Timeline Zimbabwe
Return to home
CIA Factbook: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/zi.html
Nation: http://www.nationbynation.com/Zimbabwe/index.html
Travel Docs: http://www.traveldocs.com/zw/index.htm
Hwange National Park has a large elephant
population
and covers 5,600 sq. miles. Mana Pools National Park has a
preponderance
of hippos.
(SFEC, 10/6/96, T10)
c18000BC Caves in the Matopos Hills
of Zimbabwe were decorated with paintings.
(WSJ, 12/9/98, p.A13)
1100-1400 Era of Great Zimbabwe and the Shona trading
empire.
(SFEC, 10/6/96, T10)
1200-1450 As many as 18,000 people in the iron-age
center of Great Zimbabwe.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.72)
c1450-1500 Nyatsimba, Mwene Matapa or Monomotapa
(Lord of the Plundered People or Ravager of the Lands), Chief of the
Zimbabwe Empire. He conquered the middle Zambezi Valley and built stone
citadels at Great Zimbabwe. He was known to have a corps of over 100
female bodyguards.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)
1820-1829 Renegade Zulus rebelled against King Chaka,
but were crushed. Descendents of the renegade Zulus are of the Ndebeles
tribe, which forms a 5th of Zimbabwe’s 11 million people, the majority
of which are of the Shona tribe.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.C16)
1855 David Livingstone, English
physician and explorer, first saw the 328-foot waterfall on the Zambezi
River. Livingstone named the falls, which straddled the Zambia and
Zimbabwe border, Victoria Falls. The local name is Musi-oa-Tunya (the
smoke that thunders).
(SSFC, 5/29/05,
p.F2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Falls)
1888 Oct 29, Lord Salisbury
granted Cecil Rhodes a charter for the BSA Company.
(MC, 10/29/01)
1889 Jul, Queen Victoria granted
the royal charter to the British South Africa Company (BSAC) in
Zimbabwe.
(www.bulawayo1872.com/history/rhodescj.htm)
1889 Oct 29, Cecil Rhodes used an
agreement with the king of the Ndebele, Lobengula, as the legal
basis to found a chartered company, the British South Africa Company in
Zimbabwe. The company was roughly modeled on the old East India Company
and its powers included the rights to annex and administer land, raise
its own police force and to establish settlements within its own
boundaries.
(www.archiveshub.ac.uk/news/02112701.html)
1889 Cecil Rhodes and his cronies
conned King Lobengula into signing away his powers over the Ndebele
kingdom in Zimbabwe. Lobengula’s father, Mzilikazi, founded the Ndebele
nation and was buried in the Matopos Hills.
(WSJ, 12/9/98, p.A13)
1890 Sep 13, Cecil Rhodes'
colonies hoisted the Union Jack in Mashonaland and Salisbury, Rhodesia
(Zimbabwe).
(MC, 9/13/01)
1890-1899 British settlers led by Cecil Rhodes
marched north from South Africa and appropriated vast stretches of
arable land in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). The Shangaani people, a hunting
tribe, were gradually forced to become poachers after the British took
control.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A12)(SFC, 8/10/98, p.A14)
1895 Cecil Rhodes supported the
Jameson Raid to help rebellious British settlers in the Dutch Transvaal.
(WSJ, 7/11/03, p.W19)
1896 Cecil Rhodes rode unarmed
into the Matopos Hills area of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) in the midst of an
Ndebele uprising to negotiate peace. He told the Ndebele chiefs that he
wanted to be buried there and asked them to guard his grave.
(WSJ, 12/9/98, p.A13)
1902 Mar 26, Cecil John Rhodes
(b.1853), British imperialist, died at age 48. He was buried in a tomb
in the Matopos Hills, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). He had co-founded De Beers
Consolidated Mines Ltd., built great railways through southern Africa.
Rhodes (founder of Rhodesia) left $10 million in his will to provide
scholarships to Oxford University in England. The first scholars were
selected in 1903. In 2008 Philip Ziegler authored “Legacy: Cecil
Rhodes, the Rhodes Trust and Rhodes Scholarships.”
