Zimbabwe People - The Great Zimbabwe Story

Zimbabwe News Sources

2010-02-18T04:39:00.000-08:00

Zimbabwe news sources have grown considerably between year 2000 and 2010. This is the period when Zimbabwe experienced its worst economic down-turn as a result of political problems. The growth of news sources in Zimbabwe has also been biased towards independent online based publications

The reason for this skewed growth in the 10 years is a decline in the Zimbabwe economy and a poorly perfoming Zimbabwe currency. The exodus of Zimbabweans from Zimbabwe to live abroad has also been a factor. These Zimbos (as we are also jokingly calling ourselves) are also estimated to be in their millions even by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe which launched the Homelink project for them press a constant daily demand on news from Zimbabwe. In the last few years there also has been a growth of independent Zimbabwe news papers published abroad but imported into Zimbabwe.

The following is a comprehensive list of Zimbabwe news sources relied upon by millions of Zimbabweans both living in Zimbabwe and abroad.

News Websites

Zimonline - based in Johannesburg South Africa
New Zimbabwe - based in the United Kingdom
Zimbabwe Situation - summaries news articles from different Zimbabwe news sources
ZimDaily - very critical of President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF
Mail & Guardian - based in South Africa (onwed by a Zimbabwean)
Zimbabwe Independent - based in Zimbabwe
The Standard - based in Zimbabwe
The Zimbabwe Times - based in the USA
The Herald - government of Zimbabwe controlled
The Chronicle - based in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
The Sunday Mail - government controlled and based in Harare
The Zimbabwean - based in the United Kingdom

Zimbabwe News -Print Newspapers

Mail and Guardian
Zimbabwe Independent
The Standard
The Chronicle
The Sunday Mail
The Sunday News
ZimDaily
The Prime Minister - a newsletter from the office of Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC party.

There are other numerous Zimbabwe news sources relied upon in Zimbabwe. These would include online news publishers such as BBC, CNN, SABC, SkyNews and many others. Within Zimbabwe, satelite TV is very important. Many Zimbabwe people do not trust Zimbabwe TV also known as ZBC. Almost every household in urban and peri-urban centres has a satelite receiver for free to air channels including SkyNews, SABC (South Africa), BTV (Botswana), France24, PressTv and others. It is possible that the penetration rate of satelite TV in Zimbabwe is well over 40%.

Homelink Zimbabwe Disaster

2010-02-17T10:32:00.000-08:00

Homelink is a concept that developed into a fully-pledged project engineered by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) at the height of the Zimbabwe crisis. The project was in essence an out-reach to Zimbabweans living abroad to invest home. Its main thrust was facilitating money transfer and investment needs of Zimbabweans living abroad. The company legally known as Homelink (Pvt) Ltd was wholly owned by the reserve bank and launched on the 2nd of February 2005 in Harare.

For a period of time Gideon Gono [pictured] the Reserve bank of Zimbabwe Governor from 2003 onwards was not on the EU and American targeted travel sanctions list. This allowed him and an entourage of RBZ staff to carry out whirlwind tours promoting the project across the world in places where Zimbabweans were highly concentrated. These places would include the UK, the USA and South Africa. The RBZ undertook the tours in phases spending millions of United States Dollars and publishing video and thick news paper supplements of the tour.

The company set-up a call centre at Hardwick House along Samora Machel Avenue in Harare which operated seven (7) days a week to make it possible for Zimbabweans abroad in different time zones in the world to contact the call centre.

The RBZ saw the homelink project as an effective way of raising much needed foreign currency for the cash trapped government of Zimbabwe. Thousands of Zimbabweans participated in the project through which the RBZ acquired tracts of land in cities in Zimbabwe on behalf of those abroad in order to build houses.

The government racked in millions of United States Dollars. Most of its clients abroad complained the buildings built in their absence were of a great sub-standard. Today some of the houses have been allocated to Zimbabwe military personnel after a fall-out with the RBZ. For instance in Harare, up to 120 houses were built in the Wesgate surburb.

In general the disastrous failure of the Homelink initiative was predictable. The government of Zimbabwe is remarkably known for failing to follow-through on key capital projects including infrastructural development.

Apart from building homes, homelink also facilitated transfer of remittances by Zimbabweans abroad to friends and relatives at home. It is widely believed that the Zimbabwe economy before the world wide economic recession of 2008 and 2009 heavily survived on money sent from overseas by fellow Zimbabweans. The RBZ opened facilities across the country and recruited full-time staff to run the homelink project.

Arthur Mutambara - Who is he?

2010-02-09T19:03:00.000-08:00

Professor Arthur Mutambara is the president of the MDC smaller party that broke away from the main MDC party led by Morgan Tsvangirai in Zimbabwe. He is a professor of Robotics Science and once worked from NASA in the United States. Mutambara as his affectionately known in Zimbabwe and amongst student circles was once an active member of the students union at the University of Zimbabwe.

As the president of the student's union, Arthur Mutambara led numerous student protests against the government of Zimbabwe led by Robert Mugabe. He is known for his acrobatic maneuvers jumping off a three story students residency hall to escape anti-riot police.

For many years most people thought Arthur Mutambara would be the ideal person to stand against Robert Mugabe in the Zimbabwe political landscape. After the split of the MDC party in 2005 the smaller MDC splinter group appointed Mutambara as its president. To many people's utter disappointment, Mutambara

proved ill-equipped and obviously politically unseasoned at a national level.

Subsequently Professor Mutambara made many mistakes and misplaced utterances that saw him criticised across the political divide including the state controlled Herald and Chronicle daily newspapers. Many Zimbabweans generally do not trust Arthur Mutambara and there is widespread feeling that his small party has everything to gain with the prolonged stay of the inclusive government. There is clear evidence that in a free and fair election the smaller MDC party will become complete history in Zimbabwe politics.

On the other hand both parties i.e ZANU PF and MDC-T in the current inclusive government will require Arthur Mutambara's party support to have some legislation passing through parliament. For that reason Mutambara is in a way considered a king maker.

Mutambara now resides in Zimbabwe and is married with children. He frequently participates in international conferences and meetings that focus on Zimbabwe's politics and economics in general.

NewZimbabwe Review

2010-02-07T12:38:00.000-08:00

NewZimbabwe is one amongst the very first Zimbabwe news websites to be published from outside of Zimbabwe. The paper is based in the UK and was founded by Mr Mududuzi Mathuthu a journalist who fled Zimbabwe after the closure of the private controlled only daily paper in Zimbabwe, The Daily News. The paper covers a whole range of issues on Zimbabwe from politics, sport, business entertainment and lifestyle news items and opinions.

NewZimbabwe has a vibrant team of bloggers which is a relatively latest addition to it's opinion pieces. The paper and its editor have long been considered enemies of the state by the government of Zimbabwe and the paper was once listed as a target to be shut down. New Zimbabwe is a paper dear to many Zimbabweans in Zimbabwe and those living abroad. It is a free online paper that attracts over 50 000 visitors per day. It's main channel of revenue is advertising via Google contextual ads as well as private direct placements.

NewZimbabwe received a recent face lift after years of a lack of sophisticated design. The new look front page came with video presentations amongst other reader engaging content. The clutter from excessive advertising on the previous outlook also appears to have been resolved in the newly designed web page. You may view the old front page from 2003 on the Internet way back machine.

Due to the problems in Zimbabwe and the general intolerance of media criticism by government, according to sources staff and the editor of the paper have not travelled to Zimbabwe in years. However, the paper has some undercover reporters within Zimbabwe just like other papers critical of the government of President Robert Mugabe such as ZimDaily, Zimonline and others. NewZimbabwe has certainly a more professional outlook than many other so called online publications on Zimbabwe. The digital paper is widely respected and often quoted on Zimbabwe.

NewZimbabwe has however been criticised in some circles especially at the split of the MDC in 2005 to have openly supported the smaller MDC party of Professor Aurthur Mutambara generally viewed as being from Bulawayo. It would appear Zimbabwe has some unfinished business on tribal issues which time and again surface when accusations are exchanged. In this case the owners of the paper were accused of being tribalist by opposing Morgan Tsvangirai because they are from the Matebeland region.This however could be open for debate.

New Zimbabwe commands a very active forum involving thousands of Zimbabweans. It is worth noting that the paper has organised live question and answer sessions on the forums with prominent people of Zimbabwe such as Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor , Gideon Gono. This particular question and answer was important to many Zimbabweans living abroad because of the doomed Homelink project started by Gono to serve Zimbabweans abroad.

In recent years since its launch in the early 2000s, the owners of the paper have made moves to transform the publication into a fully fledged business. Like other online papers on Zimbabwe they have also attempted to transform the paper into a print edition. This edition has been available in the UK and elsewhere but very difficult to access in Zimbabwe.Penetrating the Zimbabwe market has proved very difficult for many due to very restrictive media and publication controls.

Technology wise, the paper is robust and its website hosts are amongst the fastest on the Internet based in the United States. The paper has suffered some serious set-backs before from malicious attacks on its servers causing website outage for days on end in some cases. Even though the general belief is that government agents are behind some of the attacks behind Zimbabwe news online publications, this notion has never been fully proved. However, NewZimbabwe is set to be on the Zimbabwe news map for years to come and indeed and formidable news leader and opinion maker.

Air Zimbabwe - An Opinion

2010-01-31T23:19:00.000-08:00

Air Zimbabwe is the national airline for Zimbabwe. It is 100% owned by the government and has Harare International Airport as its hub. The airline flies to over 10 destinations on a weekly basis. It most popular route is Harare-London and Harare-Johannesburg.

Most Zimbabweans in Zimbabwe and abroad use Air Zimbabwe for reasons that essentially have nothing to do with patriotism. Air Zim (as it is also known in short) has generally had lower and competitive fares as compared to others such as South African Airways (SAA) for the same routes. During the days of the
Zimbabwe currency were business used only Zimbabwe dollars, Air Zim still accepted local currency which was difficult for many Zimbabweans to access. This made it popular.

The airline has enjoyed little peace during Zimbabwe's problems in the last 10 years of 2000 to 2010. It has consistently suffered losses running into millions of United States Dollars on an annual basis. In fact many times Air Zimbabwe has entered a business coma only to be saved by the government through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe which for many was obsessed with quasi-fiscal policy implementation.

The government of Zimbabwe jealously guards the airline. It is viewed in political circles as a strategic national investment. Discussions for its privatisation have been on and off for many years but all in all this has led nowhere. The office of the President of Zimbabwe makes frequent use of the airline. It is believed for security reasons the president does not fly in a private jet. He does not have one. This indeed is more for security than economic reasons judging by other reckless expenses incurred by government every year. In fact in 2009 the government spent US$26 million on foreign travel.

To the disappointment of the general traveling pubic the President has often commandeered the airline laden with private passengers to destinations they had not planned before proceeding to their destination. This has had a serious negative impact on the reputation of Air Zimbabwe. To this day the airline is associated with frequent flight cancellations, anytime anywhere.

Generally speaking the airline has a very questionable and poor strategic vision. In the last few years most of the MA60 aircraft [pictured] purchased from China were grounded due to ongoing technical problems. Most of its aircraft are aged and need immediate replacement. The current sanctions on Zimbabwe in the form of
access to credit lines due to a "high risk factor" have not helped the situation.

Despite all this Air Zimbabwe has an amazing outstanding safety record. Since 1980 the year of national independence in Zimbabwe from Britain, the Air Zim has not had any major accident. It has however experienced a number of turn-backs due to malfunctioning equipment. The most recent in 2009 was the accident that occurred on take-off of an MA60 flight to Bulawayo which ploughed into a head on wild pigs on the runway. As a side note, Harare International Airport has been in the media for animals on the runway, poor and sometimes malfunctioning runway lights at night. Twice SAA returned to Johannesburg after
failing to land due to bad lighting. The airport is run and managed by the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ).

Air Zim is a member of IATA and now issues only e-tickets to the traveling public. Due to Zimbabwe's economic situation in the last ten years the airline has not been able to establish meaningful partnerships with other airlines. Instead it has been working on surviving and recently sought to cut staff by up to 700 including pilots.

Air Zimbabwe will need to invest in modern well known aircraft brands such as Boeing and Airbus. The pursuit for Asian and Russian made aircraft will not improve the company's competitiveness on an increasingly sensitive air travel market. Consumers are increasingly aware of which aircraft manufacturers tick and safety comes fight for most travellers.

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City of Harare Overview

2010-01-31T14:27:00.000-08:00

Harare is the capital of Zimbabwe, a city with an estimated population of nearly 2 million people. It has also been known for many years as the sunshine city and was once rated the cleanest city in the world. The second largest city in Zimbabwe is Bulawayo.

The sunshine city is a commercial hub for Zimbabwe. It is where the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is found and international brands of banks such as Standard Chartered Bank, Barclays Bank and Stanbic Bank. There are other local indigenous banks such as Kingdom Bank, BanABC and MBCA amongst others.

Traveling to the sunshine city is possible by road and by air. There are a number of airlines that fly to Harare. This would include Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airways, South African Airways, Air Malawi, Air Botswana and Air Zimbabwe. British Airways used to fly to Harare before abruptly pulling out. Recently it announced its intention to return to Zimbabwe in March/April 2010.

The most popular and busy route of flying into Harare is via Johannesburg, South Africa. South African Airways has daily flights into Harare in the morning, afternoon and evening. Air Zimbabwe also runs daily flight between the two cities.

Traveling to Harare from neighboring countries by road is possible via public luxury coaches that originate from Botswana, South Africa, Malawi and Zambia. Backpackers to Zimbabwe also find hitchhiking convenient. Rail travel to Harare is available from other cities within Zimbabwe but is highly unreliable due to infrastructural decay of years of Zimbabwe economic decline.

The sunshine city has many places to stay including top hotels such as Meikles Hotel, Crown Plaza Monomutapa, Rainbow Towers Hotel, Holiday Inn and others. There are numerous B&B facilities within the city many of which are close to the city's CBD. Harare Hotel reviews are available here.

The city is run and managed by the City Of Harare council mostly composed of opposition MDC councilors from Morgan Tsvangirai party. Utility supplies in Harare are still largely erratic yet better than many other cities in Zimbabwe such as Kwekwe and Gweru. However, hotel facilities have stable supplies of both water and electricity.

Harare's infrastructure shows great signs of decay due to many years of economic decline and unprecedented Zimbabwe currency inflation. Most of the city's roads are covered in pot-holes making them very dangerous and absolutely damaging to vehicles.

Other city services will include public taxes that run on a daily basis transporting workers to and from work every morning and evening respectively. Private taxes are also available in Harare to take visitors from one point to another under a private paid arrangement. Car hire services such as Avis and Europcar are also available in Harare.

In terms of crime, the city is possibly one amongst the safest cities in Africa and the world compared to Johannesburg or Nairobi. Visitors will however need to ensure they are generally safe especially during night hours as they can become easy targets to petty thieves. The general trend of crime in Zimbabwe unlike other cities is that victims are rarely physically harmed in an attack.

Places to visit whilst in the capital include Lion and Cheetah Park and the Snake Park.

Do you have an experience to share about Harare? Submit your experience below.

Zimbabwe Politics

2010-01-31T14:13:00.000-08:00

Zimbabwe politics is characterized by extreme polarization from the time of the entry of the labor backed MDC onto the political arena in 1999. The Zimbabwean political landscape has for nearly two decades from the time of independence in 1980 been dominated by one political party - ZANU PF- led by Robert Mugabe.

For many years until about 1990 the ZANU PF led government in Zimbabwe had attempted to create a one party state. This plan essentially failed due to fierce resistance from the student movement at the University of Zimbabwe. From 1990 to 1998 before the emergence of Morgan Tsvangirai leading the MDC, Robert Mugabe had absolute powers of governance in Zimbabwe using a sophisticated yet effective patronage system.

Since 2000, the ZANU PF party has received a run for its money receiving a serious challenge at the national election. Many political analysts agree that the intensity of opposition to Robert Mugabe has deepened the political divide in Zimbabwe characterized by severe political violence around the time of election.

Today in Zimbabwean politics there are essentially two main political contenders. Professor Arthur Mutambara of the smaller MDC party has created some form of balancing act in the current inclusive government. However his party has little or no chance in an election against the party of Morgan Tsvangirai of the bigger MDC party.

Zimbabwe politics has for a long time been characterized by brutality towards opponents. Disappearances and false accusations are key tactics used by the government towards the opposition. The state controlled media such as The Herald and Zimbabwe TV are extensively used to miss-inform and deceive the general public. To this day it has been extremely difficult for independent private media companies to enter the fray. Licenses are never issued an the process painfully slow.

Politics in Zimbabwe essentially run and operate on a patronage system which is obviously more visible and pronounced in ZANU PF party. In reality patronage also exists even in opposition parties.

Parties in Zimbabwe receive funding from government. According to Zimbabwean law only the two biggest parties qualify for government support. Towards election time in Zimbabwe numerous political parties mushroom everywhere. Many of them fizzle out as soon as election time is over only to reappear again at next election. This has raised a lot of suspicion on the Zimbabwe political scene that the government of the day is behind the multiplicity of opposition parties to divide votes.

In Zimbabwe politics elections are done for the local government councilors, MPs, Senators and the President. Elections are held combined at the same time for these four offices. According to the current amended so called Lancaster Constitution ministers can not become ministers in government without being elected MP or senator or appointed by the president a senator.

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How Matopos Zimbabwe is Outstanding

2010-01-31T13:54:00.000-08:00

In terms of location, Matopos is situated some 30-35km from Bulawayo the second largest of cities in Zimbabwe. It is an area of great national significance some 474 km (294 miles) from the capital of Zimbabwe, Harare. The area covers a total of 3100 square kilometres and is the oldest park in Zimbabwe which was established in 1926. Matopo Hills as it is also known was in 2003 declared a World Heritage site.

In essence Matopos is a vast area of granite scenery. The boulders found across the park were exposed from underneath by thousands of years of geographic activity that ultimately exposed the rocks underneath the surface. The area is popular with tourists from all parts of the world and contains rock and cave paintings of the San people. Visitors enjoy sunrises and sunsets including wildlfe such as the black eagle. Amazing sites of balancing rocks inspired the pictures used on the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe logo and many other currency bills that were printed before and during Zimbabwe's problems involving the Zimbabwe currency.

From a social and cultural perspective the Matopos park is very important to the people of Zimbabwe especially the Ndebele people in the southern part of Zimbabwe were the park is located. It represents cultural and religious significance to the indigenous people in the Matebelenad region. The ancestral founding father of the Ndebele people in Zimbabwe, Mzilikazi, personally named the area Matopo meaning bald heads. The colonizer Cecil John Rhodes who arrived later after the indigenous people had since discovered Matopos, was buried here. To this day, his grave forms part of the tourist attraction to the park.

The President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe a fierce critic of Britain and the west in general once mocked the dead Rhodes that his grave has been kept there by the government to help continue attracting tourists and help earn tourism money for Zimbabwe even if he didn't deserve to be there.

Travelling to Matopos from outside of Zimbabwe would require a consideration of various available Bulawayo flights and then once in Bulawayo travel by road to the park. From Bulawayo to the park, the road is well tarred permitting use of almost any type of vehicle. It is also possible to drive from Harare to Matopos passing through Kwekwe, Gweru and Bulawayo. Some visitors to the park prefer to take day trips whilst staying in Bulawayo where there are various hotels and B&B facilities. Most visitors to Matopos also visit the Victoria Falls some 891 km from Bulawayo. It is possible to travel to Victoria Falls by road and by air.

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University of Zimbabwe Review

2010-01-31T13:14:00.000-08:00

The University of Zimbabwe (UZ) is located in Harare the capital of Zimbabwe in the up-market Mount Pleasant suburb of northern Harare. The University was established back during the days of Rhodesia before the country became known as Zimbabwe. In 1980 at Zimbabwe's political independence the name of the University was changed.

UZ has an enrolment of over 10 000 students covering both undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Over the last 20 years the university became one of the most popular and respected universities in Africa and Zimbabwe. The political problems that started in Zimbabwe in 2000 and followed by a weakening Zimbabwe currency saw the University sharply deteriorating in standards and outrightly shunned by international students.

