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Zimbabwe, officially Republic of Zimbabwe, formerly (1911–64) Southern Rhodesia, (1964–79) Rhodesia, or (1979–80) Zimbabwe Rhodesia, landlocked country of southern Africa. It shares a 125-mile (200-kilometre) border on the south with the Republic of South Africa and is bounded on the southwest and west by Botswana, on the north by Zambia, and on the northeast and east by Mozambique. The capital is Harare (formerly called Salisbury). Zimbabwe achieved majority rule and internationally recognized independence in April 1980 following a long period of colonial rule and a 15-year period of white-dominated minority rule, instituted after the minority regime’s so-called Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) in 1965.
The land
Relief
Zimbabwe lies almost entirely over 1,000 feet (300 metres) above sea level. Its principal physical feature is the broad ridge running 400 miles from southwest to northeast across the entire country, from Plumtree near the Botswana frontier through Gweru (formerly Gwelo) and Marondera (formerly Marandellas) to the Inyanga Mountains, which separate Zimbabwe from Mozambique. About 50 miles wide, this ridge ranges in altitude from 4,000 to 5,000 feet, until it eventually rises to 8,504 feet (2,592 metres) at Mount Inyangani, the highest point in Zimbabwe, in the eastern highlands. This ridge is known as the Highveld and comprises about 25 percent of the country’s total area. On each side of this central spine, sloping down northward to the Zambezi River and southward to the Limpopo River, lies the wider plateau of the Middleveld, which, at an altitude between about 3,000 and 4,000 feet, makes up roughly 40 percent of Zimbabwe’s area. Beyond this again and mostly in the south, where the Sabi, Lundi, and Nuanetsi rivers drain from the plateau into the Limpopo, lies the Lowveld, which constitutes approximately 23 percent of the country’s total area. The lowest point in Zimbabwe lies at an altitude of 660 feet near Dumela, where the Limpopo flows into Mozambique. There are no parts of Zimbabwe that can properly be called desert, although a sector northwest of Plumtree and a lengthy belt across the Lowveld in the south are severely arid.
The landscape is characterized by extensive outcroppings of Precambrian rock, which is between about570 million and 4 billion years old. The most ancient part of this rock formation, known as the basement complex, covers the greater part of the country. About four-fifths of the basement complex consists of granite; the Matopo (Matopos) Hills south of the city of Bulawayo are formed from prolonged erosion of an exposed granite batholith. Some of the hills are surmounted by formations, known as balancing rocks, that have been eroded by wind and water along regular fault lines, leaving some blocks precariously balanced upon others. Elsewhere are found innumerable small rounded granite hillocks known locally as kopjes. Belts of schist in the basement complex contain the veins and lodes of most of the country’s gold, silver, and other commercial minerals.
The Great Dyke, which is up to 8 miles wide and about 330 miles long, is another notable landscape feature. The longest linear mass of mafic and ultramafic rocks in the world, the Great Dyke bisects the country from north to south and contains enormous reserves of chromium, nickel, and platinum. The Alkali Ring complexes near Beitbridge in the Sabi valley are distinctive igneous intrusions. The Karoo (Karroo) System—a thick layer of sedimentary rocks consisting of shale, sandstone, and grit of Permian and Triassic age (about 200 to 300 million years old)—covers the Zambezi valley and the valleys of its tributaries from Hwange (formerly Wankie) southward to Bulawayo and spreads across parts of the southern Lowveld from Tuli, near the southern border, to the Sabi River.
Britannica QuizDrainage and soils
Major faulting from southwest to northeast formed the middle Zambezi trough, which is now partially flooded by the Lake Kariba reservoir. Other faulting episodes affected the depressions of the Sabi (Save) and Limpopo rivers. Except for a small area of internal drainage in the dry southwest, these three rivers carry the entire runoff of the country to the Indian Ocean via Mozambique. The central ridgeline of the Highveld is the major divide separating Zambezi from Limpopo-Sabi drainage.
The light, sandy soils found in most parts of Zimbabwe are residual soils developed largely from the granite parent material. They are highly weathered and leached, even in the areas of lower rainfall, and do not easily retain water because of their coarse texture. Outcrops of basement schists give rise to rich red clays and loams—some of the country’s best soils—but their extent is limited. Since most rain occurs in heavy showers during a few months of the year, rapid runoff and high rates of erosion are common. The meagre mineral reserves in most soils imply an inherently low fertility; under cultivation, productivity drops rapidly after a few years. The difficulty of cultivating these lighter soils is greatest in the Black farming areas, where population pressure no longer allows land to be temporarily abandoned to rejuvenate after cultivation; Black farmers, because of a lack of capital, are also less able than white farmers to maintain the mineral fertility with manure and chemical fertilizers.
Climate of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe, lying north of the Tropic of Capricorn, is completely within the tropics but enjoys subtropical conditions because of its high average elevation. Toward the end of the hot, dry months, which last from August to October, monsoon winds that have crossed the Indian Ocean and Mozambique result in intense orographic rainfall when they meet the rampart formed by the eastern highlands. The eastern regions consequently receive the country’s heaviest rainfall and have a more prolonged rainy season (lasting from October into April) than the rest of Zimbabwe. The high altitude of the broad plateau of western Zimbabwe helps to guarantee fine weather there during the cool, dry winter months from May to August.
June is generally the coolest month and October the warmest; temperature variations correspond closely to altitude. Inyanga, at about 5,500 feet in the eastern highlands, varies in temperature from a mean of 52° F (11° C) in July to one of 65° F (18° C) in October. Harare, at about 4,800 feet, has seasonal temperatures varying from 57° F (14° C) to 70° F (21° C), and Bulawayo, at 4,400 feet, varies from 57° F (14° C) to 70° F (21° C). Daily variations about these means are some 13° F (7° C) warmer in the afternoon and 13° F (7° C) cooler at night. Harare and Bulawayo each average about eight hours of sunshine per day, and this average does not drop below six hours during the rainy season.
Plant and animal life
Zimbabwe is predominantly savanna (tropical grassland), with a generous tree growth encouraged by the wet summers. The only true forests, however, are the evergreen forests of the eastern border and the savanna woodland, which includes teak, northwest of Bulawayo. Various species of Brachystegia (a hardwood tree up to 90 feet high with pale reddish brown wood) are dominant in the Middleveld and Highveld. Other common species include the mohobohobo (a medium-size tree with large spadelike leaves) and the thorn tree. In the valleys of the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers, the mopane, which resembles the mohobohobo, is common, together with the stout-trunked baobab and the knobby thorn tree. Australasian eucalyptus trees have been widely introduced, predominantly on white-owned farms, where they are used as windbreaks and for fuel; Australian wattle has been planted in the eastern districts as a source of tannin. Pure grassland is uncommon but occurs particularly along the eastern border around Chimanimani (Mandidzudzure, formerly Melsetter).
Cultivation of the land and the reduction of the natural vegetation have resulted in the disappearance of many forms of animal life over large areas. Hwange National Park, holding some of the densest remaining wildlife concentrations in Africa, has an area of more than 5,000 square miles and stretches from the Bulawayo–Victoria Falls railway line westward to the Botswana border. Among the flesh-eating animals found there, and occasionally elsewhere, are the lion, leopard, cheetah, serval, civet, aardvark, spotted and brown hyena, black-backed and side-striped jackal, zorille, ratel, bat-eared fox, ant bear, and scaly anteater. Elephants are found in the northern region, and giraffes in the western bushland; hippopotamuses and crocodiles live in the larger rivers. Among a great variety of hoofed and horned ruminant animals are the eland (which is immune to the deadly tsetse fly), greater kudu, blue duiker, impala, klipspringer, steenbok and grysbok, and sable and roan antelope. Snakes include mambas, boomslangs, and the black-necked cobra. Baboons, which are the bane of farmers whose crops they damage, include the Rhodesian and yellow species, as well as the chacma, the largest known baboon species. Notable among the birdlife are the martial eagle, the bateleur eagle, and the little hammerhead, which builds enormous nests and is revered as a bird of omen.
Conservation efforts in southern Africa have been aided by the creation of transfrontier parks and conservation areas, which link nature reserves and parks in neighbouring countries to create large, international conservation areas that protect biodiversity and allow a wider range of movement for migratory animal populations. One such park is the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which links Zimbabwe’s Gonarezhou National Park with South Africa’s Kruger National Park and Mozambique’s Limpopo National Park.