(WSJ, 12/9/98, p.A1)(AP, 4/4/97)(SFC, 12/9/98,
p.A25)(Econ, 5/10/08, p.95)
1914-1918 The German campaign in East Africa was
directed by General Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck. German looting and
raiding caused at least 300,000 civilian deaths. By attacking Northern
Rhodesia they invaded British territory. Of 1 million porters recruited
by the British, 95,000 died. In 2007 Edward Paice authored “Tip and
Run: The Untold Tragedy of the Great War in Africa. In 2008 Edward
Paice authored “World War I: The African Front.
(Econ, 2/17/07, p.87)(WSJ, 8/9/08, p.W8)
1919 Apr 8, Douglas Ian Smith,
premier of Rhodesia (later called Zimbabwe), was born. He was Premier
of the British Colony of Southern Rhodesia (13 Apr 1964 - 11 Nov 1965)
and Prime Minister of the Republic of Rhodesia (11 Nov 1965 - 1 Jun
1979). He was Premier of the British Colony of Southern Rhodesia (13
Apr 1964 - 11 Nov 1965) and Prime Minister of the Republic of Rhodesia
(11 Nov 1965 - 1 Jun 1979).
(http://rhodesian.server101.com/Ian%20Douglas%20Smith.htm)
1924 Feb 21, Robert Mugabe,
Zimbabwe president, was born in southern Rhodesia into the Zezeru
sub-group of the Shona tribe.
(www.afroamerica.net/RobertMugabe122001.html)(Econ,
1/15/05, p.44)
1936 Canaan Sodindo Banana
(d.2003), Zimbabwe's 1st president (1980-1987), was born near Bulawayo.
(Econ, 11/29/03, p.85)
1944 James Kapnek donated the
founding grant for the University of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (later the
Univ. of Zimbabwe).
(SFC, 7/7/98, p.A20)
1949 Doris Lessing (30), author,
left her girlhood home in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) for England. The 2nd
volume of her autobiography was "Walking in the Shade (1949-1962)."
(SSFC, 2/24/02, p.M3)
1952 Mar 10, Morgan Tsvangirai,
founder of Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change in 1999, was born.
(SFC, 3/9/02, p.A9)
1952 Joshua Nkomo formed and
headed the African National Congress, Rhodesia's first black
nationalist political party.
(SFC, 7/2/99, p.D6)
1953-1958 Sir Garfield Todd (d.2002) served as prime
minister of Southern Rhodesia.
(AP, 10/13/02)
1961 Zimbabwe enacted a Minerals
Act. In 2005 it planned to re-write mine ownership laws to “promote”
indigenous ownership.
(WSJ, 2/10/05, p.A10)
1962 Dec 14, North Rhodesia's
first African-dominated government was formed under Kenneth Kaunda.
(AP, 12/14/02)
1963 Roland Rowland (d.1998)
became chief executive of the London and Rhodesia Mining and Land Co.
(Lonrho). Over the next 30 years "Tiny" turned it into a conglomerate
with more than 1000 subsidiaries in over 60 countries.
(SFC, 7/28/98, p.A20)(Econ, 11/8/08, p.62)
1964 Apr 13, Ian D. Smith became
premier of Rhodesia. Smith was Premier of the British Colony of
Southern Rhodesia (13 Apr 1964 - 11 Nov 1965) and Prime Minister of the
Republic of Rhodesia (11 Nov 1965 - 1 Jun 1979).
(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A14)(MC, 4/13/02)
1964 Joshua Nkomo and Roger Mugabe
were jailed in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) by Prime Minister Ian Smith after
rivalries in the black nationalist movement erupted into violence.
(SFC, 7/2/99, p.D6)
1965 Nov 11, Rhodesia (later
Zimbabwe) under PM Ian D. Smith (d.2007) proclaimed its independence
from Britain.
(AP, 11/11/97)(SFC, 11/23/07, p.B14)
1965 Nov 20, UN Security council
called for a boycott of Rhodesia.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1965 Dec 28, U.S. barred oil sales
to Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe).