During its hey days the University of Zimbabwe attracted students and academics from Europe and America who benefited from vast exchange programs in almost every faculty. Amongst its top products are current Zimbabwe's political leaders such as Vice Prime Minister Professor Arthur Mutambara and Tendai Biti the Finance Minister in the new coalition government in Zimbabwe.

The University was known to promote academic freedoms and human rights until the government successfully weakened a once vibrant students union that led demonstrations against national policy initiatives deemed poor by the students. For many years university students were a thorn in the side of the government of the President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe and his ZANU PF Party.

Today the university has dismally lost its status mainly due to a poor national economy that saw untold brain drain of experienced and outstanding lecturers. The University of Zimbabwe administration also failed to keep the university infrastructure in good standing. Student hostels were run down without any form of maintenance let alone repair to an extent they became inhabitable forcing the government to close residence halls.

Due to demonstrations by students for better learning conditions the university constantly closed down and missed academic schedules and exam deadlines. At one point the University of Zimbabwe failed to open for an entire year resulting in failure to enrol a new freshman class. Its lime light was lost to other better performing universities in Zimbabwe such as Africa University and National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Bulawayo.
UZ was also seriously plagued by water problems which also made it very difficult for students to live on campus. As a result an international humanitarian agency - UNDP- installed water tanks and drilled water wells as those found in rural Zimbabwe to help students access water.

As of 2010, as the Zimbabwe economy shows signs of recovery, the university is also working hard to retain its international once sought after status. This will however obviously take many years to restore. Without further political interference at the top executives of the university the recovery could be sooner than later. President Robert Mugabe is the Chancellor of the University and has executive control over its most important decisions. All these are factors that will influence the university's road to recovery

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City of Bulawayo Overview.

2010-01-31T13:00:00.000-08:00

Bulawayo is the second largest city amongst all the cities in Zimbabwe. It is located some 439km south of Harare and is the commercial hub of the Matebeland region. It is home to the Ndebele speaking people of Zimbabwe. The closest borders to Bulawayo which is also known as the City of Kings are that of South Africa and Botswana.

The city of Kings is a tourist hub serving visitors coming to Zimbabwe to view the Matopos, Khami Ruins and the Victoria Falls. The city is served by an efficient and road, rail and air network. Visitors to the city may use airlines such as Air Zimbabwe and South African Airways which service the city on a daily basis connecting it to other cities such as Harare the capital of Zimbabwe and Johannesburg in South Africa. See flights and travel on how to get to this city.

Places to stay in Bulawayo will include Holiday Inn Hotel, Rainbow Hotel and other numerous B&B facilities which are suitable for overnight stays and short stays. The city is run and managed by the Bulawayo City Council and is known for its wide streets designed in the Victorian times to fit horse drawn carts. Like Harare, there are many Jacaranda trees in the streets of the city.

Many of the city's streets are named after local and national political leaders who fought against British occupation during the lebaration struggle. The city of Kings has the second state house which is the home of the President of Zimbabwe when he visits.

A key event organised in the city of Kings is the annual Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF). This attracts business people from all over the world who come to buy and sell technology, products and services. However due to the recent poor performance of the Zimbabwe economy and the Zimbabwe currency, the fair had been dismally performing. It is now coming up again as Zimbabwe slowly comes out of a decade long recession.

Other major attractions in Bulawayo will include the following;

Mzilikazi Arts and Crafts Centre
Mazwi Nature Reserve
Chipangali wildlife orphanage
Bulawayo Art gallery

The city has a perennial water problem which makes it an offense to use tape water for heavy duty jobs such as gardening. Politically, due to a feeling of development marginalization the people of the city have repeatedly rejected ZANU PF party led by Robert Mugabe at the national polls. The city is an opposition strong-hold.

In terms of security, the city is generally secure like the rest of Zimbabwe but visitors are encouraged to exercise caution especially when venturing out during the night. Knowing the nearest police station will be an added advantage in case of an emergency.

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Zimbabwe Statistics Summary

2010-01-31T12:42:00.000-08:00

The following Zimbabwe statistics give a summarised overview of interesting facts and figures for Zimbabwe. The statistics maybe outdated with the passage of time. The Zimbabwe government has a poor approach to statistical information. Generally speaking government finds certain statistical information sensitive therefore very difficult for the public to access. Take for instance the blanket blackout on Zimbabwe inflation figures before the introduction of multi-currencies in late 2008. This was at the height of Zimbabwe economic decline

Zimbabwe Statistics - Health

Number of people who died of Cholera in Zimbabwe - 3000
Number of people living with HIV 2007 - 1.3 million
Life expectancy at birth - 43 years
% of population with access to improved drinking water sources - 81%
Physicians per 1000 people (2002) - 0.06
Health expenditure - 7.9% of GDP
Polio vaccination rate - 75%
Measles vaccination rate - 70%

Zimbabwe Statistics - Zimbabwe Economy

Population below poverty line - 80%
Public Debt - 218.2% of GDP
Inflation rate in 1998 - 32%
Inflation rate in November 2007 - 26000%
Manufacturing industry capacity utilisation December 2009 - under 30%

Zimbabwe statistics - Education

Average schooling years for adults - 4.5 years
Primary school children out of school - 429275
Duration of compulsory education (grade 1 to 7) - 7 years
Education spending - 4.7% of GDP
Pupil teacher ratio at primary school level - 38.56
Tertiary enrollment - 3.9%

Immigration statistics

Immigrants as % of population - 3.928%
Number of immigrants - 511000
Net migration - -50 000
Zimbabwean US visa lottery winners - 168

Harare Flights Overview

2010-01-31T11:51:00.001-08:00

Harare flights are moderately easy to find and organise. About six different airlines fly into Harare on a weekly basis. However all six airlines are African airlines. Most European airlines pulled out of Harare during Zimbabwe's economic decline and political problems.

The most frequent airline to fly into Harare is South African Airways (SAA) which has four flights in the morning, afternoon, evening and night. SAA flies into Zimbabwe directly on a 1 hour 50 minutes flight from Johannesburg, South Africa. Amongst the six airlines, it has the best and highest standards and is the member of the Star Alliance.

Alternative flights to Harare come direct from London. This route is flown by Air Zimbabwe on a daily basis. The flight is just about 10 hours to Harare. Even though Air Zimbabwe has competitive fares if falls far short when it comes to professionalism and general consistency with flight schedules. It is not uncommon for the airline to abruptly cancel flights leaving passengers least catered for.

Air Zimbabwe has other routes it services such as to Malawi, Johannesburg, Lusaka, Dubai and China. There are also weekly Harare flights serviced by Air Botswana direct from Gaborone. Air Botswana flies 3 times a week to Harare. Kenya Airways also flies direct to Harare from Nairobi at least once a week.Visitors coming from Malawi to Zimbabwe may also fly on Air Malawi or Air Zimbabwe direct.
Harare flights can be reserved online using websites such as Expedia.com

In Harare there are numerous travel agents who can facilitate any further changes to your reservation should you require it. According to IATA regulations, all airlines under its membership as of a deadline of 31 May 2008 are using e-tickets.

Within Zimbabwe, internal flights are available on Air Zimbabwe to Bulawayo and Victoria Falls. The airline had introduced flights to Kariba and Masvingo as a tourism revival plan before abruptly suspending them due to a dismal failure of the strategy.

Chartered flights are available in Harare to specific destinations within Zimbabwe and outside of Zimbabwe. Light aircraft can be chartered to fly to places such as Victoria Falls, Kariba and Nyanga in Zimbabwe. A smaller airport in Harare, Zimbabwe called Charles Prince Airport operated by the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) handles private landings and take-offs, training schools, and chartered flights.

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Troutbeck Inn Review.

2010-01-31T11:51:00.000-08:00

Troutbeck Inn is a holiday resort located in Nyanga in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe. The hotel is owned and operated by African Sun Hotels a Zimbabwe based hospitality concern whose head office is in the capital of Zimbabwe, Harare.

Troutbeck Resort as it is also known is famous with holiday makers and honeymooners. The Eastern Highlands where the hotel is located naturally provide a different yet refreshing environment with breadth taking views of the mountainous landscape stretching all the way into Mozambique. The area enjoys a cool breeze coming from the Indian Ocean in Mozambique.

Troutbeck Inn is has a scenery resonate of the Scottish Highlands as shown in the pictures. Guests to the resort are treated to wild growing apples and bananas during the right season. The troutbeck fish is also associated with the resort were guests can go fishing and have the catch prepared for them for a meal.

Troutbeck is easily accessible from Harare by road. The roads are well maintained and a typical drive may take anything between 1 hour 30 minutes to 3 hours depending on preferred speed.

The facility itself includes some conference rooms for seminars and conferences, 70 rooms, a 9-hole golf course and a well stoked troutbeck lake. At the entrance to the Inn is a fire on a fire-place that has been burning for 45 years continuous since the opening of the resort. What is further outstanding about Troutbeck Inn is the level of hospitality and friendly service of the staff.

Day trips can be organised from the Inn to Mount Inyangani the highest peak in Zimbabwe. This is a major attraction for most visitors to the Eastern Highlands. Also nearby within Nyanga is Nyangombe Falls, a small but attractive water fall. Close to the Inn is a Spar convenience store which stocks basic supplies such as toiletries, snacks and beverages.

Reservations for Troutbeck Resort can be made from Harare at Crown Plaza Monomutapa Hotel where the African Sun Central Reservations is also located. Bookings can also be done online on the company's website.
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The Chronicle Zimbabwe Review

2010-01-31T11:49:00.000-08:00

The Chronicle Zimbabwe is a national state controlled daily paper published by Zimpapers. Zimpapers is a Zimbabwe stock Exchange listed company whose majority control is in the government of Zimbabwe. Even though the paper is available in other cities in Zimbabwe it is predominantly designed to report on news in the Matebeland region in the southern part of Zimbabwe.

The offices of the paper are based in Bulawayo the second largest city in Zimbabwe. The paper is a sister publication to the Herald published in Harare the capital of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe's history and respected for the aspirations of the people of Zimbabwe necessitated the establishment of the Chronicle Zimbabwe. The paper creates a balance in news reportage as the Herald is viewed as a Harare paper even though its has a national appeal.

Like the Herald and all other Zimpapers publications the Chronicle is controlled by government through the ministry of information and is an effective tool used by the same government to communicate its position and aspirations. For this reason, the paper has equally fallen prey to government manipulation as a tool for mass propaganda especially beginning year 2000 when the ruling party was effectively politically challenged for the first time by the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai.

Business, civil society and the general public in Bulawayo and Matebeland in general read the daily publication to gauge the mood of the government and its thinking. The Chronicle Zimbabwe is indeed an effective mouth piece of the government in the absence of any meaningful competing daily voice. Even TV stations are controlled by government as illustrated by Zimbabwe TV. The media landscape in Zimbabwe is desperately biased with absolutely no private owned daily newspapers and TV and radio stations

The Zimbabwe Chronicle focuses its news reports on social, business, sports and opinion and analysis issues apart from political issues. Over 90% of its headlines have a political inclination. The paper runs an online version which is not as advanced as other online publications. It is essentially a replica of news stories available in the daily print version.

The Chronicle does not publish on Sundays. Instead its sister paper also based in Bulawayo called the Sunday News publishes. This is similar to the Sunday Mail published in Harare instead of the Herald on Sundays. In a shock turn of events in 2009, the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) arrested the editor and journalist of the Chronicle Zimbabwe and pressed defamation charges over a story that accused police of corruption. It has hardly occurred previously for the police to arrest a journalist from state controlled media such as the Chronicle. The two institutions are considered to be on the same side.

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Fingaz - Who is Behind It?

2010-01-31T11:43:00.000-08:00

Fingaz is short for Financial Gazette a privately controlled weekly newspaper in Zimbabwe. The paper is published every Thursday and is also known as the pink paper because of its pink color. For many years the pink paper has been an iconic representation of a business paper in Zimbabwe.

The Fingaz was established in the 60s and has a wide readership in government and private sector. Its current circulation is at about 40 000 and readership at about 400 000. It is an undisputed newsleader in Zimbabwe.

In terms of ownership, the paper has been dodged with unresolved controversy. Credible sources confirm that the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Dr Gideon Gono is the controlling investor in the paper. Mr Gono is strongly aligned with the Zanu PF party under President Mugabe and is also heavily blamed for Zimbabwe's problems involving the economy and the Zimbabwe currency.

The paper has little to no government harassment which for many seem to confirm its closeness to the ZANU PF party. In The midst of all this, it would appear to a large extent the Fingaz has managed to maintain its editorial independence. This is a clear reason why so many of Zimbabwe's decision makers and public sector authorities have maintained their loyalty to the pink paper.

Zimbabweans are politically very sensitive people especially in urban areas where Zanu PF is extremely resented. They cannot tolerate publications that promotes Zanu PF's hegemony in Zimbabwe's politics. For this reason Zimpapers the holding company of the Zimbabwe Herald has had its shares on the Zimbabwe Stock exchange largely suppressed due to government interference in newspaper publications.

Clearly the Fingaz enjoys government tolerance because of the politically connected investors behind it. Some of the paper's former employees have gone on to become publishers of their own newspapers such as Trevor Ncube the owner and publisher of the Mail and Guardian in South Africa. He is also the publisher of The Zimbabwe Independent and the Standard both competitors of the Fingaz.

The online version of the paper is found on www.fingaz.co.zw and is run and managed by WebDev a Zimbabwe internet company. From the online perspective, the paper is still behind. The online version of the Fingaz is largely updated on weekly basis, is not dynamic and lacks many functions in line with multi-media and social networking functions.

The future of the pink paper looks bright as long as it maintains an independent editorial policy regardless of its backers. Only time will tell if the Fingaz will 100% uphold that independence. Often in Zimbabwe during election seasons, the political temperature against ZANU PF gets very hot forcing the party to use all might to make it through. All those who support the party are most likely to be called to use all they have to secure the party's political future.

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The Zimbabwe Times Review

2010-01-31T10:52:00.000-08:00

The Zimbabwe Times is one amongst the leading independent online publications on Zimbabwe. The paper publishes online from the United States of America. It is critical of the government of Zimbabwe led by Robert Mugabe. Most of the paper's stories expose the government of Zimbabwe specifically targeting the ZANU PF side of government in the coalition power sharing government.

Apart from reporting on political news, the online publication also carries stories on sports, health and business in addition to public opinion via a vibrant team of bloggers. The Zimbabwe Times tag line is "News without fear or favour" perhaps revealing the character of its founder and managing editor Mr Geoffrey Nyarota [pictured].

Geoff as his is affectionately known in Zimbabwe and across the journalism world ironically once worked for Zimpapers with the Herald in Zimbabwe in the early 1980s before becoming the editor of the Chronicle in Bulawayo where he was eventually fired for unearthing what became known in Zimbabwe as the Willogate. This involved corruption in government at the highest level involving cars assembled by the state owned Willovale Motors in Harare.

A few years before launching The Zimbabwe Times in 2006, Nyarota also worked for the first independent daily paper in Zimbabwe called The Daily News. He was the founding editor and was arrested several times by the government. Geoff once published a story which was later found to be untrue about a beheading at the height of Zimbabwe's land inversions violence. The Daily News was subsequently closed before he fled to the United States were the online publication was started.

The online publication is run by a dedicated team of technicians and sub-editors and receives one of the highest levels of traffic on the Internet on Zimbabwe news related content. No statistics are available to the public about the site's actual traffic, it also lacks any Alexa data which makes real traffic estimates very difficult. However judging by the levels of participation via comments on stories, The Zimbabwe Times receives significant amount of traffic daily. The paper has also claimed attacks on its website by suspected Zimbabwe government agents even though some of the technical problems facing the site have been legitimate.

The following are some of the headlines that have appeared on the paper.

MDC has joined conspiracy of silence
Tsvangirai speaks as if fearful of Mugabe
Gutu magistrate cleared of corruption
Embattled cleric denies supporting gays
Soldier jailed 35 years for arms theft

The Zimbabwe Times is amongst online publications such as New Zimbabwe.com and Zimdaily.com that the government of Zimbabwe considers illegal papers. However, controlling them is virtually impossible as Internet access in Zimbabwe is not regulated as obtains in China even though the government once drafted a law along these lines.

The Zimbabwe Independent Review

2010-01-31T10:51:00.000-08:00

The Zimbabwe Independent newspaper is one of the few remaining privately owned and controlled newspapers in Zimbabwe. It is a weekly publication that operates from Harare the capital of Zimbabwe. It is owned by Mr Trevor Ncube a South African based Zimbabwean who is also the publisher of the Mail and Guardian newspaper in South Africa.

The history of the Independent goes back as far as Britain. In fact in the UK today there is a newspaper called The Independent with the same logo as the local Independent in Zimbabwe. This has to do with Zimbabwe's history were Britian was generally mirrored across Zimbabwean life.

The newspaper's editor in Zimbabwe is Mr Vincent Kahiya. The Zimbabwe Independent has a sister paper in The Standard published on Sundays. The Independent is published every Friday in Harare and circulates in most cities in Zimbabwe. The newspaper was not spared by the economic problems in Zimbabwe which saw its advertiser base dwindle and circulation sharply reduced to as little as 2000 copies per week.

Mr Trevor Ncube is known for his non-interference in the editorial policy of his newspapers. He also confirmed this in a CNN interview under the African Voices program in 2009. The paper's editorial policy has been sharply critical of government exposing government inadequacies, corruption and human rights abuses.

For this reason, the paper has largely been an enemy of the state during the 10 years of Zimbabwe's political problems.

The Zimbabwe Independent has also survived the Zimbabwe government's media hangman's noose which saw the demise of the Daily News, the Tribune and others. At the time that the Daily News was closed never to reopen for refusing to register with government even though the law was unconstitutional, the Independent chose to register anyway and challenge the law after registering. This saw it survive a blitz on private newspapers by government.

The paper is viewed "favourably" by government in two main ways. It's existence is often used by government to prove media plurality in Zimbabwe. Secondly, the paper comes out only on Fridays, (one a week) which makes it easy to counter whatever it reports by using government controlled daily newspapers such as the Zimbabwe Herald and The Chronicle based in Bulawayo. On numerous occassions state owned daily newspapers have carried headlines directly challenging The Independent assertions leaving no opportunity for the paper to immediately respond.

[Pictured in dark jacket is Vincent Kahiya Editor of the Independent]

In recent months the Group that owns the paper has announced the arrival of an independent daily called News Day. However, this has failed to take off and is still awaiting government license to operate.

The critics of the paper have accused it of peddling foreign interests by constantly attacking government policy. However, the paper argues moral responsibility to expose government corruption.

The Zimbabwe Independent journalists have won numerous awards for outstanding journalism. Many of them also write for other international publications and newspapers. Mr Vincent Kahiya, the editor, has himself participated in numerous human rights seminars, conferences and workshops as an expert resource person.

The contribution of the Zimbabwe Independent to Zimbabwe's democratic struggle has been immense. It's absence (or of a similar publication) could have admittedly caused a different landscape in Zimbabwe.

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Zimbabwe Crisis

2010-01-31T10:34:00.000-08:00

Zimbabwe crisis essentially refers to the untold political and economic difficulties that occurred in Zimbabwe from the year 2000 until about 2010. It was an entire decade of growing and unprecedented isolation of a country which once stood as a promising economic and democratic beacon in otherwise war and coup raged Africa.

The trigger to the crisis in Zimbabwe was the inversion of the commercial farmers that were largely controlled and owned by white Zimbabweans. As to what triggered the actual inversion in the first place is still a subject of debate even to this day. Two key theories are dominant.

Critics of Zimbabwe President, Robert Mugabe and his ZANU PF party sense that the party was cornered by a coming revolution propelled by the labour movement and had to find a scapegoat to retain power through anarchy. Indeed for many years in Zimbabwe after the government sanctioned farm inversions of 2000 and 2001, there was continued speculation and rumours of the President declaring a state of emergency.

The second theory about the start of the Zimbabwe crisis which appears to appease the government of Zimbabwe of the day and ZANU PF in particular is that the government was running out of patience with white farmers who refused to share land with landless black indigenous people. It therefore allowed the rural villagers who were later joined by the war of liberation veterans to take the law into their own hands.

The people of Zimbabwe are naturally reserved and careful of controversy and anarchy. What characterized the 10 years of problems in Zimbabwe was outright barbarism and anarchy driven by a few political thugs many of whom have clear links with ZANU PF party.