Settlement patterns
Zimbabwe may be divided into six different regions of agricultural potential, with the amount of rainfall constituting the determining factor in land use. The eastern highlands, with more than 25 inches of rainfall annually, are suitable for diversified farming with cattle and plantation and orchard crops. Roughly one-fifth of the country, sweeping west along the central spine past Harare and on to the midlands, receives 20 to 25 inches of rain and is used for intensive farming of corn (maize) and tobacco and the raising of livestock. An almost equal area to the southwest, enclosing Bulawayo, receives 16 to 20 inches of rain a year; it is suitable for mixed farming and for raising livestock on a semi-intensive scale. One-third of the country, lying farther outward from the spine of Zimbabwe, mostly to the south, and receiving 14 to 18 inches of rainfall annually, is used for semi-extensive farming, while about one-fourth of the country in the Lowveld toward the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers, receiving less than 16 inches a year, is fit only for ranching. Finally, a small area, mostly in the far north toward the Zambezi River, is unsuitable for either agriculture or forestry.
Prior to independence most of the country’s best farmland was in the hands of white settlers or absentee landlords. In consequence, the nationalist struggle focused sharply upon the issue of land ownership, and a major concern for the Zimbabwe government after independence was to carry through land reform in the rural areas and launch large-scale settlement of Black families on former white farms.
The Land Apportionment Act, a segregationist measure that governed land allocation and acquisition prior to independence, made no provision for Blacks who chose an urban life, because towns were designated as white areas. As a result, though urban Blacks now outnumber whites by more than four to one, Blacks mostly live in rented homes in townships located some miles from city centres. The cities of Harare and Bulawayo therefore constitute studies in contrast, with impressive office buildings and quiet white suburbs partially ringed by crowded Black townships. The Land Tenure Act, a more rigidly segregationist law that superseded the Land Apportionment Act in 1969, was amended in 1977, while the civil war was still being fought, to allow Blacks to purchase white farms and urban property, and after the end of hostilities residential segregation began to be significantly breached.
People
Ethnic and linguistic composition
More than two-thirds of Zimbabweans speak Shona as their first language, while about one out of six speak Ndebele. Both Shona and Ndebele are Bantu languages. From the time of their great southward migration, Bantu-speaking groups have populated what is now Zimbabwe for more than 10 centuries. Those who speak Ndebele are concentrated in a circle around Bulawayo, with Shona-speaking peoples beyond them on all sides—the Kalanga to the southwest, the Karanga to the east around Nyanda (formerly Fort Victoria), the Zezuru to the northeast, and the Rozwi and Tonga to the north. Generations of intermarriage have to a degree blurred the linguistic division between the Shona and Ndebele peoples.
Among the whites in Zimbabwe at independence were the descendants of the country’s first European immigrants. Only about one-quarter of the adult white population was born in Zimbabwe. After World War II the white population grew severalfold because of heavy immigration, and some two-thirds of present-day white Zimbabweans have their origins in Europe, the great majority from Britain. The rest have come largely from South Africa. Of the whites living in rural areas, about one-quarter are Afrikaners. There are several thousand Asians, forming a community that is predominantly concerned with trade. There are also Zimbabweans of mixed race.
Zimbabwe’s ethnic and linguistic diversity is reflected in the 2013 constitution, which gives official status to 16 languages: Chewa, Chibarwe, English, Kalanga, Khoisan, Nambya, Ndau, Ndebele, Shangaan, Shona, sign language, Sotho, Tonga, Tswana, Venda, and Xhosa.
Religion
In the 20th century, Christian mission schools exercised much influence in the country, and most of the members of the first cabinet of independent Zimbabwe were graduates of these schools. More than four-fifths of Zimbabweans are Christian, almost half of them Apostolic. The Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Dutch Reformed churches are also represented. Because the Roman Catholic Church supported nationalist aspirations, it held a position of influence in the postindependence period.
Demographic trends
Zimbabwe’s population on the whole is quite young, with more than one-third under age 15 and about one-third between the ages of 15 and 29. About one-third of the total population lives in urban centres, particularly in either Harare or Bulawayo. Among urban Blacks there is a disproportionately large number of males of working age, leaving an excess of older people, women, and children in rural areas. At least half of the Black households are partly or wholly dependent on incomes earned in the wage economy.
The economy of Zimbabwe
Upon independence in 1980, Robert Mugabe’s government moved cautiously to alter the pattern of management that it inherited from the white minority regime. The first budget of July 1980 was described by the finance minister as “conservative [with] a mild and pragmatic application of socialism.” But the white minority had passed on government machinery that included many levers of economic power. While the members of the white minority were by inclination wedded to a system of private enterprise, they had evolved a system of government intervention to support infant industries and maintain agricultural prices through marketing boards. The need to cushion the blows dealt by economic sanctions during UDI brought acceptance of the imposition of exchange and import controls.
Zimbabwe’s economy began experiencing a decline in the 1990s that accelerated in the early 2000s. The Mugabe administration’s problematic program of land reform—which sought to hasten the slow reallocation of farmland from the white minority to Black Zimbabweans—began in the 1990s, gathered speed after 2002, and is one of the most-often-cited causes for the economic decline, but other factors also played a role. Mugabe’s controversial 1998 decision to intervene in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s civil war not only cost the Zimbabwean economy hundreds of millions of dollars but also resulted in the suspension of international economic aid for Zimbabwe. Aid and loans to the country were withheld in later years in protest of the land reform program and violations of human and political rights and in response to Zimbabwe’s inability to repay previous loans. Economic mismanagement, rampant inflation, and record-high rates of unemployment complicated the worsening economic situation.
Agriculture
Although the agricultural sector declined dramatically in the early 21st century, it is still an important productive sector of the country’s economy. It regularly generates about 15 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). More than one-half of the total labour force is engaged directly in agricultural activities.
The sector is divided into large-scale commercial farming, which occupies some 40 percent of the total land area and was historically dominated by white farmers, and small-scale farming, which is both commercial and subsistence in nature. Occupying about the same total area as the large-scale commercial sector—but on land that is considerably less fertile—smallholders have steadily increased their share of the country’s total agricultural output since independence, from about one-tenth in the early 1980s to about half of the total production in the early 1990s. To accelerate this trend and redress the issue of land distribution, the government purchased—and, from 2002, also seized—many large farms and established resettlement areas on them. Landless peasant farmers or war veterans were supposed to be settled on the farmland, but property was often claimed by politically connected individuals without adequate farming experience who were not able to maintain productivity; this, along with drought conditions, greatly contributed to the decline of the agricultural sector—and the country’s general economy—in the 2000s.
Britannica QuizCrop production is well diversified. The most important food crop is corn (maize), which is grown throughout Zimbabwe but does best in the well-watered northeast. In previous years, enough corn was usually produced so that Zimbabwe was able to meet its domestic demand and also export a sizable quantity, but, in the early 21st century, with the significant decline in agricultural productivity, the country was unable to meet domestic needs. Other food crops include wheat, millet, sorghum, barley, cassava, peanuts (groundnuts), soybeans, bananas, and oranges.
Prior to the agricultural decline of the early 21st century, Zimbabwe was the largest producer of tobacco in Africa. Despite the decline in this sector, tobacco is still the country’s principal cash crop. Three types of tobacco have traditionally been grown in the country: Virginia flue-cured, on the large commercial farms; burley, mostly by smallholders; and Turkish, of more limited extent.
Cotton, grown by both smallholders and large commercial farmers, was once a chief export crop and was also the foundation of a large domestic textile industry. Cotton output increased steadily from UDI (when commercial farmers were forced to diversify their production away from an overreliance on tobacco) but declined in the early 21st century.
Sugar is grown in the southern Lowveld. It is exported as well as used as the basis for an important fuel industry, which mixes the sugar by-product ethanol with gasoline to help decrease the country’s reliance on expensive imported fuels. Coffee has increased in production many times over since the early 1970s. Grown mainly in the eastern highlands between Vumba and Mount Silinda, Zimbabwe’s coffees are premium mild arabicas that command a favourable price on the world market.
Cattle are the preferred livestock of the country’s farmers. Beef and dairy products, produced mainly by the commercial sector, accounted for about one-fourth of agricultural output in most years. After independence there was a growing domestic demand for beef, and, as one of the few African countries allowed to export beef to the European Community (now the European Union [EU]), Zimbabwe developed a significant export trade in beef as well. This trade has been negatively impacted by the overall decline of the agricultural sector in the early 21st century, which resulted in a lack of grain available for feed. Sheep, goats, and pigs are raised in some areas, but their importance is minor compared with cattle. Poultry are kept largely for home use.
Industry
Although mining accounts for less than 10 percent of the GDP and provides work for about 5 percent of the employed labour force, its significance in the economy is considerable as a major earner of foreign exchange. Direct mineral exports account for about one-third of total export earnings.
