Zimbabwe Economic Challenges since Independence - Paper Example

Introduction

Zimbabwe has become widely known as a country with a weak, struggling economy. Until November 2017, she was ruled by a dictator, Robert Mugabe who took over politically and ruled once Zimbabwe became independent. Governed by a monarchy the country went through many dips that affected the nation as a whole. These rough patches follow along with the lines of many other poor African countries, such as reduced economic status, unavailability to natural/ man-made clean water sources, Education sources, and a modern democratic system of government. It still has many things such as corruption, a significant wage gap, and a high disease count. It does, however, have a robust idealistic side with the potential and resources to develop a strong well-balanced economy. With a country the size of California it holds quite a lot of people of 13,771,721, and an infant mortality rate to birth rate is 2.6/3.2. The capital is Harare, and they use the Zimbabwean dollar.

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Zimbabwe is a landlocked country that has been said and confirmed that many fossils of early humans have been found and dating back to 200 B.C.

Examination of Zimbabwe

The infrastructure in Zimbabwe is at a crucial low, and therefore this leads to the local roads being terrible as there is no system of general taxes, highways are decently kept in shape as they are the most used and must be maintained at such high speeds. Highways in Zimbabwe are also a lot easier to manage because there are not as many vehicles on the road compared to a place like California. Most get around by renting cars, using cabs, and in many cases the equivalent of a public transportation system. Walking is very common and free, but it is highly advised against at night as the police system is even scared to handle situations in which leaves the rest of the people to be tense at night. The primary form of currency used in Zimbabwe is the US dollar, and occasionally in certain places, the South African Rand and British pound are also accepted

Ethnic backgrounds and groups - 98% of Zimbabwe are made up of Africans and of those groups speaking Bantu, with Shona reaching 82% and Ndebele at 14%. Breaking down of the most significant ethnic group, the Shona group has an enormous amount of diversity which leads to several smaller groups such as Korekore in the north, Zezuru in the middle, and Karanga in the lower parts just to name a few. In the Ndebele grouping, there are a few more immigrants.Whites occupy 1% of the non-African population being descendants or from the United Kingdom or South Africa, and the other 1% is a mix of Italians, Portuguese, and other Europeans, with the other half of the 1% going to the Asians of mixed homelands.

GDP: $16.29 billion

Economic outlook - Investors are very skeptical of investing their resources into Zimbabwe due to the lack of transparency displayed through governance. The iconic saying of the rich getting richer while the poor suffer to provide necessary goods for themselves is very accurate for Zimbabwe as many fail to see through the instability creating a mixed feeling of failure. Left by ridiculous taxation and regulations on the private sector as the individuals attempt to stay afloat while being run down by the government.

Capital City: Harare

Per Capita GDP: $1008, the country runs off of the U.S. dollar following the Zimbabwe dollar in 2009, due to the inflation rates and political corruption.

Population: 16.15 million

GDP Growth Rate: 3.3%

Government: Democratic dominant party presidential republic Until late last year, Mugabe used to run as a dictator ever since his ascension to power in 1980, leaving people to fend for themselves while they are being oppressed due to the lack of Government support to the people.

Infant mortality rate: The under-five mortality rate, per 1,000 births is 86, and the neonatal mortality as a percentage of under 5's death is 36

Religion(s): There are many different religions with Protestants accounting for about 63% of the population, Roman Catholic accounts for 17% of the population, 885825-504825ethnic faiths account for 11%, and people with other religions or no religions at all report for 9

Regional Context: Contains exceptionally high tariffs and delays that last days and months when it comes to exporting and importing goods.

Essential Resources: Tourism, use of natural land, agriculture, the climate is rather lovely, averaging around 24 degrees Celsius. Conditions like these make it the ideal space to attract plenty of tourists while on the other hand humidity is a significant factor in how much fresh water is wasted each seasonal cycle

Zimbabwe achieved status of being an independent country in 1965 but was only recognized for their independence on April 18, 1980.Zimbabwe had been a British Colony for 90 years before its independence, given by the British South African company as Rhodesia, and the government to be south Rhodesia. In 1965 it had been led by a white segregationist government * quite ironic as the whites had been the minority, made a unilateral declaration of independence from Britain. Named as a republic, they lacked national recognition and in1979 decided to change their name to Rhodesia Zimbabwe. Other countries continued to display a lack of acceptance which led the infant Zimbabwe back into the arms of the British. The nation took a monumental first step when Robert Mugabe was announced as the first prime minister under the political organization ZANU. Ever since then it has been nothing but downhill for Zimbabwe due to irresponsible and dishonest actions made by the very man the country first trusted to lead them through the rough time, Robert Mugabe.