In response to government sanctioned lawlessness in Zimbabwe, the European Union and the United States immediately slapped Zimbabwe with sanctions initially targeted at the ZANU PF leaders. Clearly, on the ground the sanctions affected even ordinary people. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe was forced to print Zimbabwe dollars which in turn led to serious inflationary pressures on the Zimbabwe currency and the economy in general. Inflation is thought by independent analysts to have reached levels of one billion percent.

Due to the intensifying and ongoing lack of foreign reserves, the government went into full gear printing money to finance government projects and election campaigns. The central bank in Zimbabwe became a dominant player in the Zimbabwe crisis. For many, government administration was temporarily shifted to the central bank with the Governor Mr Gideon Gono literally and nicknamed the Prime Minister of the country.

The Zimbabwe crisis was characterized by severe food and fuel shortages. Endless lines were the order of the day across cities in Zimbabwe the worst hit being Harare and Bulawayo. People literally fought for goods and services. Even passports ran out for thousands of Zimbabweans desperate to leave. The boarder between South Africa and Zimbabwe became a hive of criminality as Zimbabweans without papers crossed crocodile infested Limpopo river into South Africa by night and many others through bribery of boarder control.

Education and medical facilities such as hospitals became dysfunctional. Teachers, doctors and nurses left the country in hordes and many people unnecessarily lost their lives due to lack of medical attention at under-stuffed hospitals and clinics.

A new phenomenon never experienced in the history of Zimbabwe emerged overnight. Goods and services began to be available at the parallel market. Shop shelves were wiped empty through government sanctioned weeks of rampage forcing shops to cut prices by up to 70%. Thugs, criminals and corrupt government officers extolled money and goods from shop owners and many businesses collapsed overnight.

What followed in a Zimbabwe hit by a crisis were months of hunger were meat, fish and other products were sold from street corners and car boots people playing hid and seek with authorities desperate to put inflation under control by arresting sellers.

The Zimbabwe crisis was a long and painful ten years of election results disputes between MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai and ZANU PF. Each election was characterized by untold violence to the degree of crimes against humanity. There were reports of people being buried alive and many others having their limps cut off in rural areas for supporting western backed enemies of the state. For many villagers the wish was for election to be banned as they brought nothing but misery and suffering.

Things seemed to take a new turn in 2009 when a new government between Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in after nearly 5 years of secret negotiations. Today Zimbabwe has a new multi-currency system which has stabilised the economy and entered Zimbabwe into a period of deflation.

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Zimbabwe Life Overview

2010-01-31T10:32:00.000-08:00

To many people Zimbabwe life has not been easy in the 10 painful years of the Zimbabwe crisis. The Zimbabwe economy deteriorated from year 2000 non-stop to about 2010 with many Zimbabwe people losing their jobs. The overall result has been increasing poverty, lack of education and very poor living standards.

Life in Zimbabwe for many people has been one without much to look forward to due to the general despair associated with bad politics. For many people much hope had been pinned upon the opposition political party MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai to bring change to Zimbabwe. However, the ten years of continued economic and political turmoil with no end in sight brought complete mistrust and a lack of hope that Zimbabwe life would ever improve.

The majority of Zimbabweans for many years has been used to living below the poverty datum line. In fact most people in Zimbabwe especially in rural Zimbabwe live on less than US$1.00 per day. There is hardly any money to send children to school or take care of the medical needs of the family.

With high unemployment levels exceeding 80% most Zimbabweans have found refuge in neighbouring countries such as Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique and even Malawi. An estimated 3.5 million people are said to be living in the diaspora. These numbers vary. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe gave a number of about 1.3 million in the diaspora. This would also include the UK and the United States of America.

The shaky political settlement of 2009 brought some relief to most Zimbabweans. Zimbabwe life greatly improved with the easy availability of food-stuffs in shops. The removal of the Zimbabwe currency in favour of multi-currency system also reduced inflation and in fact threw Zimbabwe into a period of deflation as everything is now being sold in United States Dollars or the South Africa Rand.

From that perspective standard of life has generally improved in Zimbabwe. A significant number of people can now access goods and services and education is showing signs of renewed hope once again. However, the continued contradictions in the new government of Zimbabwe which is a coalition of leading political parties remains a great worry for many people in Zimbabwe. Across cities in Zimbabwe the memories of the period 2000 to 2009 are are clear nightmare that many dare not about reliving.

What Zimbabweans do with their time

Zimbabweans are an easy going people. They value family and working hard for their families. A Monday to Friday week in Zimbabwe is a working week. People go to work and many others run their informal business such as selling wares amongst other things. Saturday and Sunday are essentially rest days. Only service providers are open the morning half of a Saturday most closing at 1 pm.

Weekends are also an opportunity to visit family and friends within the cities. Friends also take time to be with one another during weekends. Many people go to church on Sunday as generally most Zimbabweans are Christians. Some also believe in the traditional religion such that for a huge percentage the two are mixed.

It is part of Zimbabwe life to go and watch a soccer match on a Sunday afternoon. Zimbabweans are generally soccer lovers who follow local and international soccer fixtures and tournaments with a passion especially amongst the men. Soccer is therefore an important aspect of life in Zimbabwe. Other sports are important in Zimbabwe but clearly fail to command the same type of following as soccer.

The younger modern westernised generation of Zimbabweans like to spend time at shopping malls hanging out with friends. Parting is also popular with young more affluent Zimbabweans. House parties are organised during weekends and at special holidays. The younger generations of Zimbabweans pursue life in Zimbabwe the American way imitating what comes out in movies, satellite TV, music videos and the Internet.

Zimdaily Review

2010-01-31T10:31:00.000-08:00

Zimdaily is one of Zimbabwe focused most visited digital media sites.The paper is owned by Zimbabweans in the diaspora and publishes news on Zimbabwe on a daily basis. The paper has been online for some years and attracts the interests of thousands of Zimbabweans in Zimbabwe and abroad.

In 2008 a fugitive, according to the government of Zimbabwe, acquired 50% of Zimdaily from Mr Munamato Maisva a Zimbabwean also based abroad. Mr Gilbert Muponda the so called fugitive fled Zimbabwe for the United States at the height of bank closures by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. he and another co-founder were accused by government of swindling customers millions of United States Dollars through their now defunct company ENG Capital.

Today the paper is owned by 3MG Media. In terms of news coverage, Zimdaily appears to have serious vitriol against the government of Zimbabwe especially ZANU PF and President Robert Mugabe in particular. This type of news coverage on Zimbabwe is not limited only to this paper but to the generality of Zimbabwe independent Internet publications. The Internet has become a viable and effective method of Zimbabweans to protest against the brutality and human rights abuses of their government.

The online edition of the paper has a dedicated team of sub-editors who publish stories on a day to day basis. Just as most online independent publications on Zimbabwe do, Zimdaily also relies on undercover journalists scattered across the cities and country side of Zimbabwe. Some of the journalists used by private online publications in fact work for state media operated by Zimpapers. Due to meagre salaries earned, they supplement their income by writing in opposition too their own stories in the state owned papers such as the Herald and the Chronicle.

Even though overall the publication carries newsworthy articles, excessive advertising on the site is often annoying to some readers.The publication belongs to a plethora of Internet real estate such as Zim Net Radio a radio station run by 3MG Capital as well as Zimface an imitation of Facebook but exclusive to Zimbabweans.

In 2009 Zimdaily introduced a print version of the paper. The paper is not yet widely available on the streets of Harare, Zimbabwe's capital and other cities in Zimbabwe. However it stands a chance for a good readership in a country were independent daily news is extremely scare due to severe media restrictions on new players. It however remains to be seen of the government will accept the distribution of the paper on Zimbabwe's streets.

Zimbabwe Education Review

2010-01-31T10:24:00.000-08:00

Zimbabwe education is essentially modelled around the British education system. It is managed and administered by the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture. In fact the history of Zimbabwe shows that at independence in 1980 the new government of Zimbabwe led by Robert Mugabe inherited the British approach to education.

Education in Zimbabwe starts with primary school Grade 1 to Grade 7. At Grade 7 pupils write national exit exams at the end of 7 years which take them to the next cycle of academic learning known as secondary school. This comprises of Form 1 to Form 4 which are four years of intermediate learning. The next level of academic learning is called advanced level learning. This comprises of two years of advanced secondary level learning of Form 5 and Form 6. This level is optional but many students aim to go through it for greater future opportunities.

Students who advance to Form 5 and 6 will write a national compulsory exist exam which will eventually lead to first year at University. Some companies recruit advanced level students to train them for what are known as accounting articles.

The government of Zimbabwe recognised level of education in Ordinary level achieved after four years (form 1 to Form 4) of secondary school learning. Students must earn what are known as 5 ordinary level subject passes which must be inclusive of English language in order to participate in vocational training or even seek formal employment.

This thorough approach to education earned Zimbabwe education the title of one of the best in the world. After political independence in 1980, the Zimbabwe government continued with a policy of building schools and training more teachers to ensure as many Zimbabweans as possible deprived of learning during the liberation era would get an opportunity for education in Zimbabwe.

Sadly the Zimbabwe crisis which began in 2000 for the following 10 years ripped apart the legacy of Zimbabwe education the country had carefully built in the past 20 years of nation building. Most teachers deserted schools for greener pastures and government funding for public schools dropped sharply at the back-drop of the falling Zimbabwe currency and deteriorating economy.

Largely thought to be as a result of anti-imperialism strategies, the Zimbabwe government disbanded the internationally recognised Cambridge examinations that had made so much room for Zimbabweans abroad in favour of the locally administered Zimsec ( Zimbabwe School Examination Council). Zimsec has been a disaster. From mixing student results to entirely losing them not to mention the repeated delays and confusion and leaks in examination papers.

Consequently, most students in Zimbabwe today opt for privately sponsored Cambridge examination sitting. These have however become expensive as the government no-longer subsidises them as was the case before. In general mny donors have taken interest in supporting Zimbabwe's public education since 2009. Some of the donors have included UNICEF giving up to 42 million Pounds to increase access to education.

Private schools are rife in the Zimbabwe education sector as parents create an ongoing demand for them running away from poorly funded and managed public schools administered by the government. The Zimbabwe International School is amongst the favorites for well to do Zimbabwean parents. Even though the concept behind it is to create an educational environment that will be compatible with changing environments for diplomats, many Zimbabweans are now opting for the international school.

Zimbabwe education especially public schools will certainly take much longer to recover than initially anticipated. Without external support the teachers in public schools will remain largely demotivated at US$175 or less monthly salary hardly enough to live by. The Zimsec administered certificates are proving very difficult for students to present in overseas Universities.

The near collapse of the University of Zimbabwe also deprived many young people a chance to attend University. Consequently, thousands of Zimbabweans have found university places to study in Malaysia, Singapore and Australia.

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Zimbabwe Tourism Situation

2010-01-31T10:18:00.000-08:00

The history of Zimbabwe tourism is one of great prosperity in the last 20 years of the country's independence history to about year 2000. Zimbabwe has been one of the most visited countries in southern Africa through the 80s and 90s because of the leading tourist attractions such as Nyanga in the Eastern Highlands, the Victoria Falls and Great Zimbabwe Monument in Masvingo, central Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) is in charge of promoting tourism in Zimbabwe.

In fact tourism for a long time contributed a significant amount to national income that could be counted on. 1.4 million tourists visited Zimbabwe in 1999. This marked the end of peak numbers in visitors. A constant and terrible decline followed in late 2000 right through to 2009 with the start of Zimbabwe's problems as a result of the violent government sanctioned land inversions.

The Zimbabwe tourism sector shed thousands of staff due to the shrinking market. The pull-out of international airlines from Zimbabwe such as Austrian Airlines, KLM, Qantas and others further strained the tourism sector in terms of easy access to the Zimbabwean market as well as being a vote of no confidence in overall state of affairs in Zimbabwean. Zimbabwe's neighbours such as Botswana, South Africa and Zambia naturally heavily capitalised on this development. They began marketing zimbabwean resorts such as teh Victoria Falls under South African or Zambia packages. this generally gave an impression to many would be tourists that Victoria Falls or Kariba was not in Zimbabwe.

Some tourists continued to visit Zimbabwe especially those from other countries other than Britain and the United States. The government of Zimbabwe openly considered Britain and the US enemies of the "revolution". In response most western countries issued travel warnings on Zimbabwe also as a result of intensifying political violence against opponents of President Mugabe and his ZANU PF party.

In 2003 as a counter strategy to dwindling western investment and increasing isolation the government coined what they called the Look East Policy that sought to entice Asian investors deemed friendly to come to Zimbabwe. This also included tourists from Asia especially China. To further prop this strategy government through the tourism department invested time and money in teaching Chinese recipes in restaurants and hotels.

There was a trickle of Asian tourists in the following few years. However unlike western tourists, the spending patterns of Asian tourists are far less appreciated as compared to their western counterparts by tour operators. Further even the ordinary tourism resort workers felt a difference in terms of the usually free flow of service tips usually experienced when dealing with western tourists. Largely everybody was unhappy.

In the following years the ZTA had a new strategy of promoting Zimbabwe through facilitating and paying for concerts and visits by international celebrities such as reggage superstars and hip-hop artists amongst others. Most of the tourists left speaking positively about Zimbabwe. The real results are yet to be experienced. It remains to be seen if the followers of these artists who are naturally not tourists will finally gain the courage and the resources to visit Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe tourism is not easy to fix. It is almost impossible to fix without any major political improvements. The world needs to agree that the Zimbabwe crisis is over if tourism is to completely rebound. It would appear even Asian tourists listen to the American and European travel warnings when making decisions to which countries to visit. The Lonely Planet website is for everyone!

Efforts by the Zimbabwe government to set-up international tourism booths promoting the country appear to have had little to absolutely no overwhelming success. Certainly today the Internet speaks louder than any government propaganda initiatives. Tourists first scan the Internet on a particular destination before ever considering to visit.

The developments in Zimbabwe in 2009 of an inclusive government born out of political negotiations have been reported to have had a positive impact o the overall tourism outlook. More needs to be done as the world is watching the continuing contradictionns and open disharmony within the government. Zimbabwe tourism has great potential only if the political situation is permanently resolved.

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Your Bulawayo Travel Information.

2010-01-31T09:59:00.000-08:00

Bulawayo travel is moderately easy to put together. Bulawayo is one of the cities in Zimbabwe and is in fact the second capital of Zimbabwe after Harare. It is located in the southern part of the country and is some 459 km away from Harare.

Bulawayo's location makes it easier to access by road from Botswana and from South Africa. Bulawayo in some 100km away from the Zimbabwe-Botswana boarder at Plumtree and some 200km away from Franscistown Botswana's second largest city after Gaborone.

Visitors from South Africa or Botswana can therefore travel to Bulawayo by road. The roads from both countries to this city are well maintained with moderately busy traffic which peaks during key holiday seasons such as Christimas holidays. There are also public luxury buses that travel to Bulawayo from South Africa and Botswana including haulage trucks which many use as hitchhickers.

It is also possible to organise your Bulawayo travel using different airlines that fly to Bulawayo namely South African Airways, Air Zimbabwe and British Airways operated by Comair of South Africa. South African Airways flies into Bulawayo from Johannesburg on a daily basis. Bulawayo flights are available online offering these available routes and prices.

Some visitors to Bulawayo also prefer to travel from Harare after having flown from Johannesburg or direct from London on Air Zimbabwe. Air Zimbabwe flies daily to Bulawayo even though it has serious reliability issues. Flights often get cancelled overnight without prior notice to preparing passengers.

Amazingly, recently the government banned the launch of a new air line - Fly Kumba- (meaning fly home) on the eve of its inagural flight directing that no airline would service the same routes as Air Zimbabwe. Other airlines come to Harare such as Ethopian Airlines and Egypt Airlines, Kenya Airways and Air Malawi. Since the problems in Zimbabwe and the deteriorating Zimbabwe economy over the past 10 years most airlines pulled out of Harare.

Recently a newspaper report indicated that British Airways will be returning to Zimbabwe in March/April 2010. Some visitors to Zimbabwe also prefer to drive to Bulawayo from Harare. There are reputable car hire companies in Harare such as Avis and Europcar. However these still face a challenge with processing some international cards. At the time of this post in early February 2010 they were only accepting VISA cards. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is overall in charge of ensuring more cards are functioning in Zimbabwe.

There are other numerous professional car hire companies in Harare which are not international brands but locally recognised brands. These compete well with the big names above and obviously have more affordable rates. Private individuals may also offer their cars for hire, however visitors just need to ensure the car is in good condition and has all its papers in place to avoid trouble with the traffic police on the highways.

When planning your Bulawayo travel by road, budget the entire day and plan some stops in-between in cities such as Kwekwe and Gweru. These are located centrally between the two points and have fairly good facilities for your rest and eats even overnight stops. The trip takes altogether some 6 hours to complete at averge comfortable speed. On the way there are some frequent toll gates that cost USD1.00 for small passanger cars.

Other accepted currencies at the toll gates are Botswana Pula (BWP), Euro, South African Rand and British Pound. Since the dimise of the Zimbabwe currency and weaking of the exchange rate, Zimbabwe's recovering economy now runs on multi-currencies.

Zimbabwe's roads are almost free of highway criminals. Visitors may travel without fear but yet alert. Giving a ride to strangers is generally discouraged by the police.

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The Zimbabwe Government - An Opinion

2010-01-31T09:16:00.000-08:00

TheZimbabwe government is made of three arms namely the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. In the last 28 years of independence which came from Britain in 1980, ZANU PF party led by Robert Mugabe dominated all three arms of the government. In essence this made it very difficult to separate the party from government, the legislature and the judiciary from government.

Many appointments made in the judiciary were noted to be of individuals sympathetic to the cause of the ZANU PF party even were the law directed otherwise. To a great degree the rule of law was totally comprised in the Zimbabwean system of government.

Due to the dominance in government for a long time by one party, public accountability of government structures and functions is not an engraved character in Zimbabwe's body politic let alone the general public. For that cause the Zimbabwe government generally does not adequately tolerate questions of public policy and general governance.

Government ministries in the government of Zimbabwe are headed by political heads which are called ministers. These are appointed by the president after securing a position in the House of Assembly (parliament) or Senate. Unless one is elected an MP or senator (or appointed by teh president to be a Senator) it is not possible to hold the office of a minister in the Zimbabwe government.

Ministers in Zimbabwe are automatically members of cabinet. It is very rare and near taboo for ministers to question own party policies at national level or to question or oppose the president on any policy matters. Due to rampant polarisation and general atmosphere of political fear and extensive patronage across the political divide be it ZANU PF or MDC this could mean the end of one's political career.

Bureaucracy and read-tape are generally rife in government departments in Zimbabwe. Decisions and implementation of projects and programs take discouragingly long. The disgruntlement of public officers due to low salaries in the range of US$175 per month certainly contributes to how things are done in government.

In fact many government officials who have an opportunity to do so rack in on travel allowances. In 2009 the government spent a total of US$25 million on foreign travel. This should encompass allowances, airfares and accommodation. The President of Zimbabwe is known to travel with an entourage of up to 80 people and
diverting the national airline, Air Zimbabwe for official and holiday trips.

The Zimbabwe government constantly faces huge difficulties servicing foreign missions which many have complained to be too many for such a small economy. They accuse the government of creating patronage opportunities. Foreign embassies staff have been reported to go months on end without any salaries and living on allowances. In Canada the Zimbabwean embassy there was reportedly almost evicted at one point for failing to pay rentals.

Like many other African countries, the government of Zimbabwe is not free from corruption even at the highest level. Since its inception the anti-corruption commission in Zimbabwe never prosecuted a single high ranking government official let alone politician despite wide spread media reports of corruption in government. The Commission is relatively well funded with commissioners driving top of the range vehicles.

In terms of income, the Zimbabwe government collects most of its revenue from Value Added Tax (VAT), import duty and Pay As You Earn tax (PAYE) from formally employed people. In 2010 the government had an expenditure budget of about US$2 billion to be financed largely by taxes as there is no balance of payments support currently flowing into Zimbabwe due to unserviced international debt.

Chiredzi - Quite, Simple, Sweet Little Town.