It was the prospect of great mineral wealth—comparable to the gold deposits of the Witwatersrand in neighbouring South Africa—that attracted the first permanent European settlers in the 1890s. These great expectations faded for many years after the peak of gold production was reached in 1915. By the 1950s, however, production of the chromium mines along the Great Dyke was significant, as was that of asbestos and copper. During UDI, the value of mining output increased. The rise in gold prices in the 1970s revived gold as the country’s leading export and led to the reopening in 1979–80 of more than 100 dormant mines. Nickel mining along the Great Dyke began on a commercial scale in the late 1960s. Zimbabwe’s huge coal reserves are estimated to be about 30 billion tons, much of it desirable low-sulfur bituminous coal. Production from the major coalfields near Hwange is limited, however, by the country’s capacity to transport the coal by rail, an economic necessity because of coal’s bulkiness.
Manufacturing generates about one-tenth of the country’s GDP. From 1954 to 1963, then Southern Rhodesia was able to rely on the resources and larger market of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland for a 150 percent increase in manufacturing output. Then, after the UDI was announced in 1965, hundreds of new manufacturing projects were begun in an effort to defeat economic sanctions by import substitution. Because of the diversity in manufacturing that developed, Zimbabwe was able to provide nearly 90 percent of the manufactured goods used in the country until the economy began to decline in the late 1990s.
Coal is the country’s primary energy source. A growing percentage of the coal utilized is transformed first into electricity by thermal generating plants fueled by coal. Its principal users are industries, mines, and farms. Electrification of the railways was begun in 1980 (coal and diesel remain the major energy sources for rail transport, however), and there has also been considerable electrification of low-cost housing in urban townships. Electric power is also generated at the huge Kariba Dam, which Zimbabwe shares with Zambia, on the Zambezi River. Although Zimbabwe has great hydroelectric potential, it has not been realized, and the country imports about two-fifths of the electricity it consumes. Energy shortages in the 2000s resulted in frequent blackouts throughout the country.
Finance and trade
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, located in Harare, is the country’s central bank. It is the sole bank of issue and administers all monetary and exchange controls. There are also private and government-sponsored commercial banks, a development finance bank, and several merchant banks and discount houses. The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange deals in both government securities and the securities of privately owned companies.
Economic sanctions during UDI, which had been imposed by stages from 1966 to 1968 on both imports and exports, were lifted in December 1979. They had been widely breached, particularly in mineral exports and in the supply of petroleum, but they nevertheless strongly affected certain commodities, such as tobacco exports. Although the trade surplus was diminished in 1979 by the rise in oil prices, the value of exports still outpaced that of imports. In the 1980s Zimbabwe showed slow but steady growth in its trade surplus, as its unusually high level of export diversity proved able to weather changes in world demand for its commodities. However, the economic turmoil of the 1990s and 2000s adversely affected the balance of trade in some years, slowing growth or resulting in a negative balance. In the early 21st century some countries and organizations—including the United States and the EU—imposed various travel and trade restrictions on Zimbabwe in response to what they deemed to be political and human rights violations in the country. The actions were primarily directed at senior-level members of Mugabe’s administration and their families rather than the country’s general population and economy and did not apply to humanitarian assistance; however, the government asserted that these sanctions contributed to the country’s economic problems.
Major exports include gold, tobacco, metal alloys, cotton, and sugar. The principal imports are fuels and petroleum products, electricity, machinery and transport equipment, food, and miscellaneous manufactured goods. Zimbabwe’s trading partners include South Africa and other African countries, the United States, China, and some countries of the EU. Zimbabwe belongs to regional economic trade-and-development organizations, including the Southern African Development Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa.
Labour and taxation
The evolution of the trade union movement was some two years behind the pattern of political change by 1980. The Mugabe government dealt with immediate labour problems, such as strikes for a higher minimum wage, on a case-by-case basis rather than institute a thorough revision of the basic Industrial Conciliation Act of 1959. The government seemed to favour the strengthening, by mergers or amalgamation, of small unions in the same industry; the strengthening of the whole movement by the formation of a single trade-union congress from the five or six existing confederations of unions; and an arm’s-length relationship of government with such a congress. Despite the large number of unions in existence, the largest sections of the labour force—the agricultural workers and domestic servants—remained outside the system.
The government raises nearly half of its revenue from personal and corporate income taxes that since 1966 have been collected on a pay-as-you-earn system. About two-fifths of government revenue comes from customs and excise duties and sales taxes, a small portion from investments, and much of the rest from government borrowing and, since independence, international aid. After independence the Zimbabwe government removed sales taxes on the staple items of food and fuel for the poorest people and extended sales taxes to travel, hotel accommodations, taxis, telecommunications, and other services. It continued the former rates of personal income tax.
Transportation
The main road system generally follows the line of white settlement along the spine of the country, with two branches north to Victoria Falls and Kariba and a network fanning out from Nyanda, close to the Great Zimbabwe ruins. Wartime operations brought an improvement in certain areas, including the construction of strategic roads in the eastern highlands and near the Zambian border. The road system has not been adequately maintained since the mid-1990s, and much of it has fallen into a state of disrepair.
Zimbabwe has one of the densest rail networks in sub-Saharan Africa. The railway closely follows the main road network; its single track has a gauge of three feet six inches. The country has rail links with South Africa to the south and Zambia to the north. Two lines connect with lines through Mozambique to give landlocked Zimbabwe access to the ports of Maputo and Beira. As with the road system, the rail network has also deteriorated.
Air Zimbabwe, the national carrier, flies to many international destinations. It replaced Air Rhodesia, a government-backed company that had operated only within Rhodesia and to and from South Africa. There are several airports in Zimbabwe with international and domestic service, including the international airport at Harare. There are many smaller airfields located throughout the country.
Administration and social conditions
Constitutional Framework
Historical context
Zimbabwe’s first constitution, which was written in London during September–December 1979 and which took effect at independence on April 18, 1980, secured majority rule for Zimbabweans. Under the constitution, white voters, registered on a separate roll, elected 20 of the 100 members of the House of Assembly. Although these members could not veto constitutional amendments, a unanimous vote was required during the first 10 years to alter the Declaration of Rights component of the constitution, which stipulated (among other matters) that, if land was acquired for settlement schemes, there must be “prompt payment of adequate compensation…remittable within a reasonable time to any country outside Zimbabwe.” The British insisted that there be a constitutional head of state, a president elected by the House of Assembly, and an executive prime minister and that citizenship of Zimbabwe be automatically available to anyone who was (or had the qualifications to be) a citizen of Rhodesia immediately before independence. In 1987 the office of prime minister was eliminated, with executive power instead being vested solely in the president, and additional constitutional amendments throughout the years served to strengthen the role of the president. Also in 1987 the practice of setting aside legislative seats elected from the white roll ended, and white voters were incorporated into the common roll. The former Senate of 40 members was abolished with a constitutional amendment in 1990, and 50 members were added to the House of Assembly. The Senate was later reinstated in 2005. An amendment act passed in 2007 and effective with the 2008 elections increased the number of seats in both the House and the Senate and altered the allocation of seats. In 2009 the constitution was amended to provide for the creation of a coalition government via the terms of the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA), which attempted to end a political crisis in Zimbabwe. The structure of the executive branch was altered, allowing for the creation of a prime minister post and the creation of two deputy prime minister posts.
The GPA also provided for the drafting of a new constitution, which, after some delay, was completed in early 2013. The draft contained many changes from the previous constitution, including a stronger parliament, the introduction of presidential term limits, the elimination of presidential immunity from prosecution after leaving office, the abolition of the prime minister post, and a devolution of power. The new constitution was passed via referendum on March 16, 2013, and signed into law on May 22, 2013.
Government
Under the 2013 constitution, Zimbabwe is a unitary republic. The head of state and government is the president, who is elected to a five-year term; the president can serve no more than two terms. The president is assisted by two vice presidents. The parliament consists of the National Assembly and the Senate. The National Assembly normally has 210 members, all of whom are directly elected. For the first two parliaments elected after the promulgation of the 2013 constitution, however, the National Assembly has 270 seats, with the 60 additional seats reserved for women—6 from each of the 8 provinces and the 2 cities with provincial status—elected through a system of proportional representation. The Senate comprises 80 members: 60 (6 from each of the 8 provinces and the 2 cities with provincial status) elected by a party-list system of proportional representation, with men and women being listed alternately on every list; 16 traditional chiefs elected by the provincial assemblies of chiefs in the 8 provinces; 2 seats for the president and deputy president of the National Council of Chiefs (the administrative body of traditional chiefs); and 2 representatives of people with disabilities. All parliament members serve five-year terms.
Local government
For administrative purposes, Zimbabwe is divided into eight provinces and two cities with provincial status—Bulawayo and the capital, Harare—known as metropolitan provinces. The provinces and metropolitan provinces are further divided into districts. Provinces are administered by provincial councils; they are headed by a chairperson, who is elected by the council. Bulawayo and Harare are administered by metropolitan councils; the mayor of each city serves as a council chairperson.