(HN, 12/28/98)
1966 Apr 16, Rhodesian PM Ian
Smith broke diplomatic relations with Britain.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1966 The UN applied international
sanctions intended to cut off Rhodesia from the rest of the world due
to Rhodesia’s (later Zimbabwe) opposition to majority rule.
(SFC, 11/23/07, p.B14)
1966 James Kapnek, investor,
businessman and rancher, died. He made a fortune building Rhodesia's
first brewery and invested in diamond and copper mining and cattle
ranching. He left several million dollars in a trust dedicated to
charitable works to help the country.
(SFC, 7/7/98, p.A20)(SSFC, 7/29/01, p.A12)
1968 May 29, UN Resolution 253
resolved sanctions on white-minority-ruled Rhodesia.
(www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,,RESOLUTION,ZWE,456d621e2,3b00f27434,0.html)
1968 Jul 18, The UK enacted
sanctions against Rhodesia for a 2nd time. The first time was on June
17.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(http://tinyurl.com/c5kcs9)
1970 Mar 1, The white government
of Rhodesia declared independence from Britain.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/2/newsid_2514000/2514683.stm)
1970 Mar 17, The United States
cast its first veto in the UN Security Council. The US killed a
resolution that would have condemned Britain for failure to use force
to overthrow the white-ruled government of Rhodesia.
(AP, 3/17/00)
1970 Black guerrillas fighting
white rule attempted unsuccessfully to blast the body of Cecil Rhodes
from his granite tomb in the Matopos Hills, Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe).
(WSJ, 12/9/98, p.A1)
1972 Jun 6, In Rhodesia (later
Zimbabwe) 418 people were killed in an underground explosion at a mine.
(www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-14849790.html)
1972 Aug 26, The XX Olympiad
opened in Munich, Germany. The IOC had withdrawn Rhodesia’s invitation
to the summer Olympics after several African nations threatened a
boycott.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Summer_Olympics)
1972-1979 In Rhodesia black rebels fought an
insurgency against minority white rule.
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.92)
1974 Under pressure from guerrilla
groups Rhodesian PM Ian Smith released all black leaders for peace
talks, but the talks failed.
(SFC, 7/2/99, p.D6)
1976 Mar 3, Mozambique closed its
border with Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).
(http://tinyurl.com/3c8j7u)
1976 Rhodesian (Zimbabwe) guerilla
leaders Joshua Nkomo, exiled in Zambia, and Roger Mugabe, in
Mozambique, merged their guerrilla armies in a pact that held until
1979.
(SFC, 7/2/99, p.D6)
1977 Aug 31, Ian Smith, espousing
racial segregation, won the Rhodesian general election with 80% of
overwhelmingly white electorate's vote.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodesia_general_election%2C_1977)
1978 Mar 3, In Rhodesia Ian Smith
signed an agreement with moderate black leaders, who had pledged to
eschew war. He agreed to step down following elections in 1979.
(SFC, 11/23/07, p.B13)
1979 Jan, A new Zimbabwe-Rhodesia
constitution was approved in a nearly Whites-only referendum.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_Muzorewa)
1979 Apr 10, In Zimbabwe the first
democratic parliamentary elections were held. The United African
National Congress, led by Bishop Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa (b.1925), won
51 seats. The Zimbabwe African National Union, led by Ndabaningi
Sithole (1920-2000), won 12 seats.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe_Rhodesia_general_election,_1979)(SFC,
11/23/07, p.B14)
1979 May 29, Bishop Abel Muzorewa
was sworn in as the first black PM of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia - the name
given to the country in the brief period before full independence.
(www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/this_day_in_history/this_day_May_29.php)
1979 May 31, Zimbabwe proclaimed
its independence following a British brokered cease-fire.
(HN, 5/31/98)(SFC, 7/2/99, p.D6)
1979 Jun 1, The Government of
Zimbabwe-Rhodesia took office under the internal settlement negotiated
between the government of Rhodesia and moderate African nationalists.
Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa (b.1925) served as the first prime minister
under Pres. Josiah Zion Gumede.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_Zimbabwe-Rhodesia)
1980 Mar 4, Robert Mugabe's
ZANU-PF won parliamentary election in Zimbabwe. Black nationalist
guerrillas led by Robert Mugabe laid down their arms and beat their
white-backed opponents at the polls. Rhodesia was renamed Zimbabwe.
Martin Meredith later authored "The Past Is Another Country," the story
of Rhodesia.
(WSJ, 9/8/98, p.A1)(SC, 3/4/02)(WSJ, 3/13/02, p.A16)
1980 Apr 1, The southern African
Development Coordination Conference was established by 9 countries with
the Lusaka declaration (Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique,
Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe). On August 17, 1992, it was
transformed into the Southern African Development Community. By 2008 it
included 15 members.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_African_Development_Community)
1980 Apr 18, Zimbabwe's (Rhodesia)
formal independence from Britain was proclaimed. Its chiefs were
stripped of power following independence. Canaan Banana, a Methodist
theologian, became president until 1987. He was later accused by dozens
of men of sexual harassment and rape. Robert Mugabe became prime
minister and held the real authority.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.C16)(SFC, 5/9/97, p.E3)(HN,
4/18/98) (SFC, 7/14/98, p.A10)
1980 Robert Mugabe appointed
Joshua Nkomo as home affairs minister in charge of police and internal
security in Zimbabwe.
(SFC, 7/2/99, p.D6)
1980 Zimbabwe’s white population
was around 200,000 at this time. By 2008 it had fallen to less than
50,000.
(Econ, 3/22/08, p.53)
1980-1987 Canaan Banana, a Methodist minister and
theology professor, served as ceremonial president of Zimbabwe
following independence.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.A20)
1980-1992 The Renamo guerrilla movement, led by
Afonso Dhlakama, waged rebellion against the Freelimo government. It
was a peasant terrorist army created in the late 70s by
Rhodesia’s (later Zimbabwe) white minority regime and later
financed by South Africa’s white apartheid government.
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.A10,12)
1981 In Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe
ordered judges to investigate clashes between his security forces and
the guerrillas of Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union. The
report was suppressed.
(SFC, 2/22/00, p.A10)
1982 Feb 17, Zimbabwe’s Robert
Mugabe dismissed Joshua Nkomo (1917-1999) for plotting a coup. A rebel
insurrection that professed loyalty to Nkomo followed and was crushed.
Nkomo fled the country.
(www.keesings.com/search?kssp_a_id=31550n01zwe&kssp_selected_tab=article)
1982 Zimbabwe granted landowners
proprietorship over wildlife and allowed hunting. Since then the
elephant population has increased from 40 to 50 thousand.
(WSJ, 7/23/96, p.A22)
1982-1987 The Matabeleland atrocities occurred when
the Zimbabwe government of Robert Mugabe sent in its North Korean
trained Fifth Brigade to terrorize the Ndebele-speaking region of
Matabeleland, that supported opponent Joshua Nkomo. Some 200 guerrillas
of the minority Ndebele tribe in Matabeleland province, fought troops
of Pres. Mugabe and as many as 20,000 civilians were killed. The terror
ended in 1987 when Nkomo reconciled with Mugabe. In 1999 Mugabe ordered
provincial officials to prepare compensation claims for the victims of
army atrocities.
(SFC, 5/30/97, p.A15)(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.A14)(WSJ,
3/13/02, p.A16)
1983 Robert Mugabe again ordered
judges to investigate clashes between his security forces and the
guerrillas of Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union. This
report was also suppressed.
(SFC, 2/22/00, p.A10)
1985 In Zimbabwe the Communal
Areas Management Program for Indigenous Resources was begun. It was a
community based conservation program to give villagers a stake in
wildlife conservation and its costs.
(WSJ, 6/5/97, p.A22)
1985 Morgan Tsvangirai became the
deputy head of the Associated Mine workers union in Zimbabwe.
(SFC, 3/9/02, p.A9)
1986 May 19, South African
commandos struck alleged ANC "operational centers" in Zimbabwe,
Botswana, Zambia.
(www.iie.com/research/topics/sanctions/southafrica.cfm)
1987 Dec 31, Robert Mugabe was
sworn in as Zimbabwe's first executive president.