2010-01-31T09:00:00.000-08:00

Chiredzi is a little plantation town located in the lowveld Masvingo province of Zimbabwe. It is about 203 km south of Masvingo the capital city of Masvingo the province. The economy of this small town is centered around sugar production. The town is surrounded by vast sugar cane plantations and is a very
important and strategic part of the Zimbabwe economy.

Chiredzi is serviced by a good road and rail network from Masvingo. It's commercial transactions are controlled in Masvingo the hub of commercial activity in Masvingo. Access to the town is also possible by chartered light aircraft as there is no commercial airlines servicing the small center. From Harare, aircraft
can be chartered from Charles Prince Airport. In Chiredzi aircraft land at Buffalo Range Airport.

Chiredzi has a population of just above 20 000 people most of whom work in the sugar plantations surrounding the town. Those who do not work at the plantations work in the tiny commercial service center which banks and administrative offices belonging to the Chiredzi rural and district councils.

The closest border with Chiredzi is that of Mozambique even though it is also possible to travel from South Africa via the Limpopo Province to the town. Places to stay in Chiredzi includes Pamushana Safari Lodge which is attractive to safari tourists as well as honeymooners. The Lodge includes "a gym, large swimming pool, comfortable lounge, library and dining room with the most amazing mural and fabulous food. Best of all is the wine cellar, built to resemble the tower at great Zimbabwe and left to chill 7,000 bottles of wine"

Zimbabwe Poverty Extremes

2010-01-31T08:25:00.000-08:00

Zimbabwe poverty has been on the increase since the beginning of year 2000 when the problems in Zimbabwe started. The high levels of unemployment in Zimbabwe estimated at over 80% have had a major impact on the welfare of the people of Zimbabwe.

Unlimited reports from Zimbabwe speak of many families unable to afford all three meals in a day. In fact the UN and other reputable agencies estimate that the majority of Zimbabweans live on less than US$1.00 per day. US$1.00 in Zimbabwe is just enough for a loaf of bread and perhaps some five eggs.

Zimbabwe poverty is more pronounced in rural areas were for a number of years drought has caused havoc on the food security situation. Millions of rural folk have survived on food handouts from international donors. The government of Zimbabwe political involvement in food distribution has not helped the situation. In fact a significant number of people in Zimbabwe have died of hunger.

The switch from Zimbabwe dollar to multi international currencies in the economy of Zimbabwe has also contributed to raising levels of poverty. This would include lack of housing, clothing, access to medical health, access to education and severe unemployment. In the new dispensation these services are paid for in foreign currency which most in Zimbabwe simply do not have.

As a result of poverty in Zimbabwe many Zimbabweans have fled to settle in neighbouring countries such as South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and Malawi amongst other countries. The extent of poverty in Zimbabwe has also been clearly demonstrated by the levels of lack in prisons. Many prisoners have died in Zimbabwean prisons ultimately as a result of the inability of relatives outside to meet their most basic needs. Never mind teh government's inability to meet its obligations,

Zimbabwe poverty reached extremes round about the middle of the Zimbabwe crisis when relatives could not bury their dead. Sick people were dumped at under staffed and inadequately equipped hospitals to die. It was such a burden for individual families the government of Zimbabwe with limited resources carried out paupers burials as no one came forward to claim the dead. As per Zimbabwe culture when one dies family and friends gather at the person's home in night vigil until the person is buried. This usually takes 4 to 5 days.

At the height of Zimbabwe's troubles affecting society at the lowest of levels, this cultural practice was broken and people buried their dead within two at most 3 days of death to reduce costs and remove the burden of taking care of people keeping vigil. Cultural practices are dear to the majority of Zimbabweans. This development demonstrated how poverty had even shattered long held beliefs in Zimbabwe.

Poverty in Zimbabwe will significantly decline as the economy takes-off and more people are employed in the formal sector. As it stands most Zimbabweans are surviving on remitances from children, friends and relatives abroad in South Africa, UK and the United States. Indirectly, the world recession of 2008 and 2009 worsened Zimbabwe poverty impact.

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Zambia Zimbabwe Relations

2010-01-31T07:46:00.000-08:00

Zambia Zimbabwe relations have been generally very strong for many years since the independence of Zimbabwe in 1980 from colonial Britain. Zambia is Zimbabwe's northern neighbour. Zambia and Zimbabwe used to be known as northern and southern Rhodesia during the years of colonisation in the 60s.

Zambia gave ongoing refuge in form of exile and armed training to Zimbabwe's liberation fighters such as Herbert Chitepo and many others. The history of Zimbabwe is intricately linked to that of Zambia.

The two countries are linked to each other at two official physical boarder points namely Chirundu and Victoria Falls. At Chirundu boarder post close to Kariba Town, Zambia and Zimbabwe in 2009 launched a one stop boarder post the first in southern Africa. The special boarder was officially opened by the Presidents of the two countries Dr Rupiya Banda and President Robert Mugabe.

Dr Banda of Zambia replaced Mr Levy Mwanawasa who died in 2008 who was openly critical of Robert Mugabe over Zimbabwe problems. In the region of southern Africa. Botswana is more critical of the government of Zimbabwe.

Zambia Zimbabwe relations have remained prosperous despite open capitalisation of Zambia in the tourist sector over the problems of the Zimbabwe economy. For instance Zambia increasingly promoted Victoria Falls to ignorant international especially western tourists as a solely Zambian destination. In actual fact the Victoria Falls is best viewed from the Zimbabwean side even though both countries share the spectecular falls.

This marketing strategy has also been extensively used by South African hospitality operators to the general detriment of Zimbabwe's tourism sector.

Many Zimbabweans who escaped the troubles in Harare found greener pastures in Zambia's economy which overall has grown much more than Zimbabwe's between 2000 and 2010. Travelling between Zambia and Zimbabwe is possible by road and by air. Air Zimbabwe flies to Zambia frequently each week. Before the collapse of Zambian Airways, it also used to fly to Harare on a regular basis.

It is also possible to fly to Zambia by air via Johannesburg even though the trip takes longer and is more expensive than a direct flight from Harare to Lusaka, Zambia's capital. No visas are required to travel to Zimbabwe or to Zambia by passport holders of any of the two countries.

Tourist visitors to Zambia are now also exploring places in Zimbabwe such as Kariba, the Victoria Falls and even Nyanga and Masvingo in central Zimbabwe.

Zambia Zimbabwe relations are also founded in the common interest they hold in the Lake Kariba hydro electricity generation project. Built in the 1960s Lake Kariba generates electricity for both Zambia and Zimbabwe with the bulk of the energy generated going to Zimbabwe. Zambia imports most of its power needs from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) which is said to have a potential to power the entire Africa continent.

Submission by anonymous blog reader: Zambia generates most of its own power needs. Zambia's biggest power station is Kafue gorge power station. This station generates 990MW. The others are Victoria Falls station 108Mw. Mita Dam 38MW Lusitu 20MW, Lusiwasi 12MW and Kariba North Bank 540 MW (currently been upgraded from 720MW to 1080MW) The upgrade will be completed in 2012. Three other projects are expected to kick off later this year. These are Kafue Lower 600MW, Itezhi Tezhi 120MW and Kabompo 34MW. The imports from Congo are really done for the benefit of Zimbabwe and South Africa since Zambia supplies power to both these countries. From 6PM when the Zambian mines cease operating about 600MW is exported.

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Hwange Review

2010-01-31T07:32:00.000-08:00

Situated in western Zimbabwe in the Matebeland North province, Hwange is only some 100 km from the majestic Victoria Falls one of the most visited places in Africa. The nearest city to Hwange amongst cities in Zimbabwe is Bulawayo the second largest city in Zimbabwe after Harare the capital of Zimbabwe. It is some 337km from Bulawayo and less than an hour's drive from Victoria falls.

The town was initially known as Wankie before changing its name in 1982. The new name is not an out of this world variant of the original name in terms of pronounciation. It is a small town of less than 100 000 people whose existence is centred around two main activities namely coal mining and related power generation as well as tourism driven by the magnificent and gigantic Hwange National Park.

Underneath the town and its surrounding areas are extensive coal deposits that began to be exploited in the early 1970s. Electricity generation from steam produced by coal only started recently in the mid-1990s. The coal deposits in Hwange are amongst the largest in the world and estimated to last 1000 years.

Hwange National Park

This enormous park is some 14600 square kilometres of total African bush. Being in the park feels like being in the undiscovered Africa with its majestic wild animal life including lions (shumba in Shona), elephants, giraffe and many others including all the African big five animals.

The park has the largest head of elephants which at one point the government of Zimbabwe was concerned they were out-stripping the resources available in the park. The animals frequently cross the boarder into Botswana freely. The park is managed by Zimbabwe's National Park services. During certain periods of time, hunters are allowed to hunt specific animals at a fee. The hunting is highly controlled and regulated to preserve the animals in the park. Sadly animals in the park fall victim to illegal indiscriminate poachers.

Hwange Safari Lodge

Places to stay when visiting Hwange will include the safari lodge. It is owned and operated by African Sun Hotels based in Harare. The lodge offers 100 rooms and conference facilities which makes the park even ideal for corporate retreats.

The lodge is located right at the boarder of the park and offers game drives and expert guides within the park.Where the rooms are situated, guests can have a clear look at the famous water hole where all animals come to take a sunset drink. Bush dinners are also a popular offering to international visitors at Hwange Safari Lodge. These usually cater for 12 to 50 people were local African cuisine is served together with western dishes. Local traditional dancers often entertain guests to the lodge.

Nearby Hwange Safari Lodge is also the popular pottery village were tourists can pick up curios and various gifts for family and friends resembling the true African experience. Reservations to the lodge can be done online by going to African Sun Hotels or in Harare were African Sun Hotels operates its central reservation.

Travel to Hwange

Traveling to Hwange is fairly easy. there are essentially two options which can be achieved by flying to Bulawayo or to Victoria falls and then travelling by road to the town. Bulawayo is however further than Victoria Falls from Hwange. Here you can find fiurther Bulawayo travel information.

Most visitors like to combine their visit to Victoria Falls with the visit to Hwange National Park. This indeed seems logical. One thing for certain to enjoy when visiting is the hospitality and kindness of the people of Zimbabwe.

Bulawayo Flights - How To Travel to Bulawayo

2010-01-31T07:22:00.000-08:00

Bulawayo flights are available for reservation everyday of the week. Bulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe after the capital of Zimbabwe, Harare. Travelling to Bulawayo is moderately easy even though the options are not as many as what might obtain in Europe or America.

There are essentially two ways to fly to Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. The first and fastest option is to fly direct from Johannesburg South Africa to Bulawayo a flight just above an 1 hour on South Africa Airways. There are daily Bulawayo flights available on this route originating from OR Tambo International Airport (formally) Johannesburg International in Johannesburg.

As of February 2010 there was only one flight on South African Airways leaving Johannesburg at 1145am and arriving in Bulawayo at 13:05. The same aircraft would leave Bulawayo for Johannesburg at 13:35 arriving at 15:00 hrs. The aircraft in use is an ERJ [similar to pictured] which accomodates less passangers and might require an early reservation. All flights are economy class. Up to date schedules may be viewed on FlySAA website.

Bulawayo flights are also available via Harare. Air Zimbabwe runs a daily flight between Harare and Bulawayo in the morning and in the evening. It is also possible to fly from Johannesburg direct to Harare and then connecting from Harare to Bulawayo.

However, it is worth noting that Air Zimbabwe is not as reliable as South African Airways and often cancels flights without adequate advance warning. This often forces travellers to drive were its possible to drive or to get stranded altogether. It is possible to travel to Bulawayo by road from Harare. This journey takes as much as 8 hours and is about 439 km long. The route passes through cities in Zimbabwe such as Kwekwe and Gweru.

Bulawayo flights are generally well priced when one is flying direct from Johannesburg. The most expensive route is flying from Johannesburg to Harare and then Bulawayo. When flying from London on Air Zimbabwe it is also resonably cheaper to connect to Bulawayo from Harare. Private chartered flights using light aircraft from Harare to Bulawayo are available at Charles Prince Airport in Harare. These flights are not only limited to Bulawayo but also include other destinations such as Kariba, Victoria Falls, Masvingo, Mutare and Hwange amongst others.

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ZIMPAPERS - Government Propaganda Vehicle?

2010-01-31T06:04:00.000-08:00

Zimpapers essentially standards for Zimbabwe Newspapers (1980) Limited. It is the parent or holding company of a state controlled group of publications covering newspapers, magazines, online publications, commercial printing and publishing. The noble idea behind the company when it was established in 1980 at Zimbabwe's political independence from Britain was to improve access to information especially amongst previously marginalised African indigenous people.

Zimpapers controls and is responsible for the following publications;

The Herald
The Sunday Mail
Kwayedza ( Shona language paper)
Chronicle
Sunday News
UMthunywa (Ndebele language paper)
Manica Post
H-Metro (Introduced 2009)
New Farmer (Magazine)
Zimbabwean Travel (Magazine)
Trends (Magazine)

It also has other interests in commercial printing and packaging through the following companies;

Natprint
BoldAds
Typocrafters

Of all its investments, The Herald is the leading money spinner with the biggest daily newspaper circulation in Zimbabwe. Zimpapers head office is in Harare the capital of Zimbabwe at Herald House. The company has a huge and effective distribution network that covers the entire country. This gives it an unmatched competitive advantage over many other publishing houses in the print media industry.

The government of Zimbabwe through ZANU PF over the years have taken active interest in Zimpapers to the point of absolute control via the Ministry of Information. Comparing the company's publications from the 80s and early 1990s, there was no hesitation to mention the president of Zimbabwe as Mugabe in headline titles. Today, this is a taboo to the company to the extent of heads rolling. There is now no single headline published by the company that refers to Robert Mugabe as just "Mugabe" with out any accompanying expressions of reverence and great respect and honour.

Zimpapers has been used extensively by the government led by ZANU PF party over the years to mislead and misrepresent information to the people of Zimbabwe. It's defenders argue that this is necessary in order to protect the public from American and British propaganda against Zimbabwe and it's revolutionary leaders.

The company is listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) with government as the majority shareholders. Other shareholders include the individual employees of the company as well as other big investors such as Old Mutual the insurance giant. Zimpapers is run by a board of directors whose interest are evidently inclined towards government policy as the major shareholder.

The share price for the company has largely remained suppressed due to government interference. Some hope however remains for growth once the Zimbabwe media space is completely and evidently liberalised. it appears investors still continue to wait on the side lines.

In 2009 as there was increased talk of media liberalisation, the company introduced another publication called H-Metro distributed mostly in Harare. Independent media analysts pointed out that the company had been given a head-start by government to establish itself via other publications ahead of opening up of the media space. Rumors has it that the company is working on setting up a private radio station ahead of others who have applied and have been waiting for a license.

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City of Gweru Overview

2010-01-30T11:39:00.000-08:00

Gweru is a city of about 200 000 inhabitants and like Kwekwe is located in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. However the city is superior to Kwekwe in population size, economy and general outlook. It is the capital of the Midlands Province and is at the boarder of the Matebeland region and Mashonaland region of Zimbabwe. The people of Gweru speak both Ndebele and Shona.

Politically the disturbances associated with Zimbabwe's history were tens of thousands of people were massucred by the government in the 80s also badly affected this city.

The city is connected to Harare the capital of Zimbabwe by an efficient road network and rail network that connects Harare and Bulawayo. Travellers from Harare to Bulawayo pass through Gweru. The city has a had a vibrant industrial sector before the decline of the Zimbabwean economy starting in year 2000. Bata shoe company is located in this city and exports its products to the region of southern Africa and beyond. Gweru is home to the famous Thornhill Air Force air base. It is a vibrant education hub with a number of reputable schools such as Thornhill High School, Midlands Christian College (MCC), Regina Mundi and Fletcher High School amongst others.

The recently opened Midlands State University (MSU) is also located in Gweru. The city holds many government offices decentralised from Harare to service the local community and Midlands in general. These would include the passport office where people travel from Kwekwe, Shurugwi and other surrounding areas to physically apply for passports. Suburbs and townships in the city include the famous Senga and Mkoba high density suburbs, Athlone and others.

The city has some attractive game reserves and dams such as Gwenhoro. Visitors coming to Gweru from harare or Bulawayo can only drive or come by train which has since become extremely unreliable due to obsolete equipment and infrastructural vandalism. Train services in Zimbabwe are run by the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ).

Commercial agriculture strives in and around Gweru including horticulture. Places to stay in this city will include hotels and lodges and short stay B&Bs. One outstanding and relatively new place to stay as one enters the city is The Village [pictured] which offers neat overnight accommodation to travellers.

Just like many cities in Zimbabwe, the city also lost many of its residents who joined other Zimbabweans abroad atthe height of Zimbabwe's problems.

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City of Kwekwe Overview

2010-01-30T10:49:00.000-08:00

Kwekwe is a city in Zimbabwe located in the Midlands province of the country. The Midlands province is literally in the middle of the country. Before becoming a city in the 90s it was a town run by a Town Council. The city has a population of not more than 150 000. It is a founded mostly on gold mining.

In fact Kwekwe has many gold mines surrounding it. It was first established by pioneers in the colonial times. Since then gold mining has continued until recent times when deposits are said to have diminished leaving most of the mines derelict. To this day construction of skyscraper buildings in the city's CBD is almost impossible due to underground disused mine shafts that makes the ground unstable for heavy buildings.

The city of Kwekwe also grew in the 1980s and 1990s due to steel production in nearby Redcliff. Redcliff which is an independent town council relies on Kwekwe for manpower supply in the steel industry at Ziscosteel a government owned multi-million dollar owned steel manufacturing concern. For this reason Kwekwe and Redcliff have been for a long time strategy towns for Zimbabwe's economy. Numerous other smaller steel concerns also sprouted in and around Kwekwe as a result of Ziscosteel and Zimasco. Sable Chemicals a manufacturer of fertilizer used in farming has also contributed to the city's economic activity.

Since the start of Zimbabwe's problems which essentially covered economics and politics, the city suffered ongoing decay driven by the falling value of Zimbabwe dollar. This obviously affected infrastructure across Kwekwe as a city. Roads and buildings suffered major degradation with no end in sight.

Kwekwe has a radius of over 80km and includes suburbs and townships such as Mbizo, Amaveni, Msasa, New Town, Chicago and others. Today the city is essentially a service city with less and less people employed in the once prospering steel industry. Politically Kwekwe is in the full control of the opposition to Zanu PF party MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai. Since 2000 residents of Kwekwe have consistently rejected ZANU PF rule.

There is some but little tourism activity in Kwekwe which includes hunting and fishing. The city has a few game parks which are also attractive to a few tourists. Places to stay in Kwekwe would be Golden Mile Motel and Shamwari Hotel both located very close to the CBD. There are also other few lodges and B&B facilities for any overnight or short stay.

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ZimOnline Website Review

2010-01-29T06:21:00.000-08:00

ZimOnline - short for Zimbabwe Online- is an online media project that was started by fleeing Zimbabwean media professionals in 2004 in Johannesburg , South Africa. Currently the publication is available online electronically in the form of a website. Like a plethora of many other online news publications reporting on Zimbabwe, the project is "part of efforts to establish an alternative voice by Zimbabwean journalists who found themselves restricted in the practice of their profession over the past few years".

Apart from the deteriorating Zimbabwe economy that squeezed any commercial venture including newspapers employing these professionals, the project was mainly a response to Zanu PF's hangman approach to media freedoms in Zimbabwe. In fact its stuff were employees of the now defunct and government closed Daily News in 2003. The project has now been running consistently for over 6 solid years under the determination of its journalists who apparently are deployed in many parts of Zimbabwe mostly working undercover because of Zimbabwe's restrictive media operating environment.

In June of 2007 the independent media fraternity in Zimbabwe and abroad was left shell shocked after the editor of ZimOnline Abel Mutsakani [pictured above] was shot and seriously injured by an unknown assailants who hit were three in number. The Editor was attacked at about 9pm as he had driven into the yard. Due to the ruthless attack of journalists in Zimbabwe suspicions were raised immediately that this could have been a government sponsored attack. This is also because the assailants did not say a word nor take anything from the victim.