Justice
Zimbabwe’s judicial system includes the Constitutional Court, which is the highest court in matters pertaining to the constitution; the Supreme Court, which is the highest court of appeal in all other matters; and the High Court, which has original jurisdiction in all civil and criminal matters and supervises the magistrates courts and other subordinate courts. There are also a Labour Court and an Administrative Court, as well as customary law courts, which adjudicate on matters of traditional law and custom.
Education
The dismantling of Rhodesia’s segregated system of schooling began less than two years before independence. The minority government had concentrated upon providing compulsory (and virtually free) education for white children between the ages of 5 and 15 and had left the schooling of Black children in the hands of missionaries. In 1950 there were only 12 government schools for Blacks, compared with 2,230 mission and independent schools.
After independence, priority was given to upgrading the country’s school system. Many new schools were built in the drive toward free primary education for all. In the decade following independence, Zimbabwe achieved one of the highest primary school enrollment rates in Africa, with more than nine-tenths of all children of primary school age attending school, although this rate declined to about four-fifths in the early 21st century. Primary education begins at age seven, lasts for seven years, and has been compulsory since 1987. At least one rural secondary school has been established in each of the country’s districts. There are several universities and colleges in Zimbabwe, including the University of Zimbabwe, founded in 1955 at Harare, and the National University of Sciences and Technology, founded in 1991 at Bulawayo. Zimbabwe has one of the highest literacy rates in Africa, with nine-tenths of the population being able to read.
Health and welfare
Before 1980, health services were focused on curative medicine in central hospitals. Missionaries had the major responsibility for running rural clinics and small hospitals. After independence, health allocations were increased, but health services deteriorated rapidly with the onset of cyclic drought and flooding and the agricultural and economic problems of the late 1990s and 2000s. Many health care providers left Zimbabwe to work abroad, and those that remain do not always have access to the medicine and other supplies they need; in addition, many health care facilities and pieces of medical equipment have not been maintained, making it difficult to treat even common illnesses and injuries.
Because of these problems, the health and well-being of Zimbabwe’s population declined, although by 2010 there were signs of a gradual recovery. Life expectancy in Zimbabwe had plummeted during the last decade of the 20th century, from 62 years in 1990 to about 38 years in 2000; in 2010 it rebounded to about 48 years, and it continued to show further improvement in the following years. At the turn of the century, Zimbabwe’s infant mortality rate was higher than the world average, but it too has since shown improvement. AIDS, the major health threat to Zimbabweans in the 1990s, continued to be a formidable problem into the 21st century, with about one-fifth of the adult population infected. By 2010 the rate had dropped to about one-seventh, although this was still among the highest infection rates in the world. In addition to addressing the AIDS epidemic and other diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria that occur in the country, food security and improved nutrition are also seen as important health needs as Zimbabwe continues its efforts to recover from the period of food shortages caused by years of drought and flooding as well as the collapse of the agricultural sector and the economic problems of the early 21st century.
Cultural life
The most famous of Rhodesian-bred writers, Doris Lessing, settled in England in 1949. In some contrast, the nationalist struggle prompted a renaissance of Shona culture. A forerunner of this renaissance (and a victim of the liberation struggle) was Herbert Chitepo, both as abstract painter and epic poet. Stanlake Samkange’s novels reconstruct the Shona and Ndebele world of the 1890s, while those of the much younger Charles Mungoshi explore the clash of Shona and Western cultures in both the Shona and English languages. Folk traditions have survived in dance and pottery. The revival of sculpture has drawn on tribal religion and totems to produce some remarkable works, particularly those of Takawira and the Tengenenge school of craftsmen who sculpt in hard serpentine.
History
This discussion mainly focuses on the history of Zimbabwe since the late 15th century. For treatment of earlier periods and of the country in its regional context, see Southern Africa.
The remains of Stone Age cultures dating to 500,000 years ago have been found in Zimbabwe, and it is thought that the San, who still survive mostly in the Kalahari desert of Botswana, are the last descendants of these original inhabitants of southern and central Africa. They were driven into the desert by Bantu-speaking groups during the long migrations from the north in the course of which the Bantu-speaking peoples populated much of Africa from Lake Chad to present-day South Africa. The first Bantu are thought to have reached Zimbabwe between the 5th and 10th centuries CE. Zimbabwe is home to many stone ruins, including those known as Great Zimbabwe (designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1986). Some ruins date from about the 9th century, although the most elaborate belong to a period after the 15th century and are of Bantu origin.
Portuguese exploration
The Portuguese, who arrived on the east coast of Africa at the end of the 15th century, dreamed of opening up the interior and establishing a route to connect their eastern settlements with Angola in the west. The first European to enter Zimbabwe was probably António Fernandes, who tried to cross the continent and reached the neighbourhood of Que Que (now Kwekwe). Nearly 50 years later the Mwene Matapa (“emperor”), Negomo Chirisamhuru Mupunsagutu, was baptized by a Jesuit father, and in 1569 an abortive Portuguese military expedition entered the interior in search of gold.
A second great movement of the Bantu peoples began in 1830, this time from the south. To escape from the power of the great Zulu chief Shaka, three important groups fled northward. One of them, the Ndebele, carved out a kingdom. The Ndebele were warriors and pastoralists, in the Zulu tradition, and under their formidable chief Mzilikazi they mastered and dispossessed the weaker tribes, known collectively as Shona (Mashona), who were sedentary, peaceful tillers of the land. For more than half a century, until the coming of European rule, the Ndebele continued to enslave and plunder the Shona. During this period, however, British and Afrikaner hunters, traders, and prospectors had begun to move up from the south, and with them came the missionaries. Robert Moffat visited Mzilikazi in 1857, and this meeting led to the establishment in 1861 of the first mission to the Ndebele by the London Missionary Society.
The British South Africa Company
In South Africa Cecil Rhodes formed the British South Africa Company, which received its charter in October 1889. Its objects were (1) to extend the railway from Kimberley northward to the Zambezi, (2) to encourage immigration and colonization, (3) to promote trade and commerce, and (4) to secure all mineral rights, in return for guarantees of protection and security of rights to the tribal chiefs.
In 1890 a pioneer column set out from Bechuanaland and reached the site of the future capital of Rhodesia without incident on September 12. There the new arrivals settled and began to lay claim to prospecting rights. The Ndebele resented this European invasion, and in 1893 they took up arms, being defeated only after months of strenuous fighting. Lobengula, Mzilikazi’s son and successor, fled, and the company assumed administrative control of Matabeleland. In 1895 many of the pioneers were persuaded to take part in the Jameson Raid into the Transvaal and were captured and sent to England for trial. In the same year, the company-administered territories, which had previously been loosely known as Zambesia, were formally named Rhodesia by proclamation. In 1896 the Ndebele rose again. Returning from London, Rhodes met with the Ndebele chiefs and persuaded them to make peace. The Shona had at first accepted the Europeans, but they too became rebellious, and the whole country was not pacified until 1897.
Economic and political development
By 1892 about 1,500 settlers from the south had arrived in Rhodesia. The railway reached Bulawayo in 1896 and Victoria Falls in 1904. By the following year there were 12,500 settlers in the country, and in 1909 gold exports were worth more than £2,500,000. Agricultural development, however, was slower, and it was not until 1907 that steps were taken to facilitate the acquisition of land. By 1911 nearly £35,000 worth of tobacco was being exported annually, and the European population had risen to 23,600.
From the earliest years, the settlers had demanded representation on the Legislative Council, which in 1903 comprised seven company officials and seven elected representatives of the settlers. In 1907 the settlers were given a majority of seats. In 1914, when the 25-year term of the company’s charter was due to expire, the settlers, faced with the alternative of joining the Union of South Africa, asked for the continuation of the charter pending the grant of self-government. The British government therefore extended the charter for 10 years, with the proviso that self-government could be granted earlier if the settlers showed themselves capable of administering the country unaided.
Self-government
Immediately after World War I the pressure for self-government was resumed, and a royal commission was appointed to consider the future of the territory. As a result of the commission’s report, a referendum of the electors among the 34,000 Europeans in the country was held in 1922; the choice was between entry into the Union of South Africa as its fifth province and full internal self-government. In spite of the offer of generous terms by the Union’s prime minister, General Jan C. Smuts, a majority voted for self-government. On September 12, 1923, Southern Rhodesia was annexed to the crown and became a self-governing colony. The British government retained control of external affairs and a final veto in respect to legislation directly affecting Africans.
The interwar period was one of material progress, with the development of a reasonably prosperous economy based on copper, gold, and other minerals, corn (maize), tobacco, and cattle. By 1953 Southern Rhodesia had a European population of 157,000 and an annual revenue of more than £28 million.