(AP, 12/31/97)
1988 Joshua Nkomo signed a peace
accord with Robert Mugabe and rejoined the Zimbabwe government as vice
president.
(SFC, 7/2/99, p.D6)
1988 In Zimbabwe Kevin Woods,
Michael Smith and Philip Conjwayo were convicted of plotting a car
bombing against exiled members of South Africa's now-governing African
National Congress. The explosives detonated before reaching their
target in the city of Bulawayo, killing the Zimbabwean driver. In 2006
Pres. Mugabe pardoned the 3 men on humanitarian grounds.
(AP, 7/2/06)
1988 Bill Graham produced a
worldwide tour on behalf of Amnesty Int’l. featuring Bruce Springsteen,
Sting and Peter Gabriel. They toured Costa Rica, India and Zimbabwe.
(SFC,12/13/97, p.A15)
1989 The Communal Areas Management
Program for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) was established as a
compromise settlement between park rangers and local communities in
Zimbabwe.
(SFC, 8/10/98, p.A12,14)
1989 Zimbabwe’s Morgan Tsvangirai
became the federation secretary-general of the Congress of Trade Unions.
(SFC, 3/9/02, p.A9)
1989 Elephant floppy trunk disease
was first reported around Lake Kariba. Initial paralysis at the tip of
the trunk gradually moved up and resulted in total paralysis. Scores of
cases were reported in 2000 in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
(SFC, 2/26/00, p.A8)
1991 In Zimbabwe, the opposition
Daily Gazette began publishing but quickly folded in the period of
heavy drought.
(SSFC, 8/19/01, p.A11)
1992 Jan 27, Pres. Mugabe’s wife,
Sally (b.1932), died. Some dated the collapse of Zimbabwe and Mugabe’s
misrule to her death.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.28)
1992 Britain stopped financial
support for Zimbabwe’s land reform program due to mismanagement and
corruption.
(SFC, 4/7/00, p.D4)
1993 Strive Masiyiva challenged
Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe for his right to start a cell-phone
business.
(WSJ, 4/24/00, p.A21)
1994 Zimbabwe restored power to
local chiefs due to the corruption and inefficiency of appointed
officials.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.C16)
1995 Jan, In Zimbabwe Roger Boka
opened the doors of his United Merchant Bank. Government business was
channeled his way including a deal to issue debt on behalf of the Cold
storage Company Ltd., slated to be privatized.
(WSJ, 9/8/98, p.A10)
1995 Zimbabwe’s President Robert
Mugabe condemned the government in Nigeria for the hanging of Ken
Saro-Wiwa.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-16)
1995 Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe
lashed out against homosexuals and said they had no civil rights in
Zimbabwe.
(SFC, 7/14/98, p.A10)
1995-1997 The Zimbabwe Supreme Court ruled in favor
of Strive Masiyiva to set up a cell phone business. Pres. Mugabe issued
a decree against private cellular networks, which the Supreme Court
ruled unconstitutional.
(WSJ, 4/24/00, p.A24)
1996 May 17, This week huge swarms
of locusts swept through the Zimbabwe capital, Harare (formerly called
Salisbury). The insects had come up from Mozambique.
(SFC, 5/18/96, p.A-9)
1996 Oct 21, In Zimbabwe some
11,000 nurses went on strike for higher wages, allowances and better
working conditions.
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A16)
1996 Oct 30, In Zimbabwe the
government fired some 11,000 nurses who defied an order to end a
strike.
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.A21)
1996 Rwanda’s Paul Kagame dressed
up an invasion of Zaire as an indigenous revolt and installed Laurent
Kabila at its helm. Zimbabwe paid $5 million to help finance the Kabila
regime in Congo.
(WSJ, 10/8/98, p.A1)(Econ, 8/21/04, p.38)
1996 Zimbabwe’s Mana Pools
National Park, 858 square miles, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage
Site.