ZimOnline also syndicates its stories for publication by many mostly Africa electronic and print publications. In Zimbabwe private independent newspapers have often quoted ZimOnline stories in key articles exposing government corruption and human rights abuses. ZimOnline stories can be said to be balanced and pro-democracy and freedom of expression. An analysis of most online publications on Zimbabwe will reveal a concerted effort to expose the regime in Zimbabwe. By default perhaps any objective story will expose Zanu Pf misgoverning regardless of who prepares it.

ZimOnline is as popular as many other online publications on Zimbabwe. With an estimated over 1.2 million Zimbabweans living abroad there is a desperate demand for objective stories and opinions on Zimbabwe. Even though traffic statistics to the site have not been made public, the site enjoys a good Alexa ranking associated with daily traffic of tens of thousands. The Zimbabwe Online project website is registered in South Africa.

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Lake Kariba Zimbabwe Tourist Resort

2010-01-28T10:25:00.000-08:00

Kariba is a town located in Zimbabwe whose growth and establishment has been centred about two key things; hydro electricity generation and tourism.

Hydro Electricity

In the 1950s the governments of Zimbabwe and Zambia constructed a dam wall across the Zambezi River which because one of the biggest suppliers of hydro-electricity to the two countries. Kariba dam as it became to be known was automatically situated at the boarder of Zimbabwe and Zambia. This became a community built around hydro plant maintenance.

Tourism

Lake Kariba is a major tourist attraction in Zimbabwe. It is a man-made island covering about 280 square km. Apart from being the largest inland Lake in Zimbabwe and the third on the African continent, this massive water body is home to many fish species that attract fishing enthusiasts from many parts of the world each year. The Lake is popular with tiger fish and what is known as Kariba kapenta. The Zambezi River which forms into the Kariba water body flows past the Victoria Falls before Kariba Dam and proceeds to the Indian Ocean in Mozambique. A very vibrant fish industry has developed around the Lake.

The Lake is equally claimed by both countries i.e Zambia and Zimbabwe. This is also the case with the Victoria Falls. One key attraction in the town is the dam wall. The dam wall stretches across the Zambezi River from a magnificent breath taking height connecting the two friendly nations. Places to stay in Kariba will include a wide range of lodges and houseboats owned by private tour and hospitality operators.

Kariba is popular with wedding couples as a honeymoon destination. Things to do for visitors to the town will include sport fishing, water sports and sunset cruise amongst other things. Visitors coming through the Zimbabwe side will have an easy opportunity to cross into Zambia on foot. The recent problems in Zimbabwe have naturally caused the Zambian side of things to be more attractive. However, with stabilisation in Zimbabwe hope for growth has now been rekindled and tourist figures continue to improve.

General Kariba Weather

The area has generally a different weather regime than the rest of Zimbabwe weather. The summers in Zimbabwe are hot. Around the lake the summers are extremely hot and very humid with rains falling constantly.

On the Zimbabwe side a full local government is in charge of the small but promising town. The town council manages the tourist resort through infrastructural development and maintenance. National government supported by-laws govern the town.

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The Shona People of Zimbabwe

2010-01-28T09:42:00.000-08:00

The Shona people are mainly located in Zimbabwe. They are the largest indigenous group in Zimbabwe followed by the Ndebele people and mostly reside in the southern region of the country. They speak a language called chishona or simply shona in short. This particular language is taught in schools alongside English and Ndebele as the three official languages.

The chishona speakers have their history in central Africa were they belonged to the Bantu people who spread out to the different regions of central and southern Africa. To this day the languages in southern Africa and Africa in general have many similarities.

The majority of Zimbabweans are Shona speakers. These are a people who value their culture. Ubuntu is a concept highly entrenched in most Zimbabweans. This is a communal sharing culture that has total respect for elders and ancestors. The values of Ubuntu are essentially Bantu values which are also found in the Ndebele people of Zimbabwe.

Shona as a language apart from being taught in schools is also taught in homes as children grow up. The best way to learn the language is to live amongst the speakers of the language themselves. Shona speakers view their language as easy to learn and quick to grasp. However pronunciation of some Shona words is sometimes difficult. For this reason there is a modernised version of the language as in the following example;

House - Imba (modern) or Musha ( more traditional)

To some visitors to Zimbabwe people speaking chishona speak very fast without room for a new-comer to follow exactly what they are saying. Usually when one speaks a statement will be over before the new listener makes the head or the tail of the sentence. This often frustrates many to be shona speakers trying to follow a conversation.

Good advice will be to isolate word by word and first try to get an understanding through how it is constructed. There is often an easy way to follow how a shona word is constructed.

All in all Zimbabweans cherish their languages both Ndebele and Shona and would rather communicate as such. However they are generally a sensitive and understanding people who do their best to switch to English when they come into contact with people who do not speak their own language.

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Nyanga Zimbabwe Top Holiday Resort

2010-01-28T09:34:00.000-08:00

Nyanga is a small tourist town North east of Harare the capital of Zimbabwe. Used loosely Nyanga refers to the whole mountainous region in this part of Zimbabwe in the low veld region. It is a very attractive tourist destination in Zimbabwe

The region is well known for its very cold winters and generally sharply dropping temperatures at night time. Most travellers to Nyanga carry along something warm in preparation of the cold nights. The region has vast wild fruit trees producing mangoes, bananas and apples in the wild. The wild fruits are mostly transported to Harare for commercial resale.

Nyanga also boasts of the tiny but attractive Nyangombe Falls. Tourists visiting Nyanga often find refreshing waters at the Nyangombe Falls which is run and maintained by Zimbabwe's Wildlife department.The general views in this mountainous landscape are absolutely breath taking.

The highest mountain in Zimbabwe in Inyangani Mountain. At it's peak one can take a nice view of Mozambique which borders Zimbabwe in the Eastern Highlands. The mountain has a mysterious history involving disappearances. The disappearances in Nyanga have been mostly associated with people who say things that "offend" ancestors who are the owners of the vast mountain.

Places to stay in Nyanga include Troutbeck Inn and Montclaire Hotel. Some visitors to the region prefer to take a drive to the Eastern Highlands from Mutare the nearest city. The drive at moderate speed in the mountainous area will last about 1 hour to 1 hour and a half. Along the route visitors can stop by plantations that grow tea and timber.

Driving from Harare to Nyanga is fairly easy and the roads well maintained and in good condition. The trip from Harare lasts some 1 hour 30 minutes at most. Fuel to travel in and around Zimbabwe is now largely available at average price of $1.20 per liter for petrol as of 2010.

The region is also popular with wedding couples for honeymoon getaways.

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TelOne A Complete Let Down

2010-01-28T08:57:00.000-08:00

Formerly known as PTC, TelOne is Zimbabwe's only fixed telephone operator. In 2003 the government of Zimbabwe issued a licence to a second operator called TeleAccess which subsequently failed to roll out service largely due to the deteriorating Zimbabwe economy and a badly buttered Zimbabwe currency.

30 years on after the country's independence in 1980 TelOne is still the sole operator with a mere 10% penetration rate out of a population of more than 13 million people. TelOne is presumably short for telephone one which communicates market leadership, quality and trusted service.

The company which is currently owned and controlled 100% by government is riddled with a severe infrastructural decay that has badly affected national service delivery. It's equipment besides being obsolete time and again breakdown especially in rainy seasons.

Nearly 10 years into the Internet age, TelOne still only provides Internet dial-up a very slow and obsolete method of connecting to a modern multi-media connected world. The company's tariffs have been widely questioned with customers complaining of receiving erratic bills. More than that the tariffs are beyond the reach of many becoming a huge portion of the overall company overhead structure.

Applications to TelOne for service can take as long as months to years. Often corruption is also rife amongst some of its employees who accept bribes to install or implement technical jobs expediently.

The government of Zimbabwe under the tight control of Zanu PF has been linked to strong interests in TelOne for the main purpose of monitoring of telephone conversations of opposition figures and even its own people.

Today in Zimbabwe mobile phone operators are relied on more than TelOne. Many business offices lack land line telephone connections and rely on mobile phones. Recently in order to meet the growing telephony demand, the company introduced CDMA wireless handsets which became extremely popular and eventually overcrowded. These now serve much better often than fixed lines. However they are still limited to Harare the capital of Zimbabwe.

Zimbabweans - Who Are They?

2010-01-27T14:03:00.000-08:00

Zimbabweans is a pluralistic name referring to people of Zimbabwe. People of Zimbabwe comprises of 3 main languages spoken in Zimbabwe namely English, Shona and Ndebele. There are other dialects and variants of the last two languages spoken by people in the different regions and cities of Zimbabwe.

Naturally, Zimbabwean people are a welcoming and friendly people whose resilience has often left the world astonished in the face of both economic and political brutality by the government of the day influenced by Zanu Pf party. Zimbabweans posses this rare characteristic which can indeed be credited for the general peace that has prevailed in their country. In comparative terms many societies especially in Africa would not have gone through what the people of Zimbabwe endured without a bloody uprising possibly degenerating into all out civil war.

The people of Zimbabwe are also well known the world over for a very high standard of educational achievement especially before Zimbabwe's problems which began in early 2000. For this reason Zimbabwe's sharpest skills are in foreign labour markets such as the UK, South Africa and America. Today Zimbabweans are found in just about any country in the world in search of opportunities and general political freedoms.

Socially, Zimbabweans generally place very high regard on family and family connection what is commonly known in Africa as ubuntu. Even for those people from Zimbabwe who have now settled abroad, home continues to be a central concern and commitment amongst them. In fact much of foreign currency coming into Zimbabwe comes from Zimbabweans now scattered in the diaspora to support families back home. A research of completing students showed that of those considering leaving the country for greener pastures less than one-third would give up their homes in Zimbabwe, and barely a quarter would be prepared to renounce their Zimbabwean citizenship.

In general Zimbabwe's people are hard workers. This is yet another reason for their high demand across the world in different sectors. The British system of education that was applied in Zimbabwe successfully without interruption until about year 2000 from 1980 at independence appeared to have produced a people with remarkable values.This certainly has been a asset to Zimbabwe's young whose background has made room for them.

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Meikles Hotel Review

2010-01-27T13:12:00.000-08:00

Considered Zimbabwe's best hotel Meikles Hotel is Harare's premier hotel which has a history going back as far as 1915. It stands out amongst other Harare Hotels. It is a favorite for international business executives and survived Zimbabwe's economic problems of the decade 2000 to 2010. The hotel has 287 rooms, 30 suites and is located in Harare's CBD separated from Zimbabwe's Parliament by the famous Africa Unity Square Gardens which house flower and curio vendors. This makes a gift market well within range when visiting Zimbabwe.

In terms of pricing Meikles hotel has one of the most expensive rooms in the land and was once used by superstar Michael Jackson in the 90s to house himself and his entourage.It is said he occupied a whole floor. The hotel has a standing reputation of high quality service and meal quality and its owners in the last few years acquired Gracelands Hotel in South Africa.

The hotel accepts international credit cards and mostly VISA card. As Zimbabwe is coming out of the economic problems and now with a stable currency unlike the old Zimbabwe currency more international cards are on course to be re-introduced. It will be prudent to check with the hotel the accepted cards at the time of planning to travel to Zimbabwe.

On the downside, Meikles hotel's neighbourhood has not been pleasant in the last few years. Hordes of unemployed youths who can't find jobs in Zimbabwe have found a safe haven in the area surrounding and next to the hotel's main entrance. These young people use these spots to carry out unregulated and illegal street foreign currency exchanges. They often run endless battles with the police. Even though they are unlikely to target the hotel's guests, their presence makes the entire environment unpleasant and sometimes overcrowded.

Despite this negative aspect, Meikles hotels remains Zimbabwe's top hotel out-doing many other top of the range hotels in Zimbabwe. Visit Meikles Website

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Harare Hotel Review

2010-01-27T12:37:00.000-08:00

The best Harare Hotel is one that has good customer service, highest standards combined with good rates. Harare - capital of Zimbabwe - has about 7 key hotels that are of relatively good standards, customer service and are frequented by visiting dignitaries to the country. The following are the main hotels in Harare;

Crown Plaza Monomutapa
Holiday Inn
Rainbow Towers (formerly Sheraton Hotel)
Jameson Hotel
Quality International Hotel
Meikles Hotel
Cresta Lodge

Of the seven Meikles Hotel in Harare's CBD is currently considered the best hotel in Zimbabwe and not only Harare. In fact Micheal Jackson stayed at this hotel when he visited the country in the 90s. Then the Zimbabwe economy was vibrant before the problems began. The hotel is still a favorite for most international executive visitors.

Another Harare Hotel of choice amongst visitors to Zimbabwe is Crown Plaza Hotel owned by African Sun the largest tourism and hospitality concern in Zimbabwe. Crown Plaza is also locate in Harare's CBD and like Meikles is within a 20 minute proximity to Harare International Airport. Like Meikles Hotel, Crown Plaza Hotel also offers airport transfers and has wireless broadband Internet.

Rainbow Towers formerly Sheraton Hotel is a hotel in Harare which is also of high standard. It also operates an airport shuttle and has business related facilities including Internet. Rainbow Towers has one of the largest auditoriums in Zimbabwe which is used for entertainment concerts as well as high capacity local and international conferences.

The remaining Harare Hotels are of good standards but may not be as good as the first three. Harare also has many lodges dotted across the city. One of the best lodges in Harare is Wild Geese Lodge located some 15 minutes from the CBD and some 30 minutes from the international airport.

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Zimbabwe Today - Latest Update

2010-01-25T09:59:00.000-08:00

Zimbabwe today in 2010 is a country in a mix of hope and despair. The hope comes from the arrest of inflation through dollarization were businesses can now transact in more stable currencies. The economy has began showing signs of recovery. Formal business is returning and getting a job is showing signs of promise. The despair in Zimbabwe today revolves around the continued political problems. The inclusive government still appears to be having serious trouble finding solid ground.

The false starts on the constitutional reform process at the heels of an MDC temporary partial withdrawal from the government or rather from cooperating with Zanupf are all tell-tell signs that have left many Zimbabweans very uncomfortable. The introduction of the currencies in Zimbabwe also saw the start of a new nightmare - armed robberies. Since late 2008 when the multi-currency system started numerous armed robberies and bank heists have been reported. Most of the criminals were arrested to te credit of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP).

Public education, public health and general social service have been improving including to an extent prison conditions. Other international organisations such as the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have been very active in Zimbabwe's prisons. Hospital and public education fees continue to be beyond the reach of many. In fact all government funded programs and services have generally been slow to take-off even though signs of improvement are evident.

Basic provisions are available in Zimbabwe today. Shops that once resembled a war zone after brutal looting sprees at the behest of the government of the day have now managed to refill. Specific supermarket chains such as Spar, TM and Food King dominate the grocery landscape especially in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe people indeed feel the signs of relief from a troubled Zimbabwe economy of some three years ago in the mid 2000s. Generally inflation has been on the downward trend and economic growth expected to be significant some even projecting double digit growth.

Public transportation appears to be improving too with service providers able to use stable currencies to reinvest in their businesses. Public utility service providers such as ZESA ( for electricity) and City Councils (for water) are making progress albeit slow. Water shortages are still rife in certain cities in Zimbabwe and certain suburbs in Harare in particular. The transition from the valueless Zimbabwe dollar to real currencies has also sent shock-waves to the general public concerning utility bills. Bills for water and electricity used to be amongst the cheapest in the food basket in Zimbabwe, these have now turned out to be very expensive with poor households receiving bills even as high as US$1000.00.

Food in Zimbabwe today is generally affordable with a loaf of bread costing as as little as 50cents (United States).For a days wage of $5.00 a breadwinner can pick up a few household supplies to sustain a small family for a day. This is perhaps the most appreciated of all by the general Zimbabwean populace. Comparatively, Zimbabwe is still on the expensive side taking into account what obtains in South Africa its biggest trading partner.

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What is the Zimbabwe House?

2010-01-25T08:53:00.000-08:00

The Zimbabwe House is the official residence set aside for the President of Zimbabwe currently President Robert Mugabe to host official visitors to the country. It also has some offices where the President can carry out his official duties. Usually official state functions, events and meetings involving foreign dignitaries are held at the Zimbabwe House in Harare, Zimbabwe. [pictured - Morgan Tsvangirai speaking, Robert Mugabe watching]

In 2009 at the creation of the inclusive government involving Mr Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara as well as President Robert Mugabe, Ministers, The Deputy Prime Minister and the Prime Minister were sworn in at this official government property.

The Zimbabwe House is heavily guarded with 24hour state security. In fact the property is located in a 6pm to 6am curfew zone. It is in the same vicinity with the State House which is the official residence of the president (even though President Mugabe has since relocated to another private residence). Also close to it is the head office of the national police as well as an army barracks. Most government buildings were inherited in 1980 at independence from the colonial government.

The Zimbabwe House remains an iconic symbol of Zimbabwe's history mostly from a colonial perspective and the advent of independence. Its design and outlook in many was resembles colonial Rhodesia and even some buildings in medieval Britain. The building is fully maintained by the government and is a building of great importance in the Zimbabwean perspective hence is high security make-up.

Due to the strict rules and regulations governing photographing security protected buildings photos of the buildings are difficult to come by.

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Zimbabwe Newspapers Facts and Figures

2010-01-23T00:58:00.000-08:00

Zimbabwe newspapers are not as many as compared to other African countries such as South Africa and Kenya. Newspapers in Zimbabwe are dominated by state controlled publications such as the Zimbabwe Herald, the Sunday Mail, the Chronicle and the Sunday News. In fact Zimpapers, the Zimbabwe government publisher dominates the newspaper market in Zimbabwe.

This is not by coincidence. If anything it's actually by design, government design. Zimbabwe has the most difficult media landscape in the world were private newspapers operate under a cloud of uncertainty and some worrying degree of fear and intimidation.This also extends even to the electronic media were only Zimbabwe TV is the only operator for years without any private competition or alternative voice in that space.

Zimbabwe newspapers that belong to private publishers are in fact a handful at the national level. Two of them are The Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard owned by Mr Trevor Ncube the publisher of the Mail and Guardian in next door South Africa. The other private newspaper is the Financial Gazette commonly known as Fingaz which rumor has it that it's owned and bank rolled by Zanupf linked Gideon Gono the controversial Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

Pictured above is Trevor Ncube selling The Zimbabwe Standard as a way of protesting against threatened media freedoms at a traffic intersection in Harare, Zimbabwe.

The rest of the private newspapers in Zimbabwe were shut down in the last 10 years of deepening economic and political crisis at the behest of senior then ruling party politicians. In terms of circulation, the leading paper is the Herald which is available in most cities in Zimbabwe. The Herald is estimated to have a circulation of about 20 000 readers per day. At its pick before Zimbabwe's problems it is said to have crossed the 100 000 mark. The Zimbabwe Independent had a circulation hovering around 5000 readers per week (excluding pass-on readers).

The following is a summary list of Zimbabwe news papers starting with the one with widest circulation - click to follow the links;

There are numerous magazines and newsletters published in Zimbabwe. The biggest newsletter is that from the office of the Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai called The Prime Minister with a circulation of over 100 000. The weekly newsletter was vehemently opposed by the government but it could not be stopped due to no requirement by law to register a newsletter in Zimbabwe. The government has a track record of frustrating access to information at the point of registration.

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A New Zimbabwe Hope?

2010-01-22T13:35:00.000-08:00

A New Zimbabwe is what the people of Zimbabwe are expecting out of the newly formed inclusive government. Zimbabwe history is one of painful experiences, poverty, injustice and human rights excesses. 12 months on since February 2009 the economy of Zimbabwe has some signs of renewal. The current Zimbabwe situation is generally that of hope and promise. For many working in the civil service, the promise of a new and better Zimbabwe appears to be still elusive. Due to continued sanctions the new government of Zimbabwe is failing to access balance of payments support.

Civil servants in Zimbabwe are still earning meagre salaries of maximum $350 per month for the most senior professionals in government. Teachers have repeatedly threatened strike action to press for better salaries under the so called new Zimbabwe dispensation. Perhaps the question to be asked is what really constitutes a new dispensation in Zimbabwe. For many it's more than human rights, justice or access to long elusive freedoms. First and foremost in the minds of the generality of the people of this country a new Zimbabwe is a place where access to means of economic survival are free for all. It's first bread and butter issues before human rights and freedoms.