The policy of Sir Godfrey Huggins (later Lord Malvern), who served as prime minister of Southern Rhodesia for 20 years, was to build a society in accord with Rhodes’s dictum of “equal rights for all civilized men,” one in which merit and not colour should be the test of political and economic advancement. He believed that political power should not be given to the Africans until they were sufficiently experienced to know how to exercise it in cooperation with the Europeans and thus to maintain the economic development built up over the years.
A second principle in which Lord Malvern and most other Europeans in Southern Rhodesia and Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia) profoundly believed was that the two countries should be joined together, both for their mutual economic benefit and to ensure the establishment of a powerful state based on British culture and traditions. Malvern failed to secure their amalgamation, but he supported the federation of Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, and Nyasaland (later Malawi) when that solution was eventually accepted by the British in 1953.
Federation
In 1957 a new electoral law was passed providing for a common roll of voters (the “A” roll, composed only of whites) with a special roll for those with lower qualifications (the “B” roll, a tiny minority of the Blacks). At the same time, there was growing political consciousness among the African population, together with increasing hostility to the idea of federation. Joshua Nkomo was one of the fiercest opponents of federation as the local leader of the African National Congress, and, when that organization was banned, he became president of the National Democratic Party in 1960. It, too, was soon banned, and he formed the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU), which in turn was banned in 1962. In 1963 Robert Mugabe broke with ZAPU to join the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and thereby split African support along ethnic lines—Nkomo retained the Ndebele ethnic minority (mostly in the Matabeleland region), while Mugabe garnered the Shona ethnic majority.
In June 1962 the UN General Assembly called for a more liberal constitution for the territory. The election of December 1962, during which the 1961 constitution came into force, was boycotted by the African nationalists. The ruling United Federal Party was defeated by the more conservative Rhodesian Front (RF), and Winston Field became prime minister. At the end of 1963 the federation was dissolved, and Southern Rhodesia reverted to its former status as colony.
Rhodesia and the UDI
The goal of the RF was Rhodesian independence under guaranteed minority rule. Field was replaced as prime minister in April 1964 by his deputy, Ian Smith. The RF swept all A-roll seats in the 1965 election, and Smith used this parliamentary strength to tighten controls on the political opposition. After several attempts to persuade Britain to grant independence, Smith’s government announced the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) on November 11, 1965.
Britain declined to respond to the UDI with force, instead attempting economic tactics such as ending the link between sterling and the Rhodesian currency and seizing assets. Smith’s government countered by defaulting on its (British-guaranteed) debts, leaving the British liable while at the same time balancing its budget. The United Nations Security Council imposed mandatory economic sanctions on Rhodesia in 1966, the first time that the UN had taken that action against a state. The sanctions were broadened in 1968 but still were only partly successful; some strategic minerals, especially chromium, were exported to willing buyers in Europe and North America, further strengthening the economy.
On June 20, 1969, a referendum was held in Rhodesia regarding adoption of a constitution that would enshrine political power in the hands of the white minority and establish Rhodesia as a republic; Rhodesia’s predominantly white electorate overwhelmingly approved both measures. The constitution was approved by Parliament in November, and on March 2, 1970, Rhodesia declared itself a republic.
Unsuccessful negotiations with Britain continued. A 1971 proposal to lessen restrictions on the opposition led to the creation of a third nationalist movement, the United African National Council (UANC), led by the Methodist bishop Abel Muzorewa. Unlike ZAPU and ZANU—both banned and operating only from exile in Zambia and Mozambique, respectively—UANC was able to organize inside Rhodesia and held talks with the government during the 1970s. During the early 1970s ZAPU and ZANU had sporadically organized raids into Rhodesia, but in December 1972 the violence of the conflict intensified after a ZANU attack in the northeast. The Zambia-Rhodesia border was closed in 1973, but Mozambican independence in 1975 provided a valuable base of operations for ZANU, which had close links to the Frelimo government.
The white Rhodesian government was thus under diplomatic, military, and, increasingly, economic pressure for a settlement. The 1976 rapprochement between Nkomo and Mugabe led to the formation of the Patriotic Front (PF), which received frontline support from Rhodesia’s majority-ruled neighbours. The fighting escalated in both area and intensity, and the emergency measures adopted by the government to counter it also served to increase antigovernment feeling. By 1979 the combination of pressures had forced Smith to accept the necessity of an “internal settlement.”
Independence
A new government
A 1978 agreement with internal Black leaders, including Muzorewa, had promised elections for a transitional government that would provide for both enfranchisement of Blacks and protection of white political and economic interests. The UANC won a clear majority of the seats allotted to Blacks in the April 1979 election, and the country adopted the name Zimbabwe. Without PF participation or support for Muzorewa’s new government, however, Zimbabwe was unable to end the warfare. Diplomatic recognition of the new government was not forthcoming given the stalemate; after talks between Muzorewa, Mugabe, and Nkomo at the Lancaster House conference in London in late 1979, Britain briefly retook control of Southern Rhodesia as a colony until a new round of elections was held in February 1980. Of the 80 contested Black seats, ZANU (now using the name ZANU-PF) won 57, ZAPU 20, and the UANC 3. Mugabe became the first prime minister as Zimbabwe achieved an internationally recognized independence on April 18, 1980.
(Mugabe wrote an article for the 1982 Britannica Book of the Year [events of 1981] detailing the Black majority’s struggle for independence. See Struggling for Nationhood: The Birth of Zimbabwe.)
Mugabe’s new government moved deliberately to redress inequalities of race and class, redistribute land held by the white minority, and promote economic development, with a one-party socialist state as its long-term goal. During the 1980s, drought and white emigration badly damaged the economy, which was already strained by the need for massive government spending in the long-neglected areas of education, health, and social services for the Black majority. In 1982 Mugabe charged that Nkomo was plotting a coup and dismissed him from his cabinet, while arresting other leaders of ZAPU. Nkomo’s supporters in the Matabeleland region retaliated, precipitating a civil war. Fighting did not cease until Mugabe and Nkomo reached an agreement in December 1987 whereby ZAPU was subsumed into ZANU-PF, Mugabe became the country’s first executive president, and Nkomo became one of the nation’s two vice presidents. Mugabe was reelected in 1990, 1996, and 2002.
The economy continued to lag throughout the 1990s as inflation soared, and a high level of unemployment led to significant unrest. In 1998 Mugabe’s intervention in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa)—purportedly to protect his personal investments—resulted in suspension of international economic aid for Zimbabwe. This suspension of aid and the millions of dollars spent to intervene in the war further weakened Zimbabwe’s already troubled economy.
The issue of land reform and the rise of the Movement for Democratic Change
Throughout the 1980s and ’90s the government continued to struggle with the issue of land reform. Some 4,000 white farmers collectively controlled about one-third of Zimbabwe’s arable land, and hundreds of white-owned farms were either officially redistributed by the government or partially taken over by squatters responding to government promises and the lack of police deterrence. Nevertheless, public support for the farmers and opposition to Mugabe’s increasingly autocratic rule were evidenced by the defeat of a referendum in February 2000 calling for a new constitution that would have extended Mugabe’s rule for two more six-year terms and given him the power to confiscate white-owned farms without compensation, as well as by the June elections, in which the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by Morgan Tsvangirai, won almost half of the parliamentary seats.
Despite the apparent reprieve for white owners, a law was passed in 2002 that allowed Mugabe to pursue an aggressive program of confiscating their farms, forcing more than half of the country’s white farmers to relinquish their property and rendering tens of thousands of Black farmworkers homeless and unemployed. As was the case in the 1990s, property was often claimed by politically connected individuals with little or no farming experience rather than by the landless peasant farmers or war veterans who were supposed to benefit from the redistribution program. The government’s lack of forethought in forcing out the white farmers and not replacing them with experienced farmworkers contributed to a significant decline in agricultural productivity; this, as well as drought, led to severe food shortages.
Increasing discord
At the beginning of the 21st century, with Mugabe’s popularity well in decline, his regime became increasingly brutal and repressive. Media freedom was curtailed by restrictive laws, and several newspapers were shut down by the government. The MDC and others critical of the government were dealt with harshly. Mugabe’s reelection victory over Tsvangirai in 2002 was tainted by violence and criticized by observers, leading the Commonwealth to suspend Zimbabwe for one year. After the Commonwealth decided to extend the suspension indefinitely, Zimbabwe withdrew from the organization in December 2003. The 2005 parliamentary election was clouded by accusations of irregularities and was not deemed free or fair by the opposition and most observers, though the Southern African Development Community (SADC)—the only foreign observers officially accredited by the Zimbabwean government to observe proceedings—determined that the election met the will of the people. Shortly after the parliamentary election, the government launched “Operation Murambatsvina,” a cleanup campaign that destroyed thousands of homes and stores in shantytowns on the outskirts of Harare and other urban centres. More than half a million people were displaced, and critics of the government claimed that this was a punitive measure aimed at the supporters of the opposition, who were mainly located in the shantytowns.