(SFEC, 2/20/00, p.T4)
1997 Jun 19, In Zimbabwe delegates
to the UN Convention on Int’l. Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
approved the applications by Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana to sell an
annual quota of their collective 55 tons of ivory stockpile, but only
to Japan. Trade in ivory was shut down in 1989 due to extensive
poaching.
(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A20)(SFC, 4/18/00, p.A9)
1997 Aug, In Zimbabwe on Heroes
Day Pres. Mugabe was shouted down by his own former guerrillas who were
angered that pensions to disabled veterans were frozen and over
allegations that $36 million had gone to the ruling party elite.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A12)
1997 Nov 14, In Zimbabwe the
dollar, stock market and economy all crashed over concerns about
payoffs to former guerrillas and the consequences of seizing 1,480
mostly white-owned farms. Zimbabwe’s currency plunged a record 72%, an
episode later regarded as the precursor of its subsequent economic
meltdown.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A12)(AFP, 11/10/07)
1997 Dec 9, Thousands of
protestors, angry over taxes, fought with the police for 4 hours in
Harare during one of the biggest local labor strikes. The strike was
called by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions amid discontent over
unemployment, taxes and inflation along with corruption and lavish
spending by politicians.
(SFC,12/10/97, p.A13)
1997 Dec 10, Zimbabwe’s government
withdrew key components of a controversial tax package.
(SFC,12/11/97, p.A18)
1997 Zimbabwe’s Roger Boka opened
an $8.6 million, 50,000 sq. foot tobacco exchange. His auction floor
only managed to get 8% of the market.
(WSJ, 9/8/98, p.A10)
1997 By UN definition 7% of
Zimbabwe’s children were orphans due to AIDS.
(SFC, 12/2/99, p.A18)
1998 Jan 19, In Harare, Zimbabwe
people rioted over soaring food prices. The price of corn meal, the
staple food, rose 21%, the 3rd increase in 4 months.
(SFC, 1/20/98, p.D2)
1998 Jan 20, Army troops were
ordered into Harare, Zimbabwe, to quell 2 days of unrest.
(SFC, 1/21/98, p.C12)
1998 Jan 26, The average annual
income in Zimbabwe was reported to be less than $550 and food prices
rose over 50% in the last 4 months.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A12)
1998 Feb, Lawrence "Warlord"
Chakaredza changed his name to Munhumutapa III, after a dynasty of
kings who once ruled in Zimbabwe. He was the founder of the Sangano
Munhumutapa, a cultural pressure group, and advocated the removal of
the Cecil Rhodes tomb in the sacred Matopos Hills.
(WSJ, 12/9/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 3, A strike over soaring
taxes and food prices left 80% of Zimbabwe’s workers at home.
(SFC, 3/4/98, p.C4)
1998 Apr 17, Checks issued by
Zimbabwe’s United Merchant Bank to cover redeemed notes on Cold Storage
began to bounce.
(WSJ, 9/8/98, p.A10)
1998 Apr 29, Government regulators
revoked the license of United Merchant Bank of Zimbabwe, Ltd., wholly
owned and controlled Roger Boka.
(WSJ, 9/8/98, p.A1)
1998 May 1, Zimbabwe’s labor
leaders called for a 5-day national strike to protest a tax increase
and higher prices.
(SFC, 5/2/98, p.A9)
1998 May 4, It was reported that
the United Merchant Bank of Zimbabwe’s tycoon Roger Boka was shut down
when a government audit found it incapable of paying its debts.
(WSJ, 5/4/98, p.A17)
1998 Jun, Zimbabwe’s Strive
Masiyiva went live with Econet Wireless Ltd. on the microwaves.
(WSJ, 4/24/00, p.A24)
1998 Aug 21, Zimbabwe sent 600
troops to support Pres. Kabila in the Congo. Rwanda called for a cease
fire and warned that it would intervene if the troops from Zimbabwe
were not withdrawn.
(SFC, 8/22/98, p.A8)
1998 Aug 26, In Congo
Rwandan-backed rebels attempted an assault on Kinshasa but were held
off by government soldiers and troops from Zimbabwe and Namibia.