A new dispensation is defined by reasonable access to gainful jobs in Zimbabwe in all sectors including manufacturing sector. This is not hard to understand, over 80% of people in Zimbabwe are not employed and survive through informal selling and buying. However, with the stabilisation of the Zimbabwe currency and Zimbabwe economy in general, buying low and selling high as was possible during inflationary days is no longer possible. People are now in desperate need of formal jobs that can sustain them and their families month in and month out.

The new Zimbabwe hope that the new government brought in at the beginning of 2009 may slowly fade if nothing tangible is realised in the coming year by ordinary Zimbabweans the same people that carried the heaviest burden of 10 years of untold economic ruin.The signing of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) in Zimbabwe was absolutely welcome but there is much more that is required before the people's patience runs thin.

In Africa there is a popular saying "Not yet Uhuru" meaning not yet freedom. In Zimbabwe we might as well say not yet a new Zimbabwe until economic fundamentals are fixed! In the meantime the idea of a new and prosperous Zimbabwe will remain engraved in the minds and inspirations of a brave people of Zimbabwe. Until Zimbabwe's sons of the soil return from the scatter abroad perhaps it will still be not yet uhuru.

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Sunday Mail Zimbabwe Review

2010-01-22T12:14:00.000-08:00

The Sunday Mail Zimbabwe is a Sunday paper that is published in Zimbabwe by Zimpapers the same publishers of the Zimbabwe Herald a daily print paper. The Sunday Mail is published in Harare and is the biggest circulation Sunday paper. It's sister paper published in one of many Zimbabwe's cities , Bulawayo is known as the Sunday News.

The Sunday Mail is popular amongst Zimbabwean readers due to its rich Sunday leisure stories that cover domestic issues and lifestyle issues. It also carries one of the thickest pages of classified advertisements in Zimbabwe. Apart from lifestyle articles, the paper also publishes business, sports and political stories. On a comparative scale, The Sunday Mail Zimbabwe is more tolerant of zanupf opponents than the daily Zimbabwe Herald and other government controlled publications.

The Sunday Mail appears to carry a message of reconciliation and toned down political vitriol against government's perceived enemies. Published in broadsheet format the paper comes in many layers of sections and costs about US$1.00 per copy. It is also equally popular with advertisers and Zimbabwe job seekers find it a very useful tool.

The paper as an online version which can be found on The Sunday Mail Zimbabwe. Not all stories that appear in the print edition are available online. The Online version of the paper carries most of the main stories in the print edition but lacks the other leisure articles enjoyed by paying readers. The paper is also available in the digital edition available for purchase from the Sunday Mail website.

The Sunday Mail Zimbabwe competes with the Zimbabwe Standard published by Mr Trevor Ncube the publisher of the Mail and Guardian based in South Africa. The Zimbabwe Standard is a private paper that is critical of the government of President Robert Mugabe.

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Zimbabwe Dollars Overview

2010-01-22T11:44:00.000-08:00

Zimbabwe Dollars is the official currency of the Republic of Zimbabwe. The currency was introduced in 1980 at independence from colonial Britain. The currency had been extremely strong against major currencies for as many as 25 years until about 1998. The Zimbabwe currency traded at par with the British Pound in the 80s and fluctuating sometimes to even become stronger.

By the late 1990 there were signs of weakening of the Zimbabwe dollars as well as the Zimbabwe economy most as a result of poor unilateral policies of the government of President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe. Multi-lateral institutions policies of structural adjustment which forced African governments to devalue their currencies to increase exports also affected the Zimbabwe dollar. In the late 90s the government of Zimbabwe made two key economic blunders that supped strength out of the Zimbabwe dollar. The unbudgeted award of veteran fighters of war gratuities and the involvement of Zimbabwe in the endless foreign war in The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) plundered national foreign currency reserves resulting in the currency weakening.

Yet another blunder of the new millennium that destroyed and in fact was the final straw on the Zimbabwe exchange rate was the government sanctioned farm inversions that began in about 2001 country wide. The farm inversions caused unprecedented effects on the national economy that led to shortages and prices hikes. This compounded Zimbabwe's problems apart from destroyed Zimbabwe agriculture.The Zimbabwe dollar engaged in a serious downward trend that saw value being eroded on a daily basis. Due to sanctions that followed from the west, the Reserve Bank in Zimbabwe started to print money in order to fund government projects. Inflation ballooned out of control. From a small denomination as small as $20, Zimbabwe currency denominations rose to millions of Zimbabwe dollars and even trillions. The highest denomination became a 100 trillion note never before seen in modern world history.

Zimbabwe dollars were for sale in thriving parallel market exchange were one American dollar would be exchanged for as much as 100 billion Zimbabwe dollars. Zimbabwe became a country of millions of trillionaires whose money could not provide for them. To retain value fuel coupons became the new currency were schools and other service providers were quoting "prices" in Zimbabwe fuel coupons. This is because fuel coupons were amongst the few items permitted by the government of the day to trade in foreign currency. The Zimbabwe situation continued to deteriorate to the point of no return until in late 2008 an early 2009 when a new government of national unity was sworn-in.

In late 2008 the government had banished the Zimbabwe dollars and introduced a multi-currency system, the first in the world that resulted in inflation in Zimbabwe failing overnight and good and services once again becoming available. Thsi move was generally welcomed by much of the Zimbabwe people as it promised a better life and prosperity once again.

The following are some of the Zimbabwe dollars that were released into circulation over the years;

$20 1997
$10 1997
50 000 Zimbabwe dollars Bearer chq 2006
$100 000 $ Bearer chq 2006
20 000 $ Bearer chq 2003
100 Billion $ Bearer chq 2008
$100 1995
$500 2004
25 Billion $ Bearer chq 2008
50 Billion $ Bearer chq 2008
5 Billion $ Bearer chq 2008
250 Million $ Bearer chq 2008
10 000 $ Bearer chq 2007
200 000 $ Bearer chq 2007

$5 Bearer chq 2007 (Revalued)
100 000 $ Bearer chq 2007
$1 Bearer chq 2006 (Revalued)
750 000 $ Bearer chq 2007
$20 Bearer chq 2007 (Revalued)
50 Million $ Bearer chq 2008
$100 Bearer chq 2007
500 Million Zimbabwe Dollars Bearer chq 2008
5000 Bearer $ chq 2007
10 Million $ Bearer chq 2008
2500 Bearer $ chq 2006
$50000 2008
50 Million $ 2008
$20 2007 (Revalued)

$500 000 2008
5 Billion $ 2008
20 Billion $ 2008
10 Billion $ 2008
1 Billion $ 2008
500 million $ 2008
50 Billion Zimbabwe dollars 2008

$100 2009 (Revalued)
$5 2009 (Revalued)
$1 2009 (Revalued)
$10 2007 (Revalued)
$5 2007 (Revalued)
$1 2007 (Revalued)

*** Revalued refers to the central bank practice of removing excess zeros from the currency in order for dat-to-day computing to remain effecient. This happened thrice in Zimbabwe each of the times inflation returned even more ferocious.

The following are some selected pictures of the now defunct Zimbabwe money;

(above) Assorted Zimbabwe currency set 1 - click to enlarge

(above) Assorted Zimbabwe currency set 2 - click to enlarge

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Zimbabwe TV Station

2010-01-21T13:04:00.000-08:00

Zimbabwe TV officially known as ZTV as of January 2010 was fully in the grip of the government. ZTV is owned and operated by Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) a government parastatal directly reporting to the Minister of Information belonging to Zanu Pf party under the inclusive government or GPA. Essentially Zimbabwe has one TV station that broadcasts to less that 60% of the Zimbabwe people. In the 90s coverage of the TV station was over 80% but the crisis that struck the Zimbabwe econony for 10 years from 2000 to about 2009 saw much of the equipment becoming absolete with no hope for repair.

Zimbabwe TV has been used heavily by Zanupf party lead by Robert Mugabe the President of Zimbabwe especially during national elections to quash the opposition MDC party led by Morgan Tsvangirai. Today the TV station which has repeatedly been headed by pro-Zanu PF managers operates 24 hours per day. It's programming has a local content bias which became the norm under the former fierce Minister of Information Jonathan Moyo. The TV station broadcasts in all 3 languages of Zimbabwe namely English , Shona and Ndebele especially during news bulletins.

ZTV broadcasts from Pockets Hills in Harare which is also the same place from which radio stations also controlled by government broadcasts from. Other Zimbabwe cities such as Gweru and Bulawayo also have broadcasting studios owned and controlled by the state. The ongoing political discussions amongst other things is working to release the grip of government on electronic broadcasting such as Zimbabwe TV to allow private players to come in.

Zimbabwe TV used to broadcast over the internet but this has since stopped largely due to a lack of funds and outright poor management and a lack of a strategic vision and goals. As the only source of local over the air electronic news ZTV it commands a reasonable following.

Zimbabwe TV today faces stiff competition from satelite TV decoders with free to air channels. These carry news channels and christian channels from South Africa and all over the African continent and overseas. In terms of political and economic news as well as entertainment, Zimbabweans appear to tune in more frequently to South African channels such as SABC.

In 2009, ZBH promised the introduction of yet another TV channel TV2. This is yet to happen. There was also talk of opening a 24 hour news channel to counter "western propaganda". All this appears to be empty talk which repeatedly comes to nothing. The company itself lacks the resources, skills, money and manpower to sustain a respectable 24 hour news channel than can compete with what today's viewers see on free to air satelite TV.

Zimbabwe TV is obviously in desparate and urgent need of a total revamp.

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Flag of Zimbabwe

2009-12-10T20:27:00.000-08:00

Flag of Zimbabwe is an important national symbol that is introduced, taught and inculcated in kids just entering the school system. Introduced on the 18th of April 1980 the Zimbabwe flag protected by the Flag of Zimbabwe Act a law that severely pernalises "any person who burns, mutilates or otherwise insults the Flag or a flag which resembles or is intended to resemble the Flag or any reproduction thereof, in circumstances which are calculated or likely to show disrespect." The person "shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years."

As shown in the picture, the flag has 5 distinct colors that the Zimbabwe people have come to be familar with mostly those who are literate. These are as folows;

Green: represents Zimbabwe agriculture the backbone of the Zimbabwe economy
Yellow: the vast wealth of minerals in the country including gold, diamonds, coal, gas etc
Red: the blood shed during the war of the liberation that ended in 1980
Black: black indeginous people in Zimbabwe and their majority rule
White: generally represents reconciliation. Specifically the vertical white stripe represents the white community in Zimbabwe while the central horizontal white stripe represents peace
Stone bird - representation of Great Zimbabwe - house of stone- in Masvingo Zimbabwe.

The flag of Zimbabwe is used during state functions, official government buildings, schools and other semi-state institutions. For many Zimbabweans, the Zimbbabwe flag is a strong reminder of Zanupf mis-rule under Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe. For this reason private individuals rarely hoist the flag on their private properties unless they are strongly linked to the ruling party.

This is partly because the Zanu PF party flag carries the same colors as the national flag. Secondly the history of Zimbabwe of impumity and human rights abuses has caused the flag to be disassociated with patrotism but political and economic abuse.

It is likely that in the future more and more Zimbabweans will find the Zimbabwe flag a true national symbol of patriotism and freedom as the political dispensation changes. The opposition party MDC under Morgan Tsvangirai now in the inclusive government have often made an attempt to separate national symbols of significance like this flag from Zanu PF.

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History of Zimbabwe

2009-10-29T12:54:00.000-07:00

Covering Zimbabwe crisis, politics and currency

History of Zimbabwe is long and riddled with painful periods. The history of the formation of a nation called Zimbabwe dates back to the 1800 with the British settler occupation right through the I Chimurenga, II Chimurenga and the liberation struggle which finally gave birth to Zimbabwe on the 18th of April 1980. You may want to read facts about Zimbabwe for some fast points on Zimbabwe.

From 1980 onwards another chapter in Zimbabwe was opened which in the early 1980s witnessed day light massacre of over 20000 people in the Matebeland region as a tribal conflict. The massacre was government sponsored and lasted for years before the formation of a unity government by ZANU PF and PF ZAPU. The death of these many people became known as the Gukurahundi. A very sad and dark period in Zimbabwe's short history.

Much of 1980 to 1995 was a time of great prosperity for Zimbabwe people with unmatched economic growth as well as bumper harvests in the fields. Cities in Zimbabwe prospered. It is within this period that Zimbabwe became known as the bread basket of Africa. In fact SADC a regional body entrusted Zimbabwe with regional food security for many years. Since then Zimbabwe turned into a basket case relying on food sponsorship from international donors and governments.

History of Zimbabwe Crisis and Currency

The brief history of Zimbabwe took a sad turn in the year 2000 with the government sanctioned inversion of white owned commercial farms. This also marked the beginning of a terrible protracted political and economic crisis in the country that would last for nearly 10 years with a ray of hope and light only coming in 2009 with the formation of a yet but troubled inclusive government.

The crisis embarrassingly ate into the integrity of the Zimbabwe currency the Zimbabwe dollar. From a value of about Z$1 to US$10 about 1996 the currency fell to millions against major currencies and further to billions and trillions. By this time most countries including Zimbabwe's neighbors would not accept the Zim dollar as foreign exchange. In 1980 the biggest denomination of a Zimbabwe dollar currency was about $20 which at that time was 1 to 1 with the British Pound. In 2008 the biggest denomination was a Z$100 trillion note.

During the period 2000 to 2009 it increasingly became common to find Zim dollar bills strewn on the streets. School children were known to refuse certain bills even though huge in number which in reality were worthless at the shops. To preserve value, fuel companies introduced fuel coupons which were sold in United States Dollars. Government was forced to endorse the sell of fuel in foreign currency after a crippling period of shortages running into years. The government's own fuel company NOCZIM could not source the foreign currency and meet the demand on the ground; apart from the frightening dog eat dog corruption involving senior government ministers. This resulted in liberalization of the energy sector (except electricity) which led to more private players to import fuel.

During the same time in the history of Zimbabwe, millions of young educated professionals in the teaching, medical and manufacturing fields left the country for greener pastures in Europe, America and South Africa. This left a dent on the population of Zimbabwe. Flights to the UK were literally full every day during that time as the UK had no visa regime against its former colony Zimbabwe. Since then stringent regulations have been introduced by British authorities but only after millions had found their way in.

The economy continued to fall very sharply as tourists avoided visiting once a top tourist destination in southern Africa.It because absolutely ridiculous to spend money in Zimbabwe as a tourist as the government fixed the official exchange rate to a level that made a cup of coffee cost as much as US$10.00. Many visitors to the country who unwittingly used credit cards received a shock of their lives on returning home to find bills running into thousands of dollars for a Zimbabwe trip that would ordinarily cost a fraction. Repeated urgent calls to the government to address this issue by tourism and hospitality operators largely went unnoticed. The impact on tourism was devastating.

As business was digesting all these troubles, the government out of political knee-jerk reactions ordered a price slash which saw prices in ALL shops slashed by up to 70%. Hordes of thugs and criminals took to the shopping centers pretending to be government enforcement agencies and looted shops. Paying a fraction of good's worth. This moment of madness in the history of Zimbabwe which lasted months wiped shop shelves clear of any products whatsoever. Many businesses went under never to recover. Unemployment spiked on account of this action.

What followed were months of starvation and hunger amongst the generality of the people save for senior politicians and rulers most of whom own farms and have means to survive. Basic foodstuffs started appearing on the streets whilst food shelves in shops were empty. All hygiene standards were abandoned with meat, milk and fish available on the streets. These were being sold exorbitantly by private individuals in foreign currency.

There were great fears of disease with cholera only appearing some years later on account of poor city water supplies with parts of cities running dry for years. Capital of Zimbabwe Harare was most hit.

History of Zimbabwe Politics

Since 1980 until about 1990 Zimbabwe remained largely a one-party state. University of Zimbabwe students under the leadership of now President of the MDC splinter party Professor Arthur Mutambara fiercely demonstrated against the government. Their determination was for a multi-party state which gave way to the first credible opposed elections in 1990 were ZANU PF stood against a new party ZUM founded by Edgar Tekere a former ZANU PF senior founding member.

It was only the creation of the MDC in 1999 nearly 20 years after independence which gave ZANU PF a run for its money. Founded on labour movement strength the MDC gave ZANU PF serious headaches by overwhelminly defeating it at the country's first ever referundum in 2001 on a new constitution.

Pressure on ZANU PF steadily increased from MDC receiving temporary relief with the break-up of the party into two when another part of the party with mostly Matebeland senior members left the main party claiming to be the real MDC. However strong popular support remained with the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai which regrouped and continued with its quest to remove the government led by Robert Mugabe.

A highlight of the history of Zimbabwe politics was in March 2008 when Tsvangirai beat Robert Mugabe at the national presidential polls. Even though controversial the state appointed elections organising commission called ZEC said Mr Tsvangirai did not have the required 51% to becoming the President. The results were only released over a month later. In all previous elections results would normally be avaliable in a day or two.

The runoff presidential election which followed on June 27 2009 was a violent one which saw many people lose their lives due to untold cruel human savage which included be-headings and reports of MDC supporters being buried alive. MDC supporters were also reported to burn houses and carry out revenge attacks on ZANU PF supporters. Many of them were arrested.

People especially in rural areas lost limps and live stock to so called ZANU PF militia that operated in hordes and held forced night vigils for villagers. Mr Tsvangirai pulled out of the election sighting violence on the eve of the run-off leaving Robert Mugabe to stand alone. The government went ahead with the election saying it was too late for Mr Tsvangirai to pull out and Robert Mugabe "won" 80% of the vote. Most MDC supporters stayed at home on the day obeying the call from their party leader.

11 February 2009 witnessed the swearing in of Mr Tsvangirai as the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe after a long and painful negotiated settlement which many viewed as flawed. ZANU PF held on to all key ministries save for the ministry of finance which was eventually headed by an outspoken MDC senior legislator Tendai Biti

In October 2009 only 9 months into the inclusive government Mr Tsvangirai announced his party's decision to "disengage" from all contact with ZANU PF in the inclusive government which included cabinet meetings boycott as well as council of ministers meeting boycott.

Many in Zimbabwe feel the only real change will come with the departure of Robert Mugabe whom Western countries have tried in vain to force to resign through sustained media pressure and through sanctions. On his part, ZANU PF is internally disturbed as key powerful hawks take position to replace the 85 year old leader.

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Zimbabwe Exchange Rate

2009-10-28T14:50:00.000-07:00

As of late 2008 the Zimbabwe exchange rate ceased to be of any major importance as the government dropped the use of the Zimbabwe dollar in favor of a multi-currency system.

The only exchange rates of interest in the Zimbabwe economy today are cross rates of currencies used in Zimbabwe for instance South African Rand and Botswana Pula or American Dollar. The Zimbabwe dollar has since ceased to operate as the Zimbabwe currency effectively making Zimbabwe a country without its own currency.

However before the introduction of foreign currency transactions in 2008, the Zimbabwe exchange rate to major currencies was determined by the parallel market system in dark allies. The Zimbabwe dollar fell to exchange rate levels of 1 US$ to Z$100 trillion. This meant that at one point a loaf of bread in Zimbabwe cost as much as Z$100 trillion. This is the time people had amounts in bank accounts of zillions of dollars.

Yet in 1995 or there about 1 Z$ was equivalent to about US$10. In 1980 the Zimbabwe dollar was at par with the British Pound.

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MDC Zimbabwe

2009-10-28T14:22:00.000-07:00

Movement for Democratic Change Zimbabwe

In actual fact there are two MDC Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe today. The MDC was born in 1999 out of Zimbabwe's strongest labour movement the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU).

The party became the strongest opposition ever against the Zimbabwe president Robert Gabriel Mugabe on his 30 year grip on power. The party finally split in 2005 with the bigger chunk of support base remaining with Morgan Tsvangirai (pictured) at the head office in the capital of Zimbabwe. The other MDC led by Professor Arthur Mutambara has a relatively weak support base. It's leader is controversial because of some statements often made that appear to sympathize with the Robert Mugabe regime which many hold accountable for the state of the Zimbabwe economy and the fate of the Zimbabwe currency.

The head office of MDC Zimbabwe is at Harvest House in Harare. The MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai secured almost a majority in Parliament at the march 2009 presidential and parliamentary poll. It currently holds the powerful position of Speaker of Parliament in the national House of Assembly.