The MDC began to experience internal dissent in late 2005 as some members became disenchanted with Tsvangirai’s leadership, especially his decision to boycott elections for the newly reinstated Senate, and a faction of the MDC, led by Arthur Mutambara, a former student protest leader, professor, and consultant, broke away. Harassment of the opposition continued, and in March 2007 Tsvangirai and several other members of the MDC were viciously beaten; the Mugabe administration drew international criticism after images of the injured circulated throughout the world. Increasing pressure to resolve the conflict between the MDC and ZANU-PF led to mediation efforts by the SADC, facilitated by South African president Thabo Mbeki, but talks broke off in early 2008 without reaching a resolution.
Economic crisis
Meanwhile, economic troubles continued as sanctions were imposed on Zimbabwe and loans and economic aid from many donors, including the International Monetary Fund, were limited or completely withdrawn for various reasons, most notably in protest of the government’s land-seizure program and because the country had fallen behind on repayments of previous loans. Inflation was rampant: the official government estimate reached nearly 8,000 percent in September 2007 (other, nongovernment estimates were up to several times that figure) before the government’s Central Statistic Office stated that they were unable to continue calculating inflation rates, because of a lack of data; the basic consumer goods needed for the calculations could no longer be found in shops throughout the country. In early 2008, after government calculations had resumed, the official estimate had risen to more than 100,000 percent; by the end of the summer, it had surpassed 10 million percent. Economic problems also included an extremely high rate of unemployment, estimated at some four-fifths of the population and among the highest in the world. Employment did not guarantee financial security though, as the wages earned by those who were employed were unable to keep pace with inflation. Many Zimbabweans left the country—often going to South Africa—to find work; many of those who remained relied on relatives abroad to send remittances.
In the midst of the country’s worsening economic situation was the debate on the root causes of it. Some—primarily supporters of the government—blamed what they deemed to be unfair economic sanctions, the failure of the British government to honour the terms of the 1979 Lancaster House agreement regarding the transfer of land to Black ownership, and a Western plot to oust Mugabe from power. Others, especially critics of the government, blamed the land-seizure program and the economic mismanagement under the Mugabe administration. Both groups acknowledged that corruption also played a role. Regardless of the reasons for the economic troubles, many Zimbabweans were adversely affected, lacking basic commodities and suffering from food insecurity, fuel shortages, record-high rates of unemployment, and hyperinflation.
2008 elections and aftermath
Through all of Zimbabwe’s political and economic troubles, Mugabe retained the support of many African heads of state and remained popular within ZANU-PF. In December 2007 the party endorsed Mugabe as its presidential candidate in the 2008 elections. However, as the country continued its downward spiral in the months leading up to the elections, support for Mugabe appeared to waver: former finance minister and ZANU-PF stalwart Simba Makoni announced that he was running against Mugabe for the presidency, and the MDC, with Tsvangirai as its presidential candidate once again, saw its popularity increase throughout the country, even in areas that were typically ZANU-PF strongholds. As the elections drew near, both opposition candidates and their followers were subject to harassment and attacks by the police and ZANU-PF loyalists.
Presidential, parliamentary, and local elections were held on March 29, 2008. Unofficial preliminary results indicated a favourable outcome for Tsvangirai and the MDC, but, as days passed with only a slow, partial release of parliamentary results (and the complete absence of presidential results), many feared that Mugabe and ZANU-PF were manipulating the outcome of the elections in their favour. The MDC released its own accounting of the presidential election results on April 2, which indicated that Tsvangirai had captured slightly more than half the votes; the MDC’s claims were dismissed by ZANU-PF, and the country continued to wait for official results. Later that day, results indicated that Tsvangirai’s faction of the MDC had won the most seats in the House of Assembly. Senate results announced several days later revealed a split between the MDC and ZANU-PF, with the latter receiving an only slightly larger share of the votes. The final results for the presidential contest were not officially released until May 2, when it was announced that Tsvangirai had garnered more votes (47.9 percent) than Mugabe (43.2 percent), but, since Tsvangirai had not secured a majority of the votes, a runoff election would be necessary, which was later scheduled for June 27.
In the weeks leading up to the runoff election, MDC supporters were harassed and victimized by violent attacks, which the MDC asserted were sponsored by the ZANU-PF-led government; the government in turn claimed that the MDC was responsible for the violence. An increasingly tense climate was further heightened by several government actions, including the detention of Mutambara, Tsvangirai, and several other MDC officials and supporters, as well as several diplomats from the United Kingdom and the United States who were in the midst of investigating reports of preelection violence, the suspension of all humanitarian aid operations in the country, and statements from Mugabe implying that he would not cede power to the opposition if he lost the runoff election. As the politically motivated violence, intimidation, and rhetoric continued, on June 22 Tsvangirai announced that he was withdrawing from the election, citing the impossibility of it being free and fair in the country’s current political climate. Nevertheless, the election was still held, and Mugabe was declared the winner despite assertions from independent observers that the election was neither free nor fair.
The fact that the election was even held—as well as the outcome—prompted widespread international condemnation, most notably from some of the governments of African countries that had previously supported Mugabe, and there were calls for the MDC and ZANU-PF to form a power-sharing government. To that end, SADC-led talks, again facilitated by Mbeki, were held with ZANU-PF and the two factions of the MDC. Although the parties were able to reach a consensus regarding the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to direct the terms and scope of the discussion, an agreement regarding a new power-sharing government did not progress as quickly. Meanwhile, Mugabe announced that he intended to convene parliament on August 26, 2008. This announcement was met with protest from the MDC and others who complained that doing so before a power-sharing agreement was reached contradicted the terms of the MOU. Nonetheless, parliament was convened per Mugabe’s directive. Notably, however, the House of Assembly speaker was elected from Tsvangirai’s faction of the MDC—the first time since the country’s independence in 1980 that the speaker position was held by an opposition party member.
SADC-led negotiations for a power-sharing government continued, and on September 15, 2008, Mugabe, Mutambara, and Tsvangirai signed a comprehensive power-sharing agreement—referred to as the Global Political Agreement (GPA). As part of the agreement, Mugabe would remain president but would cede some power to Tsvangirai, who would serve as prime minister; Mutambara would serve as a deputy prime minister. Initial jubilation quickly turned to disappointment in the following months when it became clear that Mugabe and Tsvangirai could not come to terms on how to implement the agreement, arguing over how to allocate the new government’s key ministries between ZANU-PF and the MDC. Stalled talks and repeated attempts by the SADC to get discussions back on track continued against a backdrop of worsening economic and humanitarian conditions in the country. Rampant inflation continued, with official estimates at more than 200 million percent (unofficial estimates were much higher), and there were severe food shortages. The country’s municipal and health services, lacking the funds and supplies to function adequately, rapidly deteriorated, and this fueled a deadly cholera epidemic. (See also cholera: Modern epidemics in Africa for more detail.) Dozens of MDC supporters, human rights activists, and reporters had disappeared; the MDC alleged that they had been abducted by ZANU-PF- and government-allied forces. International support for continued negotiations for the power-sharing government began to wane, with some critics calling for Mugabe to step down from power; he adamantly refused to do so and later announced his intention to form a government on his own if Tsvangirai and the MDC would not participate. In late January 2009 Tsvangirai—under pressure from the SADC—agreed to join Mugabe in a new government, despite lingering misgivings. On February 5, 2009, Zimbabwe’s legislature passed the necessary constitutional amendment that altered the structure of the executive branch, allowing for the creation of the prime minister and deputy prime minister posts. On February 11, 2009, Tsvangirai was sworn in as prime minister, and Thokozani Khupe, of Tsvangirai’s faction of the MDC, and Mutambara were sworn in as deputy prime ministers.
The new government soon made efforts to improve the country’s poor economic situation. In April 2009 it suspended the Zimbabwean dollar and allowed various foreign currencies, notably the South African rand and the U.S. dollar, to be used instead, which served to help halt inflation and foster economic stability. Restructuring programs were introduced in the agricultural and mining sectors, and these programs as well as an improvement in global prices for some of Zimbabwe’s exports contributed to economic growth in the following years.