This group of graphs represents the direct correlation of how the economy is dependent on the production of maize through imports and the steady demand for maize. It also shows how although there is a surplus of maize there is a small margin of profit to show for it.

How Has the Country Been Damaged and How Can It Be Fixed?

Before being ousted his powers by a coup, Mugabe had become well known as the very definition of political corruption. Mugabe was born in 1924 and has been president of Zimbabwe since the beginning of the country's independence till November 2017. Mugabe became more involved in politics while he was pursuing his teaching career sided with the pro-independence party called the National Democratic party. However, in 1961 the group was outlawed leaving him no choice but to join Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU) which later switched to ZANU (National Union) where he resided until last year. Later ZANU was banned as well, leading to his incarceration where he managed to teach his cellmates English. During this time a Unilateral DIC was placed to create a white-ruled Rhodesia, leaving Britain's plan to fall apart. On his release, he built his way up to be the leader of ZANU and developed Marxist and Maoist ideas while getting weapons in Asia. As Mugabe rose to power, the other political half attempted to name a prime minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia but did not in include a majority of Zimbabwe, in this case, the two groups that Mugabe had been a part of. Mugabe led the parties to come to a consensus and make a decision of majority rule, where Mugabe was able to maintain 200,000 whites, and 4500 were farmers.

Mugabe's political campaign would soon become destructive and it led to destruction of ZAPU and 20 000 civilians were left dead in the wake of his political genocide campaign Mugabe was never held accountable for any of these events that took place and later changed ideas and asked them to join forces creating a de facto party and naming himself as the president. Using his newfound political prowess, he used it to become a part of the Congo Civil War, in which could be seen as a ploy to take advantage of the political instability and go for the countries valuables (precious minerals.) Another use of his political power went towards the ability to seize white-owned land. Many white farmers would be stripped of their property and left with nothing, the main reason behind this was to silence opposing organization and stop pursuing anti-government campaigns. However, veterans began to raid white-owned farms which consequently led to massive fleeing of the settlers from the country. This caused a significant ripple effect in which the farmers were no longer producing enough food to sustain the villages and countries leading to shortages and a massive increase in inflation, eventually to hyperinflation, leaving people with millions if not billions in worthless currency.

Robert Mugabe was known as a person who destroyed human rights and did not care what type of rule he violated. The time of fair multicultural elections was over. Following his presidency campaign, he abandoned his policies of anti colonialism, and he was known for destroying human rights and running the economy into a deficit. In 2003 inflation rose to 300% with food shortages and destruction of farming, and within the next year the international mutual fund, IMF, had said the country was 1/3 poorer in the last five years. In 2005 they were readmitted to the UN based on human rights. Drive out trash led to making 700000 people homeless, the operation round up driving 10,000 people without homes out of the capital. In 2008 the inflation grew to 231,000,000% from "only" 7,000, with employment at 80% leaving the dollar worthless and having the world's lowest life expectancy.

Mugabe knew he did not have the support of any of his people and knew he would have to do something to maintain his power. This he accomplished by cutting out any organization that opposed him. The election was once again rigged, and the people could do nothing about it. His competitor, Tsvangirai, fled in fear of assassinations attempts. When he came back it showed that he had won by a slim margin and in saying so did not have a 50% and Tsvangirai lost 85 of his supporters. Once again Mugabe was elected president in a "fair" election winning with 85% of the vote, Zimbabwe was now being impacted on an international level as well with the U.S. imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe, the companies and Mugabe himself. Moyo was able to bring change and get speaker of parliament for the first time Mugabe was finally beat out since Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980.

Power sharing agreement between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, in which Tsvangirai was to be prime minister and control 16 ministries, and the president will preside over 15 departments was reached. However, soon after, this was disagreed on. in the next coming year Tsvangirai, assumed control of 13 of the 31 departments, and Mugabe got the original 15. Mugabe was accused of threatening Tsvangirai supporters and a new draft was made in January 2013 and was later approved in March. This weakened the position of the president, term limits, and sent power to the provinces. In 2008 in additions to the trials the people of Zimbabwe faced such as the absence of radically everything from food to employment, they did have 231 million % inflation and a cholera epidemic killing over 500 people and infecting over 12,000.

Even after all these change the president-elect stayed the same with Mugabe again becoming president and left to question the validity of the election. In 2014 assassination allegations against the VP Mujuru (female), which Mugabe later fired and a friend of his wife was placed in the spot. . In 2015 Mujuru said that she was going to have an opposing campaign citing lack of good faith by the government. Some of her reasons were; "salarygate" scandal that was said to include the highest ranking officials receiving upwards of $200,000 in salaries, several malignant bills, property right violations, and unfriendly land reforms program that made it difficult to contin...