The role of the MDC in writing the Zimbabwe history is undisputed.

The MDC has also other offices across the continent of Africa especially in key places such as South Africa. An office also exists in the United Kingdom as well as the United States. Within Zimbabwe, the party has provincial and other grassroots offices. These help easily mobilize support on the ground.

In 2009 the MDC entered into an inclusive government with ZANU PF party. Nine months into the partnership the MDC announced its disengagement from any cooperation with ZANU PF party especially cabinet meetings. This was followed by three weeks of sustained cabinet boycotts every Tuesday until the intervention of SADC.

Morgan Tsvangirai reversed the boycott for 30 days on the 05th of November 2009 following a SADC mini summit in Mozambique to solve the deepening divisions within the government.

MDC has a dedicated website which also covers their policies.

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Morgan Tsvangirai British Puppet?

2009-10-28T14:16:00.000-07:00

Covering Tsvangirai Morgan Profile, biography, latest news and photos

Morgan Tsvangirai is the president of the Movement for Democratic Change [MDC] Zimbabwe's most credible opposition party that beat Zimbabwe President's Robert Mugabe at the March 29 2008 Presidential and Parliamentary Polls.

Tsvangirai as he is commonly known in the capital of Zimbabwe Harare and the streets of other cities in Zimbabwe is also the Prime Minister of the Republic of Zimbabwe. He is the founding president of the MDC a party that was born out of Zimbabwe's fierce labor movement in the 90s. Since 2001 Tsvangirai's party has presented stiff political competition to the incumbent Mugabe at almost each and every election.

Robert Mugabe and his party ZANU PF have long considered Tsvangirai a puppet of the west especially the British government. In turn Morgan Tsvangirai and his party the MDC have fearlessly accused Zimbabwe's President Mugabe of ruining Zimbabwe's economy and running down the Zimbabwe currency through unstoppable money printing at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

In the eyes of many observers both political leaders have made costly mistakes yet in all this Mugabe's mistakes have been more grievous than any of his political antagonists. Tsvangirai has appeared to align himself with western governments a loophole fully exploited by Mugabe's party to try and discredit him at home and in Africa.( Picture - Tsvangirai and late wife Susan Tsvangirai)

On his part, Mugabe is blamed by the opposition for an ill-thought out and violent land reform programme in 2001 that plunged the people of Zimbabwe into an abyss of hunger and abject poverty especially for those working on the farms.

Born on 10 March 1952, Morgan Tsvangirai has over the years matured into a fearless and hard to crack opposition leader. This can be said to be a direct outcome of the history of Zimbabwe in general and his own experience at the hands of the Mugabe regime for nearly 10 horrifying years.

Perhaps the lowest point of his struggle for democracy in Zimbabwe came on 6 March 2009 when he lost his wife Susan Tsvangirai (pictured above) in a serious automobile accident on the Harare Masvingo road in Zimbabwe. There were early suspicions of foul play but Tsvangirai even though injured and in pain was quick to dispel the rumors and rather accept the loss of his wife as an accident.

Unlike his counter-part from the opposition Professor Arthur Mutambara in the inclusive government created in early 2009, Tsvangirai resembles more mature statesmanship. Business and civil society and the society in general in Zimbabwe and internationally have demonstrated outspoken respect for Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai was nominated Noble Peace Prize laureate for 2009 which was subsequently awarded to Barack Obama (seen with Tsvangirai at the State House below).

Even under the inclusive government, Tsvangirai has remained an object of attack and biased criticism by the ZANU PF controlled newspaper Zimbabwe Herald.

He is amongst few African leaders who have found favor with Washington even having an opportunity to meet with Barack Obama and Secretary Hillary Clinton in mid 2009.

You may refer to the links on the right of this post for constantly updated Tsvangirai latest news and Zimbabwe news in general.

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Zimbabwe Clothing

2009-10-28T14:04:00.000-07:00

Unlike Lesotho or Swaziland Zimbabwe clothing has generally been diluted to look more western. This is largely because of Zimbabwe history of colonization.

During times prior to colonization Zimbabwe people wore animal skin clothing that would cover the front and the back. With the coming of settlers western dressing was introduced and eroded what was once traditional dress. This traditional dress called nhembe is now left to traditionalists who are working hard to preserve cultural heritage. Even with these, they never walk the streets wearing Zimbabwe traditional clothing.

Zimbabwe therefore lacks a national dress. Even though women and men wear shirts, dresses and head gear made from African designed attire as shown in the picture this is no Zimbabwe clothing. It's African but not necessarily unique to Zimbabwe. The government of Zimbabwe a few years ago launched what was officially to be a national dress but it never saw light of day. The nation ignored it.

Most Zimbabwe professionals wear neck ties and suits. This is the same for women professionals. All in all Zimbabwe clothing is heavily western. With the advent of globalization young people dress mostly American with baggy jeans and t-shirts in universities and colleges.

The Zimbabwe population is largely still very resistant to dressing that exposes "more than necessary" especially in women. There have been cases of women being stripped naked altogether by mobs of people for wearing mini-skirts or too short a skirt even in the capital of Zimbabwe. This includes other cities in Zimbabwe. The generality of the population is still heavily conservative.

Most clothing in Zimbabwe comes from outside. Shoes, shirts, suits and skirts are imported from China and countries such as South Africa. Clothing imports rose sharply as the Zimbabwe economy continued to fall. Local clothing factories such as David Whitehead collapsed under the weight of a poor Zimbabwe currency and falling local demand.

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Zimbabwe Food

2009-10-28T13:44:00.000-07:00

Zimbabwe food is amazingly varied catering for people from different backgrounds including religion, cultural beliefs, social setting and dietary concerns. The majority of people in Zimbabwe which are mostly Shona and Ndebele speaking population of the country eat sadza and vegetable relish.

Sadza is special thick porridge made from maize meal or corn meal and is the staple diet of most Zimbabweans across the social divide. Sadza is usually accompanied by beef stew or chicken stew or just some green vegetables grown in backyard gardens in homes.

Rice and grilled or stewed chicken is also an important part of the Zimbabwean traditional food mix. For most rural folk this type of a meal is a special meal mostly associated with times of celebration such as Christmas, birthdays and weddings. Rice in itself is a mark of celebration and special consideration.[pictured - a typical Zimbabwe western meal.]

Other members of the Zimbabwean society find a meal in other cuisines catering for different religions such as Moslem and others. Sea food is available in Zimbabwe but is not popular amongst the generality of the population because of the relatively higher cost of the ingredients such as prawns.

Fish is however an important dietary mix for most Zimbabweans. Fish mostly comes from inland lakes and dams with some coming as far away as Beira and Maputo in Mozambique. Zimbabwe also boasts of Lake Kariba an enormous source of fish.

Potatoes are also an important source of food in Zimbabwean households. Potatoes can be made into mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes or fries or chips as they are better known in Zimbabwe.

A typical meal in Zimbabwe has traces of onions, salt, carrots, peas, green pepper, spices or tomatoes.

Most cities in Zimbabwe have Chinese take-away restaurants apart from fast food outlets such as Chicken Inn, Nandos and others.It is possible amongst the various types of Zimbabwe food as a visitor to find the western type of food as well as local traditional food. The state of the Zimbabwe economy has impacted negatively on how much people eat out.

Peanut butter is an important ingredient in preparing a typical Zimbabwean dish. It is usually mixed with green vegetables into a paste that is consumed with sadza. this is commonly known as muriwo une dovi.

Zimbabweans in urban areas have also a special type of Zimbabwe food that is mostly enjoyed during weekends. This is braaiing or barbecuing or gochi-gochi in local language. This involves grilling huge portions of beef and pork chops to enjoy with drinks. Usually people eat whilst standing and exchanging jokes and stories. This is typical of the capital of Zimbabwe, Harare.

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Zimbabwe Culture - An anatomy

2009-10-28T13:28:00.000-07:00

Covering Zimbabwe religion

Zimbabwe culture is deeply engraved in many of Zimbabwe people even for those who live in the different cities of Zimbabwe.

One of the key aspects of culture in Zimbabwe is respect for elders. Young people are taught at a tender age to respect elders and entertain strangers. This is the kind of Zimbabwe culture practiced and cherished by a significant population of Zimbabwe. It is also cultural for a young man who is marrying to pay lobola (bride price) to the father and family of his bride-to-be. Most marriages in Zimbabwe are customary marriages which are also recognized by law.

It is in Zimbabwe culture to treat visitors well by preparing a special meal especially including Zimbabwe food such as rice and stewed chicken. However in recent years the failing Zimbabwe economy played havoc with this age old custom.

A father under Shona culture in Zimbabwe is the head of the house and directs the affairs of a household. Even though fading due to massive campaigns against HIV AIDS in Zimbabwe some men have two or three wives. Polygamy is common in some rural areas but rare amongst urbanites and the younger generation. The new distasteful version of polygamy amongst a huge percentage of Zimbabwean men is unofficial polygamy known as small house. This is unknown to the "first" wife and can run for years. It's is thought to be the major cause of rapid spread of HIV amongst Zimbabweans.

When a father dies in Zimbabwe culture, his sons have the right to inherit his estate ahead of a female sibling. This is because it is dearly held that sons are the only ones that perpetuate the name of the family. Daughters take on another name (husbands name) after getting married. However, changes are occurring. In the last 15 years this practice was successfully challenged in a test case at the high court in Zimbabwe and a female sibling managed to inherit her fathers estate.

A significant number of Zimbabweans hold traditional medicine and sangomas in high regard. In fact traditional religion is equally popular in Zimbabwe just as much as Christianity. It is true that most people even business people rely on traditional interventions to help their businesses prosper or to succeed in politics.

It is in Zimbabwe tradition to mourn the dead for a few days by gathering at their place of residence night and day before burying them. Cremation is very rare amongst indigenous Zimbabweans. In fact it's a near taboo. In most cases those who die are buried in rural homesteads. However due to frequency of death and the cost of transportation most people in urban areas are opting to bury the dead in city cemeteries.

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Cities in Zimbabwe

2009-10-28T12:59:00.000-07:00

Covering cities in Zimbabwe namely Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Mutare, Kwekwe and smaller towns

Key cities in Zimbabwe altogether are five in number. Harare is the capital of Zimbabwe and is located in Mashonaland region. Harare stands alone as one of the ten provinces in Zimbabwe. The City itself is best explained as New York City in New York State.Harare is fully covered here under capital of Zimbabwe. It is efficiently linked to other cities by a relatively good standard of road networks. It takes about 6 hours to drive from Bulawayo the furthest city from the capital.

Bulawayo

Bulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe and the capital of the Matebeland region. It has an estimated over 1 million people and lays some good 580km from the capital. It is the the nearest city to the borders with South Africa with Botswana being the closest. Bulawayo is served by daily flights from Johannesburg South Africa - South Africa Airways- and from Harare by the local airline Air Zimbabwe. It takes about 55 minutes by air from Harare to Bulawayo and daily morning and evening flights are available. However, Air Zimbabwe delays may occur.Air Zimbabwe also flies from Bulawayo to Victoria Falls. Charter flights can be arranged from Charles Prince Airport in Harare.

In the last two years some private players have set-up some luxury coaches which ply the Bulawayo-Harare route on a daily basis. It is also possible to travel to South Africa and Botswana from Bulawayo by bus. Bookings are made from Bulawayo. The rail network once used to be functional but has since almost collapsed and when functioning is plagued by heavy delays sometimes running into 24 hours.

Bulawayo is a hub city in Zimbabwe serving tourists visiting the Victoria Falls and Zimbabwean safaris and game parks in the southern part of the country. The hospitality of the Zimbabwe people is equally present in Bulawayo.

Like the capital Harare, Bulawayo has also badly dilapidated infrastructure as a result of the terrible 10 years of steady economic and political decline in Zimbabwe. It is run by the opposition political party MDC which is a splinter group from the Morgan Tsvangirai led MDC with head offices in Harare.

Still on politics, Bulawayo is also home base for the recently re-launched ZAPU party which announced its dis-unity from ZANU PF led by Robert Gabriel Mugabe who is also the President of Zimbabwe Perception wise most Zimbabweans and outsiders have long viewed ZAPU as a tribal party catering for the Ndebele people in Matebeland which Bulawayo is found. The party is however making frantic efforts to change that perception and present itself as a national party for all Zimbabweans.

In terms of public transportation within the city, most visitors prefer private and professional taxi cabs than non-time bound abusive daily public transport called combiz.

Bulawayo has some hotel accommodation of relatively good standards. The key city hotels include Holiday Inn.

Gweru

Located in the Midlands province, Gweru is amongst the important cities in Zimbabwe. It is the capital of the Midlands region which lays at the heart of Zimbabwe. Gweru does not have much to offer in terms of tourism or places of heritage. It is a popular stopover point for travelers between Harare and Bulawayo. It offers no first class hotels but will certainly accommodate the back-packer.

Kwekwe

Kwekwe comes before Gweru when traveling from Harare to Bulawayo. It is a relatively small city with a population of about 500 000 people. It mostly developed as a result of gold mining and later established itself as the center of iron production with the near-by Ziscosteel Zimbabwe's largest steel producer, perhaps the biggest in Southern Africa. Few travelers make Kwekwe their destination but rather pass through on the way to Harare or Bulawayo.

Mutare

Mutare is commonly known as a border town between Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It takes less than 10 minutes of driving to cross into Mozambique from Mutare in Zimbabwe. It is also a key tourism hub for visitors coming to the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe. The city is itself surrounded by mountains and popular tourist attractions in Manicaland include Nyanga which is a town in itself.

Other smaller towns in Zimbabwe include Kariba, Masvingo, Chinhoyi, Kadoma, Marondera, Bindura, Victoria falls, Chiredzi and Rusape. These small towns have set goals to apply for city status and over time many of them get closer to the goal.

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Zimbabwe Photos - Avondale, CBD

2009-10-28T12:36:00.001-07:00

Some more Zimbabwe Photos. You may view the first set of Zimbabwe pictures and second set of pictures from Zimbabwe.

This photo shows Avondale shopping center in Harare. The center is popular for movies, restaurants, fast food and has some grocery shops and electronic shops. It is an active spot at night especially weekends.

Above - the Harare Main Post Office building along Leopold Takawira street. Going in the direction of the pictured vehicle ones ends up at Crown Plaza Monomutapa Hotel. The post office building is important in all distance calculations in Zimbabwe. Distance from Harare to an place in Zimbabwe is measured from this building going out.

Zimbabwe people are well known for their excellent craft work. Here a fully fledged craft market is pictured in Newlands area in Harare Zimbabwe. Most of the craft work is around reeds and stone (not pictured see below)

Some more art work this time in stone from the same market. Zimbabwe art attracts thousands of buyers yearly.

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Masvingo Zimbabwe

2009-10-28T12:36:00.000-07:00

The home of the Great Zimbabwe Ruins

Masvingo in Zimbabwe is amongst the top cities in Zimbabwe. It is the capital of Masvingo province and is located in the south-eastern part of the country. The capital of Zimbabwe is Harare. Masvingo is essentially a tourist city because of the massive and amazing Great Zimbabwe monument located a few kilometers from the city itself.

The city has a significant number of people as its populace with a small central business district where grocery supplies can be purchased. There are also restaurants and take-aways to access Zimbabwe food. Banking facilities are also available in Masvingo with international banks such as Barclays Bank present. These now accept international credit cards. Now that Zimbabwe currency is essentially foreign currency, it is much easier to find basic supplies in shops including fuel for cars. It is also less of a hassle to be dealing with any Zimbabwe exchange rate as was the case during the dark Zimbabwe dollar days.

Masvingo is not serviced by any commercial airlines. Most visitors drive. Charter aircraft can be arranged from Harare International Airport or Charles Prince Airport in Harare. However only small aircraft like the Cessna and other slightly bigger ones will be able to access Masvingo.

A visitor on a Zimbabwe trip to Masvingo from say the USA or Europe typically takes the following route. Fly into Johannesburg, South Africa. Connect on South African Airways into Harare (afternoon or evening). Drive from Harare to Masvingo. Or fly from London direct to Harare on Air Zimbabwe ( British Airways removed direct flights to Harare sighting poor business performance). Then drive from Harare to Masvingo. It is also possible to fly into Johannesburg South Africa and drive by road some gruesome 800 km or 500 miles to Masvingo.

Once in Harare it is possible to hire a car to travel to Masvingo with. In Harare there are car hire companies such as Europecar and Avis.

The city is some 300km south of Harare and is linked to the country's capital by a tared road which passes through the city all the way to the boarder with South Africa at Beitbridge border post. It is therefore possible to drive from South Africa to Masvingo in Zimbabwe. This highway has some toll gates along the way requiring all small vehicles to pay about US$1.00 (one dollar) per crossing.

For visitors extra care is needed on the Masvingo highway which is notorious for deadly accidents. The wife of Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai died in a freak accident in 2009 on this same highway.

The highest institution of learning in Masvingo is the Masvingo State University. The city also has full fledged police service, hospitals, doctors and pharmacies for any medication requirements.

Visitors to Masvingo report a great hospitality of the Zimbabwe people. The most popular hotel in Masvingo is Great Zimbabwe Hotel which is owned and operated by African Sun Hotels with head office in Harare. It is possible to make your booking via central reservations in Harare or over the internet by email.

There are other hotels and bed and breakfast facilities in Masvingo Zimbabwe but these are outdone by Great Zimbabwe Hotel due to its close proximity to the great Zimbabwe monument. Whilst in Masvingo you may also find Zimbabwe stone art and craft works. You may also purchase special Zimbabwe clothing garments such as batiks.

Many foreign visitors have favorable memories of Masvingo in general and great Zimbabwe hotel in particular.

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Zimbabwe Agriculture - history, present and where to from here

2009-10-28T12:05:00.000-07:00

Zimbabwe agriculture is at the center of the catastrophe that started in 2001. The main reason for the rapid decline of the Zimbabwe economy, and its currency can be directly linked back to the land grab of 2001.

Like many other developing countries Zimbabwe heavily relies on agriculture to sustain its economy. In fact before the start if the Zimbabwe land inversions agriculture accounted for 41% of exports and some good 18% contribution to national GDP. Even though Zimbabwe's agriculture at the time of sharp and terrible decline of the early 2000s was mostly on cash crops, diversification had already began with more and more farmers venturing into horticulture.

Zimbabwe agricultural products

Zimbabwe's agricultural products are vast the following are some of them produced on a commercial scale;

Tobacco
Cotton
Maize
Sugar cane
Tea
Coffee
Fresh Flowers - roses etc
Citrus fruits
Dairy cows
Piggery
Beef

Despite the shocking decay in the agricultural sector of the economy the government of Zimbabwe is still confident that agriculture will be restarted and regain its top status in the region of southern African.

Each year in the capital of Zimbabwe, Harare and other smaller towns and cities in Zimbabwe agricultural shows are organized as way of promoting small scale commercial farming and give agriculture its national prominence.

The agricultural sector in Zimbabwe is a wide scale employer especially of poor communities in rural areas. Prior to 2001 Zimbabwe agriculture was essentially run and controlled by the minority Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) which was mostly dominated by about 4500 white commercial farmers. These were in charge of 1/3 of the most productive land in the country.

Today after the controversial land reform programme under President Mugabe it is public knowledge that those linked to the ruling party of ZANUPF control much of the land with many holding multiple farms the tragedy of it all being that much of the land is under equipped and underutilized.

Efforts to carry out an independent land audit post the chaos of 2001 have been fiercely resisted within government. Even today in December 2009 there are continued reports of fresh inversions of farm land.

For many agriculture in Zimbabwe will only shine again after a thorough land redistribution exercise targeting powerful politicians guided by an independent land audit. In addition without relevant technology, inputs and machinery it will remain a pipe dream. Careful planning is also required to ensure inputs arrive in time ahead of a season which is not the case at the momment. Today fertiliser and seed arrive to most farmers half way into the season sometimes never.

The results are there for all to see.

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Zanupf for or aganist people of Zimbabwe?

2009-10-28T11:53:00.000-07:00

Zanupf is the only governing political party that the people of Zimbabwe have ever known since the advent of independence in Zimbabwe in 1980. Zanu PF has an undisputed role played in the history of Zimbabwe.