The economic achievements notwithstanding, the unity government was a troubled one: the MDC factions and ZANU-PF struggled to agree on many issues, and Tsvangirai denounced ongoing human rights violations. Under the terms of the 2008 GPA, a new constitution was initially expected to have been drafted and put to referendum by 2011. However, the drafting process was fraught with difficulties and hindered by disagreements between ZANU-PF and the MDC factions, and the draft constitution was not completed until early 2013. Endorsed by both Tsvangirai’s faction of the MDC and ZANU-PF, it provided for many changes, including the devolution of power, the introduction of presidential term limits, and the termination of the prime minister post; it also barred any further legal challenges concerning farms previously seized under the government’s land reform program. In a referendum held on March 16, 2013, the draft constitution was overwhelmingly approved by voters, and in May that year it was approved by both houses of parliament and signed into law by Mugabe.
2013 elections and a new government
In May 2013 the Constitutional Court ordered that the upcoming presidential and parliamentary polls were to be held by the end of July. In response, Mugabe called for the elections to be held on July 31, 2013, initially ignoring complaints from Tsvangirai and others that it was too soon for the polls to be held, because necessary democratic reforms had not yet been enacted and because the country would have trouble organizing and funding the polls on such short notice. Once he was faced with additional pressure from regional leaders, however, Mugabe sought to delay the elections, but his request was denied by the Constitutional Court. Although election day was relatively peaceful, there were complaints regarding the electoral roll, which was not made public until the day before the election and appeared to contain many inaccuracies. Additionally, many voters—particularly in urban areas, which were typically MDC strongholds—were not allowed to vote. Mugabe was declared the winner, having captured some 61 percent of the vote to about 34 percent for Tsvangirai, who announced that the MDC totally rejected the results of the election, which he characterized as “fraudulent and stolen.” The results also showed that ZANU-PF took the majority of the directly elected seats in the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, winning 158 seats, while Tsvangirai’s faction of the MDC took 49 seats, far fewer than it had won in 2008. In the Senate, ZANU-PF won 37 of the body’s 60 directly elected seats, and Tsvangirai’s faction of the MDC won 21.
The two main international observer groups monitoring the elections were the African Union and the SADC. They and another monitoring organization—the Zimbabwe Elections Support Network (ZESN), a domestic group that had amassed by far the largest number of observers throughout the country—were somewhat at odds with their assessments of the electoral process. The AU and the SADC praised the elections as being free and peaceful, but the SADC held off on calling the process “fair” until it had time to complete its investigation. The latter organization’s final report, released in September, declared that the election was generally credible but did not label it as being “fair.” The ZESN cited numerous problems with the electoral process that it deemed to be serious but agreed that the process had been peaceful. There were, however, allegations of isolated postelection violence.
Tsvangirai and the MDC filed a petition with the Constitutional Court to overturn the election results and hold a new election. They later tried to withdraw the petition, however, believing that they would not receive a fair hearing after another court did not grant their requests to obtain election data that they needed as evidence. The Constitutional Court refused to dismiss the petition and ruled that Mugabe was the legitimate winner of the election. The 89-year-old Mugabe was inaugurated amid much fanfare on August 22, 2013.
The question of who would succeed the aging president loomed large as he grew older and the state of his health appeared to decline. One potential successor was Joice Mujuru, one of Zimbabwe’s two vice presidents and a ZANU-PF stalwart who was celebrated for her role in the guerrilla war against Smith’s white-minority government. After decades of service in various government roles, she had become an influential member of ZANU-PF and was well positioned to succeed Mugabe. In 2014, however, Mugabe’s wife, Grace, began a series of verbal assaults on Mujuru’s reputation, impugning her war record and accusing her of being involved in corrupt activities. After months of such attacks, Mujuru was fired from her vice president post in December 2014; she was expelled from the party in April 2015. Many other party members allied with her were purged from their ministerial posts as well. In 2016 she formed a new political party, Zimbabwe People First, with some of the other ousted ZANU-PF members. After disagreements with other leaders of the new party, however, she left and founded the National People’s Party (NPP) in 2017. As an opposition leader, she flirted with forming a coalition with Tsvangirai’s MDC (MDC-T) and other opposition parties to challenge Mugabe and ZANU-PF in the 2018 elections. After Mujuru’s ouster from ZANU-PF, the most notable potential successors to Mugabe from within his party were Emmerson Mnangagwa—another party stalwart and decorated war hero, who had replaced Mujuru as one of Zimbabwe’s two vice presidents—and, unexpectedly, Mugabe’s wife, Grace.
Although Grace Mugabe had generally kept a low profile in political matters during most of husband’s presidency, in 2014 she rapidly became a significant player on the political stage. That year, Grace made appearances at many political rallies throughout the country, during which she gave fiery speeches defending her husband and harshly criticizing those whom she deemed a threat, primarily Mujuru. In December 2014 Grace was named head of ZANU-PF’s Women’s League, despite not meeting the qualifications regarding having an active history with the group. Being named head of the league also made her a member of ZANU-PF’s powerful politburo. Prior to that, Grace’s rising profile had been further bolstered in September, when she was awarded a Ph.D. in sociology, reportedly just mere months after beginning her studies.
At ZANU-PF’s annual conferences, Robert Mugabe continued to be endorsed as the party’s presidential candidate in the 2018 election, even though he would be 94 by then. The party remained steadfast in its avoidance of any official discussions regarding who would succeed him after he died.
Zimbabwe’s economy, which had began to recover and show growth in the years under the unity government, had started to deteriorate in 2014 in part because of drought, weak export performance, and too much money being spent on the public servant wage bill and debt servicing. A shortage of cash led to the introduction of bond notes in 2016. Discontent with the struggling economy and the government led to an unprecedented level of public demonstrations against Mugabe’s administration beginning in 2016.
The issue of succession was in the fore again in 2017, when Mnangagwa was subjected to verbal attacks from Grace, similar to what Mujuru had experienced in 2014. Later, Mugabe also publicly chastised Mnangagwa, threatening to fire him. Mugabe soon followed up on his threat: Mnangagwa was dismissed from the vice presidency on November 6, 2017, and his top-level supporters within ZANU-PF were also targeted for expulsion from the party. With Mnangagwa’s removal, Grace looked to be secure as the sole contender to succeed her husband, and it was rumoured that she would be appointed as vice president of the country at a party congress in December, further bolstering her power. The military, however, appeared tired of the succession maneuvers in ZANU-PF, which appeared to favour the younger generation of party members who supported Grace at the expense of respected liberation war veterans aligned with the military. A week after Mnangagwa was sacked, the chief of Zimbabwe’s army, Gen. Constantino Chiwenga, issued a stern warning regarding the removal of liberation war veterans from positions of power, threatening to intervene if such actions did not stop.
The military followed up on that threat when, in the early morning hours of November 15, 2017, they seized power, placed Mugabe under house arrest, and began arresting members of his cabinet and high-level supporters of Grace. Claiming that it was not a coup, a military spokesperson said that Mugabe was still the president and commander in chief and that the safety of Mugabe and his family was guaranteed. The spokesperson also said that the military was just targeting the “criminals” who surrounded Mugabe and were responsible for poor social and economic conditions in the country. The military pledged that the political situation would return to normal once they were brought to justice.
In the days that followed, it became clear that Mugabe had little support left. Zimbabweans demonstrated peacefully in Harare and in other cities across the country, calling for him to resign, and ZANU-PF moved to reduce Mugabe’s role in the party and government. The party’s central committee met on November 19. It voted to remove Mugabe from his position as party leader and named Mnangagwa to take his place. Grace was sacked from her position as head of ZANU-PF’s Women’s League and was expelled from the party; several of her supporters were expelled as well. The party also called for Mugabe to resign by noon on November 20—stating that if he did not, it would initiate impeachment proceedings—and voted for Mnangagwa to be the party’s nominee to serve out the rest of Mugabe’s term as president of Zimbabwe after the latter’s resignation or impeachment. After Mugabe did not resign by the party’s deadline, ZANU-PF did indeed introduce motions of impeachment in the parliament on November 21. Impeachment charges included allegations that Mugabe was no longer fit to serve as president and that he had permitted his wife to usurp power. Shortly after the proceedings began that day, however, Mugabe sent to the parliament a letter proclaiming his resignation, effective immediately.
The following day, Mnangagwa returned to Zimbabwe. He was inaugurated as interim president of the country on November 24, 2017. Mnangagwa pledged to restore Zimbabwe’s devastated economy and promised that the elections, scheduled to be held in 2018, would proceed as planned and would be free and fair.
