's highest stream, with a vertical escarpment of 762 metres below the Honde Valley.
Nyangombe Falls.
The Nyangombe Falls are different again: frivolous crystal chandeliers cascading over rocks exquisitely chiseled by the elements. Lovely Nyamuziwa are perhaps less spectacular but have their own evocative appeal--a place indeed for secret thoughts and dwelling.
Vumba Mountains.
Mutare is Zimbabwe's 4th largest city, and charms all comers. Cradled by Granite Mountains, bedecked with flamboyants, it also has a large aloe and cycad collection in its park. The road to the Vumba winds upwards from Mutare climbing 609 metres to the junction at Cloudlands. The Vumba Botanical Gardens are 30 ha of terraces crammed with flowers and shrubs.
Set in the Vumba Mountains, the Leopard Rock Hotel affords a spectacular view and is well worth a visit. Before it, far below, lays the tropical beauty of the Burma Valley; behind it is Chinyakwaramba, "the hill that sat down". Folklore has it that the people who once lived here displeased the spirits, who caused the mountain to crumble and enveloped them. Today, though, no bad vibes remain to disturb the tranquil loveliness of this spot.
Chimanimani Mountains.
The next call is the Chimanimani Mountains. 50km long, they rise to a height of 2 440 metres. Mists veil the peaks in the early morning, but lift to reveal unparalleled beauty. Laughing doves, larks, eagles, swallows and swifts are the familiars of these forests. Watch out for eland: the Chimanimani has a protected herd of these, the largest of antelope. The region glitters with falling waters, and without doubt the most intrinsically beautiful of them all is Bridal Veil Falls with its delicate water tracery spilling 50 metres into a natural swimming pool.
Chirinda Forest.
At the far end of the Eastern Highlands you will encounter the Chirinda Forest--647 ha of immense trees, jade-vaulted. Lord of this forest is the Big Tree, a 600-year-old red mahogany, 66 metres high, with a trunk 15 metres in circumference. Time stands still here, as indeed it does in all the Eastern Highlands, with sunlight and shadow chasing each other silently in a game as old as the gods themselves.
Gonarezhou National Park.
Gonarezhou means "place of elephants" in Shona and was created in 1967 in 1967. Gonarezhou is Zimbabwe‘s 2nd largest game reserve (after Hwange) and is 5, 053 square Kms boarding Mozambique’s wildlife reserve and South Africa’s Kruger National Park.
Gonarezhou National Park is part of the Great Limpopo Trans-frontier Park (GLTP), a massive Pan-African Park that includes South Africa’s famed Kruger National Park and Mozambique’s Gaza.
Gonarezhou is also one of the last places in Africa where you can experience a African camping experience as it was over 100 years ago.
They’re about 750elephants (when the park re-opened in 1994). (See picture below). The park is divided into two regions: The Save/Runde area in the north and Mwenezi in the south and is open from May to October. During the summer rainy season, access is more limited. 4x4 vehicles are required year-round and accommodation runs only to campsites. There are a number of luxury lodges outside the park.
Matopo Hills
The Matopos Hills are an area of granite kopjes and wooded valleys commencing some 35 km south of Bulawayo, southern Zimbabwe. This is only half an hour's drive from Bulawayo .The Hills were formed over 2000 million years ago with granite being forced to the surface, this has eroded to produce smooth "whaleback dwalas" and broken kopjes, strewn with boulders and interspersed with thickets of vegetation. Mzilikazi, founder of the Ndebele nation, gave the area its name, meaning 'Bald Heads'. The hills are associated with folklore and tradition; some being venerated as dwelling places of the spirits of departed Ndebele chiefs. The hills contain gigantic caves (notably Bambata, Nswatugi, and Silozwane) with Khoekhoe paintings.
Due its tantalizing and arrest beauty, John Cecil Rhodes, declared it one of the most beautiful places in the world and chose to be buried there. See the picture of his grave above. The grave symbolizes or is a reminder of the oppressive past. The Matobo Hills have been included into World Heritage List, according to a release by UNESCO. According to UNESCO, the Matobo Hills had been nominated for inclusion by Zimbabwean authorities. The area "exhibits a profusion of distinctive rock landforms rising above the granite shield that covers
The Hills cover an area of about 3100 square kms, of which 440 km² is National Park, the remainder being largely communal land and a small proportion of commercial farmland. This covers some 100 km² of beautiful scenery including some spectacular balancing rocks and impressive views along the Mpopoma river Valley.
Hwange National Park.
Hwange National Park is on the northwest of Zimbabwe and is the largest game reserve in the country established in 1928 as a game reserve and as a national park in 1930. It is on the Botswana frontier. The park's area of 5,657 square miles (14,651 square km) is largely flat and contains fine hardwood forests of mukwa and Zimbabwean teak. Hwange is one of Africa's largest elephant sanctuaries and is also the habitat of thousands of Cape buffalo as well as other many types of animals.
Some of the useful websites on Zimbabwe are:
www.zimbabwenews.com. 
www.zwnews.com. (Go on Media Center –it will lead you to the following Zimbabwe main Newspapers, The Standard, The Independent, The Daily News On Line and Fingaz.
www.zimbabweonline.com.
www.zvakwana/sikwanile.com.
www.thehearld.com.

www.africaonline.co.nz

Prepared on behalf of the Zimbabwean Association of New Zealand by
Kudakwashe Tuwe  {MBA, MIPMZ & FICB (SA) }.