The party has been accused by its critics led by Morgan Tsvangirai and his party the MDC for mismanagement of the Zimbabwe economy which subsequently made a mockery of the Zimbabwe currency the Zimbabwe Dollar. Under its own structures the party has not known any other leader except Robert Mugabe who is also the President of Zimbabwe.

Zanu PF has a military style structure that starts at the national level and cascades down to the branch and cell level right at the grass root level. The party's organization and philosophy heavily borrows from communist China and socialist Russia. In fact Zanu PF and by extension the Republic of Zimbabwe has many friends in the east which are former communist and socialists countries.

In Zimbabwe Zanupf is evidently unpopular in urban areas especially among the now depleted working class and young modern people. See jobs in Zimbabwe. This has been the case in almost all the cities in Zimbabwe. This trend has in the last few years also caught on in rural areas with Zanu PF loosing key political positions in national elections. For this reason, there is overwhelming evidence of forced voting and beatings and even killings of political opponents in order to secure desperately wanted votes.

Due to the pain and suffering allegedly caused by Zanu PF during election time many in rural areas have been quoted wishing elections away. Some have even labeled Zanu PF the mafia due to alleged organized crime from the raiding of national funds at the reserve bank of Zimbabwe for party purposes to the use of state security instruments for the party's gain.

All in all the line between the party and the national government have grown amazingly thin or non-existent at all in the last few years. Zanupf has fast become the state and the state Zanu PF. The ideology and alleged bureaucratic bungling engraved in Zanu PF has over the years found its way into the political and economic DNA of Zimbabwe as a body politic.

In some sections the party has been praised and more often than not even worshiped for wealth and land "redistribution".

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Zimbabwe Photos - Extra Extra

2009-10-28T11:49:00.000-07:00

Here You will find more Zimbabwe pictures. You may see more previous Zimbabwe photos

This bill board advertises AVIS Car rental service in Harare Zimbabwe. It's situated along Second Street extension in the Avondale area. The girl pictured resembles a typical Zimbabwe 8 to 5 working professional full of friendly attitude typical of most Zimbabwe people.

Apartments or flats like these are common in Harare the capital of Zimbabwe. These are located in the Avenues area of Harare and have one or two bedrooms with rentals ranging from US$150 to US$200 per month. Typically the flats are overcrowded due to Harare's accommodation problems.Children play under trees for lack of proper amenities.

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe's largest mobile operator in late 2009 went about the city erecting billboards such as this one. Some people wrote letters of complaints to the Zimbabwe Herald. They argued the giant billboards are an eye sore and spoil the city skyline.For those in Harare this is a clear sign of a recovering Zimbabwe economy due to a stable "Zimbabwe currency" found in multi-currencies. There are many vendors across the city inter-sections as one standing here. They sell mobile phone calling time (airtime) to motorists.

I took this picture in "downtown" Harare. In Zimbabwe downtown is actually the oldest part of the city full of both human and vehicle traffic and to an extent a higher level of petty crime. This van is the bread van one of the popular brands in Zimbabwe. It's common to find vehicles like this open truck to the left on Zimbabwe's roads. Pedestrians also dangerously frequently cross busy streets right in the middle of traffic.

MORE ZIMBABWE PICTURES

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Mail and Guardian Online - Trevor Ncube

2009-10-28T11:25:00.000-07:00

Mail and Guardian Online is the internet version of the South African print newspaper Mail and Guardian.

The online version of the paper is said to have been the first newspaper to utilize the internet in Africa back in 1994. The news website itself is owned 87.5% by a Botswana registered company Newtrust Company Botswana Limited, owned by Zimbabwean publisher and entrepreneur Trevor Ncube.

The online paper is run from the same media house as the print version in Johannesburg , South Africa. It has its own full time staff and regularly is the first with breaking news on Africa and the world in general. It would appear that most of Africa's diaspora reads daily the Mail and Guardian internet version for latest updates from Africa.

The online paper has in the last ten years played a leading role in giving highlight and constant coverage of the Zimbabwe crisis including the Zimbabwe economic and Zimbabwe currency trouble.

Trevor Ncube the owner of the Mail and Guardian Online and the Mail and Guardian Newspaper also owns two Zimbabwe's only independent newspapers The Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard.

Trevor Ncube has in the past clashed with the President of Zimbabwe in encounters largely seen as political. As of November 2009, plans are at an advanced stage to launch a new Zimbabwe daily called NewsDay that would directly compete with the state owned Zimbabwe Herald newspaper.

The Mail and Guardian can be accessed online by following this link.

In external News Archives

Ncube to launch daily newspaper (The Zimbabwe Times - March 2009)
NCBL acquires majority shareholding of Mail & Guardian (Bizcommunity.com - July 2002)

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Zimbabwe President

2009-10-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

Robert Gabriel Mugabe - Gushungo

Zimbabwe president was born on the 21st of February 1924. His birthday is celebrated in Zimbabwe predominantly by his supporters and ZANU PF party as the 21st February Movement.

Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe is also known as Gushungo being his totem according to Zimbabwe culture and African culture in general. He has been the president of Zimbabwe presiding over the Zimbabwe people for 22 consecutive years. He as sworn into office on the 31st of December 1987 taking over from the late Canaan Sidindo Banana who was then a ceremonial president and Mugabe an Executive Prime Minister.

The Zimbabwe president is married to wife Grace Mugabe. Grace Mugabe is Robert Mugabe's second wife after the passing of his first wife Sally Mugabe of Ghanaian origin from kidney failure on the 27th of January 1992. His residence is in the capital of Zimbabwe, Harare.

President Mugabe is an important figure in Zimbabwe politics. In fact Zimbabwe politics since 1980 for nearly 30 years has revolved around him. The future and current state of Zimbabwe has largely been an outcome of the thoughts and intentions of the man Robert Mugabe.

He is blamed by many observers and the western world particularly USA and Britain for the dramatic demise of the Zimbabwe economy which saw the dismal performance of the Zimbabwe currency.

His critics have accused him of great human rights violations beginning with the dreadful persecution of political opponents as early as 1980 to about 1987 in Matebeleland province of Zimbabwe. Bulawayo was amongst the cities in Zimbabwe badly affected by this terrible tribal upheaval in the history of Zimbabwe. This period is known in Zimbabwe as the Gukurahundi which is estimated to have stolen the lives of over 20000 people.

The Gukurahundu was state sanctioned and executed by state actors especially the military. The only known "apology" from Robert Mugabe concerning this period was that it was a "moment of madness".

Since then to his credit Zimbabwe President has made visible efforts to unite Zimbabweans across the tribal divide save for the political divide. His visibly greatest opponents have been opposition politicians especially Morgan Tsvangirai of the popular MDC party.

Human rights and governance advocates including opposition party leaders have accused Robert Gabriel Mugabe of using state machinery such as the police, state intelligence and the army to silence and even physically eliminate his perceived enemies. The history of Zimbabwe is riddled with inconclusive and unexplained deaths and disappearances of political opponents both real and perceived.

The Government of Zimbabwe under the leadership of Robert Mugabe has tightly controlled the media with all TV and Radio stations in Zimbabwe controlled 100% by the state. Little room for plurality has been found in the print media especially newspapers of which many of them have since been shut down.

The two remaining truly independent newspapers in Zimbabwe is the Zimbabwe Independent and The Zimbabwe Standard both owned by publisher Trevor Ncube and also the owner of the leading South African Weekly The Mail and Guardian Newspaper and its online version Mail and Guardian Online.

Trevor Ncube himself has suffered at the hands of Zimbabwe police and intelligence officials including the confiscation of his passport and threat to have his Zimbabwe nationality revoked. He almost fell stateless.

A major highlight of Zimbabwe president's political career was his humiliating defeat at the national presidential polls by Morgan Tsvangirai of MDC party. The election was held in March 2009. For many the outcome of the election was a somewhat missed graceful occasion for Robert Mugabe to exist politics. CNN reports on the evening of the announcement of the first round of results quoted unconfirmed reports through unnamed sources that Robert Mugabe had conceded defeat and would step-down.

Following the reports there was total silence on the news of the results for many hours before his party came out with a different position. Speculation is rife in Harare that army generals persuaded him to stay on and resist the defeat.

For many in Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe's image is too late to repair locally and abroad.

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Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe - The printing machine

2009-10-28T10:47:00.000-07:00

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe or RBZ has it is affectionately known by its employees has been singled out by President of Zimbabwe opponents like Morgan Tsvangirai for single-handedly destroying the Zimbabwe economy.

The RBZ governor Gideon Gono is on record for admitting to unstoppable printing of the Zimbabwe dollar currency. Under his stewardship of the central bank did inflation skyrocket into trillions of dollars. The bank is also accused of bank rolling Zanupf political campaign expenses through excessive money printing.

This cartoon above from Zimdaily shows government senior officers and ministers lining-up to get free money from the RBZ depicted by the ATM

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe over the last 10 years from year 2000 to about 2010 got into overdrive concerning involvement in non-core business such as loans to farmers and purchase of farm implements on behalf of the Zimbabwe government. The RBZ even bought cars and televisions, computes and other benefits for judges. It also participated in the invigilation and marking of exams at a national scale.

It is strongly believed by many analysts that the reserve bank for years in a row ran the entire government and broad economics of the country. The central bank is known to have left the printing machine on full throttle with fresh clean un-circulated notes finding their way onto the parallel market to purchase foreign exchange from the dark corners of Harare the capital of Zimbabwe on behalf of senior government officials and politicians.

During this same period painful withdrawal limits were imposed on bank accounts by the central bank to an extent of people withdrawing an equivalent of US$5.00 per day due to inflation hardly enough to meet day to day personal needs.

Gideon Gono the reserve bank governor oversaw the slashing of zeros from the Zimbabwe currency thrice before the final introduction of the multi-currency system in 2009 due to unsustainable levels of inflation in Zimbabwe

This cartoon above also from Zimdaily shows the man Gono just behind the reserve bank building desperately looking for once thrown away keys to stop the printing press.

The following are some of Zimbabwe's currency notes introduced by the Reserve Bank between 2000 and 2009.

The $1.00 note introduced in 2008 on slashing of 10 zeros from the Zimbabwe currency. It was intended to help with change. Within a month it was no-longer useful due to a ferocious return of inflation.

$5.00 introduced after the slashing of the zeros.Printed on highly quality paper with all security features.

The $5.00 note introduced on the third and final round of zero slashing from the national currency. Its quality was way poorer as it was printed on sub-standard paper unlike the $5.00 that was printed in Germany.

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Jobs in Zimbabwe

2009-10-28T10:29:00.000-07:00

Jobs in Zimbabwe are only starting to to show some green shoots. For over ten years the Zimbabwe economy has been in sharp decline forcing many companies in Zimbabwe to close shop and shade off thousands of employees.

Most cities in Zimbabwe were not spared by severe joblessness estimated at over 80%.

The failing Zimbabwe currency also made it difficult for the working class people of Zimbabwe to sustain their livelihood many opting to leave the country for greener pastures. Much of the employment in Zimbabwe today is in government. The government of Zimbabwe has a payroll of more than 200 000 employees from professionals to general employees.

Jobs in Zimbabwe have largely remained positive looking in the non-profit or NGO sector were organizations remained afloat in the darkest economic hour in Zimbabwe through donor funds for development, human rights and governace projects.

Since the introduction of foreign currency transactions in Zimbabwe, the economy has once again started showing signs of recovery. Many people who had left their formal employment stations to rather trade informally in order to survive at the height of the Zimbabwe crisis are once again applying for formal employment. Salaries in formal employement as of November 2009 had started steadily adjusting to regional levels.

Well known paying private businesses in Zimbabwe today are mobile phone operators such as Econet Wireless. Recently the CEO of Econet was quoted as saying the company was adjusting its salary levels to that of other regional mobile operators such as MTN and Vodacom in South Africa. This he said was meant to attract back and retain qualified staff and kill the brain drain.

The hospitality industry in Zimbabwe has also shown an interest in creating more jobs in Zimbabwe. Recently African Sun Hotels owned by Shingi Munyeza did an extensive call for applications to fill professional posts. However, on the whole the manufacturing sector still has to fully recover in order to absorb the majority of Zimbabweans who do no posses any special skills but can work on the production line in factories.

The following are some placement companies that are currently active on the Zimbabwean job market;

CV People Africa
Website
Email

NGO Jobs
Relief Web (search for country of choice)

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Zimbabwe Currency

2009-10-28T10:26:00.000-07:00

Covering Zimbabwe currency pictures, value, inflation and crisis

The Zimbabwe currency is officially the Zimbabwe dollar. It has been in operation since 1980. Amazingly in 1980 the currency was equivalent to the British Pound at some point even stronger. As the years progressed bigger denominations were introduced especially in the 90s going forward after the introduction of ESAP. The value of the Zimbabwe dollar began to slowly erode.

The turning point in the Zimbabwe currency value was around 1998 on the day called black Friday. The currency lost almost half of its value. With the land grab of 2001 going forward a new phenomenon called hyper-inflation was introduced in the Zimbabwean economy.

Bread which used to cost just about one Zimbabwe dollar ended up costing millions with a single egg costing as much as Z$25 000 000 (Z$25million).The currency crisis began in intensity in the year 2003 going forward mostly as a result of the untamed printing of money by the reserve bank of Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwe dollar became worthless to the extent of rejection by the general public. Most people started trading ins more stable currencies such as the United States Dollar and South African Rand. However this was illegal and civil servants continued on the government payroll earning as little as US$3.00 (three dollars) equivalent per month due to the shocking worthlessness of the Zimbabwe currency.

As of late 2008, the government "conceded" that the economy had totally collapsed and allowed all business and general transactions to be carried out in other stable currencies. This was the official death of the Zimbabwe dollar.

The highest denomination of the Zimbabwe currency ever to be printed was the Z$100 trillion note. It only lasted less than 3 weeks before being completely eroded by inflation so much that to buy bread Zimbabwe people needed two or three of those bills. A single trip into the city center in cities in Zimbabwe on public transport cost as much as Z$100 trillion one way.

2009 $100 bill revalued

Zimbabwe money is now a precious collectors item which you can purchase here on this popular international site.

In external News Archives

Mugabe says Zimbabwe dollar returning (The Zimbabwe Times - November 2009)
Zimbabwe removes 12 zeros from currency (CNN - February 2009)
Zimbabwe considering gold-backed currency - Gono ( August 2009)
Zimbabwe's currency crashes, prices rocket (Reuters - June 2008)
Zimbabwe Slashes 10 Zeros from Currency (Coinlink News - July 2008)

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Where is Zimbabwe

2009-10-28T10:03:00.000-07:00

Where is Zimbabwe located? - Zimbabwe is an African country that is located in the southern part of the continent of Africa. This region is officially known as southern Africa and comprises of about 14 countries most of which are landlocked. The population of Zimbabwe is estimated at about 13.5 million. The people of Zimbabwe speak mainly two languages including English but there are many other smaller ones.

There are over 5 official cities in Zimbabwe Harare being the capital of Zimbabwe. The country is surrounded by four neighbors namely Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia. All four countries are considerable Zimbabwe's trading partners with South Africa leading the rest.

On the world map, Zimbabwe is located Latitude: 20º00´ South of the Equator and Longitude: 30º00´ East of Greenwich

The country is on the southern part of the equator.

The two most recognizable features of international reputation in Zimbabwe is the Great Zimbabwe in Masvingo Zimbabwe and the Victoria Falls which is also shared by Zambia. You may also see facts about Zimbabwe.

From London by direct flight to Harare the trip is about 10 hours long. Many visitors to Zimbabwe travel through Johannesburg South Africa which is a 1 Hour 30 minute flight.

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Weather in Zimbabwe

2009-10-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

Weather in Zimbabwe can best be described using the country's seasons. Most Zimbabwe people better know the country's seasons as winter and summer.

Generally speaking summer with rains in Zimbabwe runs from November to round about March. Winter runs for two momths end May into mid-July. Weather in Zimbabwe in November is mostly very hot with some rains begining to fall. Temperatures reach over 25 degrees celcius (77 degrees Fahrenheit).

Below LIVE weather in Harare Zimbabwe right now


Plan your trip Local Radar Detailed Forecast

Weather in Zimbabwe in October is very hot. The air is very dry and there will be only a few weeks left before the arrival of the rainy season in November. With ongoing global warming, Zimbabwe climate is also changing and this constantly affects day to day weather.

Winter in Zimbabwe is very cold especially in recent years mostly due to late coming and late ending rainy season. In winter weather ( May-June-July) temperatures sometimes drop to as low as 14 degrees celcius.

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Zimbabwe Water

2009-10-28T08:42:00.000-07:00

Zimbabwe water is amongst the poorest of water supplies in southern Africa compairing with its neighbours. Most drinking water in Zimbabwe to a greater percentage of the Zimbabwe people comes from unprotected sources especially in rural areas.

Most rural communities in Zimbabwe access water from relatively shallow wells dug within a homestead. Due to recurrent droughts somewhat now associated with Zimbabwe climate water may become scarce resulting in humans and animals drinking from the same unprotected sources such as polluted river beds.

Efforts have been made to ensure that Zimbabwe drinkng water is safe for human consumption. There are ongoing campaigns mostly by international humanitarian organisations that encourage households to boil water especially in light of the recent plague of cholera in Zimbabwe.

Urban water supplies have deteriorated in quality in the last 10 years. Water coming through the taps in homes has been reported to sometimes even have an odour due to incomplete water treatment. This has been the case in most cities in Zimbabwe. Aging and outright absolete equipment has been blamed for poor water in Zimbabwe's cities which has been associated with water borne diseases such as cholera.

Water pollution is rife in the capital of Zimbabwe, Harare. As a result up to nine different chemicals are required to safely process Zimbabwe water. At the height of inflation of the Zimbabwe currency these chemicals could not be easily ordered due to a weak currency and lack of foreign currency.

The good news to most vistors to Zimbabwe is that bottled water is available in grocery shops at about 45 US$ cents ( US$0.45) per 500ml bottle. Even with bottled water, it is highly recomended that visitors buy well known brands as many water treatment plants have mushroomed some of which have to been throughly vetted for standards.

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Population of Zimbabwe

2009-10-28T08:33:00.000-07:00

The population of Zimbabwe is officially monitored by the government's Central Statistical Office (CSO). At the last official census in 1992 the total population of Zimbabwe was estimated to be at about 13.5 million people. Of those 13 million people about 51% were estimated to be female.

Due to the scarcity of reliable statistical information in Zimbabwe in many cases for political reasons you will find it difficult to establish facts from opinion. A case in point is inflation data during the Zimbabwe dollar days. The government went for months without providing any official data on inflation. Information that should normally be available on a monthly basis.

Other agencies also keep their fingers on the pulse of the population of the people of Zimbabwe. Unofficial statistical information mostly from non-profit organisations working in the area of humanitarian aid estimate that the population of Zimbabwe in 2009 is way less than at the last census some 8 years or so ago.

Reasons for the lower figures include a ravaging HIV and AIDS pandemic in Zimbabwe. At one point AIDS was estimated to be killing about 2000 Zimbabweans per a week a massive 100000 people per year. The mass exodus of young Zimbabwean professionals into South Africa, the UK and the USA is also a factor. In fact the population of Zimbabweans in the UK is estimated to be running into millions. Possibly a million to a million and half people. Most of which have incomplete documentation and staying on as failed asylum seekers.

The distribution of the population is concentrated in city centers. The population of Bulawayo is the second largest concentration after that of Harare the capital of Zimbabwe. This has to a large extent to do with the history of Zimbabwe dating back to the arrival of colonizing settlers and the subsequent liberation struggle. The British settlers moved indigenous Zimbabweans to concentrated arid lands. During the liberation struggle a significant number of people fled the country side to settle in urban areas where there was less fighting.

The fierce economic degradation, drought and huger that followed in the late 1990s into the first decade of the 21st century also saw a significant number of people participating in massive rural to urban migration is desperate search of food security and employment. In 2005 an internationally condemned government operation called Operation Murambatsvina drove thousands of urban communities back to rural areas forcibly. These factors influenced the internal population spread.

Until the next comprehensive census the actual current population of the country may never be known. Many serious movements and displacements have occurred since the last official census.

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