Mnangagwa stated his desire to reintegrate Zimbabwe into the global economic and diplomatic communities. To that end, he declared that the country was “open for business,” stating that economic policies that had deterred foreign investment in the country were being revised. The new government made overtures to the country’s remaining white farmers, such as granting them the security of 99-year leases on farmland (as compared with the five-year leases available under Mugabe) in an effort to rebuild the agricultural sector. Mnangagwa’s administration also pledged to address Zimbabwe’s debts to international lenders such as the World Bank. In May 2018 Mnangagwa applied for readmission of Zimbabwe into the Commonwealth; as part of the readmission process, he invited the organization to send observers to the country’s upcoming elections.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the MDC-T, suffered a blow when Tsvangirai died in February 2018 after an extended battle with cancer. His illness and death launched a bitter struggle for control of the MDC-T party, with Nelson Chamisa and Thokozani Khupe—two of the party’s three deputy presidents—splitting the party into two factions. The internecine squabbles led to fears that the opposition would not be strong enough to successfully challenge ZANU-PF in the upcoming elections.
The country’s presidential, parliamentary, and local elections were held on July 30, 2018. For the first time in 16 years, observers from the United States and the European Union were allowed to monitor the proceedings; observers from the Commonwealth as well as regional bodies were there as well. Although 23 candidates contested the presidential poll, it was widely held that the real contest would be between the top two candidates, Mnangagwa and Chamisa. If no one candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff election between the top two vote getters would be held in September. Results for the National Assembly elections, released in a timely manner, indicated that ZANU-PF had won more than a two-thirds majority in the body, taking 145 of the 210 seats; the MDC Alliance (Chamisa’s MDC-T faction and other parties) won 63 seats.
A slight delay in the release of the results of the presidential election had the country on tenterhooks and brought accusations by the opposition of electoral malfeasance by the ZANU-PF-led government. When the presidential results were released, beginning late in the day on August 2, Mnangagwa was declared the winner, taking 50.8 percent of the vote to Chamisa’s 44.3 percent. Since Mnangagwa won more than 50 percent of the vote—albeit just barely—a runoff election was not needed, and he was declared the winner. Chamisa and the MDC Alliance rejected the results and challenged them in a case at the country’s Constitutional Court. During the case hearing, the electoral commission revealed that there had been an error in the original results, although it wasn’t enough to change the outcome of the election. Mnangagwa’s and Chamisa’s totals were revised to 50.6 percent and 44.39 percent, respectively. The Constitutional Court ultimately upheld Mnangagwa’s victory, and he was inaugurated on August 26, 2018.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Robert Mugabe, the first prime minister of Zimbabwe, wrote an article for the 1982 Britannica Book of the Year (events of 1981) detailing the Black majority’s struggle for independence. See Struggling for Nationhood: The Birth of Zimbabwe.
Bushveld
region, AfricaAlternate titles: Bosveld, veldBushveld, Afrikaans Bosveld, natural region in southern Africa, at an elevation of about 2,500–4,000 feet (800–1,200 metres). Centred in Limpopo province, South Africa, it extends into northern KwaZulu-Natal province, Swaziland, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. The bushveld (“thornbush field”) is characterized by trees—acacia and baobab as well as thornbushes—and tall grasses. It is moderately dry, with annual rainfall of about 15–25 inches (380–640 mm). Herding is the principal economic activity; large-scale cultivation is possible only in irrigated areas.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy McKenna.
Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa
prime minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia- Born:
- April 14, 1925 Zimbabwe
- Title / Office:
- prime minister (1979-1979), Zimbabwe
- Political Affiliation:
- United African National Council
Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa, (born April 14, 1925, Old Umtali, Southern Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe]—died April 8, 2010, Borrowdale, Harare, Zimb.), prime minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia from June to December 1979, in a transitional period from white to black rule.
Muzorewa was educated at Methodist schools in Southern Rhodesia and then spent five years (1958–63) at the Central Methodist College, Fayette, Mo., and at Scarritt College, Nashville, Tenn., in the United States. After some years as teacher, lay preacher, youth work organizer, and pastor, he became a bishop of the United Methodist Church in 1968.
Britannica QuizMuzorewa first emerged as a political figure in the 1970s at a time when all the major black politicians in the country were in prison or in exile. When the British government sent emissaries to Rhodesia to test public opinion about proposals for a settlement of the conflict between whites and blacks, Muzorewa took a leading part in mobilizing opposition to the offered terms. At the time he appeared as a spokesman for the veteran nationalist leader Joshua Nkomo; but the two men quarreled after Nkomo’s release from detention, and Muzorewa chose to remain leader of his own party, the African National Council, founded in 1971 and renamed the United African National Council (UANC) in 1977. He was a member of the Transitional Executive Council set up to prepare the transfer to majority black rule in Rhodesia in 1978–79; and, when his party won a commanding 51 seats in the interim parliamentary elections of 1979, he became prime minister of “Zimbabwe Rhodesia.”
When the vestiges of white rule were removed in late 1979 and when the nationalist parties of Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo entered the parliamentary elections of 1980, the UANC was reduced to three seats. Muzorewa was outspoken against Mugabe’s government and was jailed in 1983 on suspicion of subversion. After his release, he retired from politics in 1985. In 2007, after years of economic crisis in Zimbabwe and amid growing discontent with the Mugabe administration, there was speculation that Muzorewa might return to the political arena and stand in the 2008 presidential elections, although that did not come to pass.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy McKenna.
Matabeleland
region, ZimbabweMatabeleland, traditional region in southwestern Zimbabwe, inhabited mainly by the Bantu-speaking Ndebele people. It includes the southwestern portion of Zimbabwe’s High and Middle velds, plateau country that ranges in elevation from 3,000 to 5,000 feet (900 to 1,500 m). The region slopes downward to the north and south; it is drained by tributaries of the Zambezi River to the north and by affluents of the Limpopo River to the south. Matabeleland consists mostly of savanna (tropical grassland) with wooded savanna to the northwest of the city of Bulawayo.
The Ndebele were originally an offshoot of the Nguni people of Natal (now part of the Republic of South Africa) who migrated northward in 1823 after their leader, Mzilikazi, an Nguni military commander under the orders of Shaka, king of the Zulu, fell foul of his master. The Matabele (as they were then known) settled in about 1840 in what is now southwestern Zimbabwe, a region that was given the name of Matabeleland by Europeans in the mid-19th century. The British South Africa Company, a mercantile company based in London, established itself in the region in 1890. The Matabele were defeated by the British in a war in 1893; later in the 1890s what is now Zimbabwe was divided by the British South Africa Company into two provinces, Matabeleland in the west and Mashonaland (the traditional homeland of the Shona people) in the east. Matabeleland, part of self-governing South Rhodesia after 1923, became part of independent Zimbabwe in 1980.
The contemporary Ndebele live in hamlets primarily around the city of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s industrial centre. They raise corn (maize), peanuts (groundnuts), and cattle. Gold, coal, and tin are mined in the region.
Alexandre Alberto da Rocha de Serpa Pinto
Portuguese explorerAlexandre Alberto da Rocha de Serpa Pinto, (born April 20, 1846, Portugal—died Dec. 28, 1900, Lisbon), Portuguese explorer and colonial administrator who crossed southern and central Africa on a difficult expedition and mapped the interior of the continent.
Serpa Pinto went to eastern Africa in 1869 on an exploration of the Zambezi River. Eight years later he led an expedition from Benguela, Angola, into the basins of the Congo and Zambezi rivers and investigated the country between the west-coast Portuguese colony of Angola and Mozambique on the east coast. When he completed the mission in 1879, he had traveled through Angola and parts of present-day Zambia, Zimbabwe, and the Republic of South Africa. His expedition gave impetus to a scheme for a coast-to-coast Portuguese colony, but the plan was scrapped in 1888 after a British ultimatum. In 1887 he was named consul general to Zanzibar and, in 1889, governor-general of Mozambique.
Maitengwe River
river, southern AfricaMaitengwe River, river in southern Africa that rises southwest of Bulawayo, Zimb., and flows generally westward, forming the Botswana-Zimbabwe border. In northeastern Botswana it joins with the Tutumi River to form the Nata River, northeast of the Makgadikgadi Pans.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Laura Etheredge.
Lake Kariba
lake, AfricaLake Kariba, lake in central Africa, between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It was formed by damming the Zambezi River in the Kariba Gorge, where the river narrows between hills of hard rock 250 miles (400 km) below Victoria Falls. After 1960 the hydroelectric facilities of the Kariba Dam served the towns of Zambia, the Harare (formerly Salisbury) and Bulawayo areas, and the southern part of Zimbabwe. The lake, covering about 2,000 square miles (5,200 square km), extends upstream 175 miles (280 km) to Devil’s Gorge and has a maximum width of 30 miles (48 km), with a deeply indented shore and many islands. Its depth is irregular (295 feet [90 m] near the dam), and its full capacity is 146,415,000 acre-feet (180,600,000,000 cubic m). The overall project included four harbour sites, the resettlement of river dwellers, the rescue of game, and the introduction of Tilapia fish to the waters to give a 15,000-ton yield annually.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Letricia Dixon.
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