(SFC, 8/27/98, p.A10)
1998 Sep 7, A summit in Zimbabwe
was scheduled to create conditions for a cease-fire in Congo. A half
dozen nations gathered to fashion a draft initiative for peace.
(SFEC, 9/6/98, p.A11)(SFC, 9/8/98, p.A8)
1998 Sep 8, The Congo rebel
delegation stormed out of the peace talks in Zimbabwe.
(SFC, 9/9/98, p.A9)
1998 Sep 26, From Zimbabwe it was
reported that timber companies were poisoning hundreds of baboons
causing them to die a slow painful death over 7-10 days.
(SFC, 9/26/98, p.A5)
1998 Oct 14, In Zimbabwe Pres.
Robert Mugabe that he will meet with Kabila to discuss support against
the rebels in Congo.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A15)
1998 Oct 19, In Congo 16
Zimbabwean soldiers were captured by the rebels.
(SFC, 10/21/98, p.C2)
1998 Oct 28, It was reported that
1 in 5 adults was infected with the AIDS virus in Zimbabwe.
(SFC, 10/28/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 4, In the outskirts of
Harare, Zimbabwe, riots broke out in anger over rising prices,
unemployment and involvement in the Congo war.
(WSJ, 11/5/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 11, A one-day general
strike was held in Zimbabwe and soldiers killed one protestor.
(WSJ, 11/12/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 26, Former Zimbabwe Pres.
Canaan Banana was convicted of 11 sex charges that included sodomy and
homosexual assault against aide Jefta Dube. He jumped bail and fled to
Botswana and then South Africa.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.A20)
1998 Nov 29, In Zimbabwe Pres.
Mugabe imposed a 6-month ban on national strikes and threatened to
suspend unions that defy the ban and imprison organizers.
(WSJ, 11/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov, Zimbabwe announced a
plan to seize 841 farms owned by white farmers. In Jan authorities
announced a reduction of seizures to 118 in order to get a $53 million
IMF loan.
(SFC, 1/13/99, p.A11)
1998 Dec 15, Congo rebels claimed
to have killed 47 Zimbabwean troops fighting for Kabila at Kabala.
(WSJ, 12/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 16, In Zimbabwe former
Pres. Canaan Banana (63) was returned from South Africa and was placed
under house arrest. He had been convicted Nov 26 of 11 sex charges.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.A20)
1998 Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe,
chairman of the African body “Organ on Politics, Defence and Security,”
joined with Namibia and Angola in a war of plunder in Congo.
(Econ, 3/13/04, p.48)
1999 Jan 10, In Zimbabwe
Journalists Ray Choto and Mark Chavunduka wrote that 23 officers had
been arrested for plotting a coup.
(SFC, 2/8/99, p.A10)
1999 Jan 12, Military police in
Zimbabwe detained a newspaper editor who printed an article saying 23
soldiers were arrested for plotting to overthrow Pres. Mugabe last
month. The government denied any coup attempt.
(WSJ, 1/13/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 18, Former Zimbabwe Pres.
Canaan Banana was sentenced to 10 years in jail for sodomy and indecent
assault. Nine of the years were suspended.
(SFC, 1/19/99, p.A7)
1999 Jan 25, In Zimbabwe 3 Supreme
Court justices wrote Pres. Mugabe a letter asking that he confirm that
the army has no power to arrest civilians and that the government will
not tolerate torture.
(SFC, 2/8/99, p.A10)
1999 Feb 3, In Zimbabwe officials
said that 70,000 people will die of AIDS this year. 1.6 million of the
nation's 12 million people were infected.
(WSJ, 2/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 7, In Zimbabwe Pres.
Mugabe suggested that the supreme court resign. He defended the actions
of the army which had arrested and tortured 2 journalists.
(SFC, 2/8/99, p.A10)
1999 Feb 8, In Zimbabwe police
arrested 4 more journalists critical of the government.
(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A10)
1999 Feb 10, A UN panel eased a
trade ban on ivory. It allowed Namibia and Zimbabwe to sell nearly 34
tons to Japan.
(WSJ, 2/11/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 13, In Zimbabwe three
Americans appeared in court on charges of terrorism, espionage and
sabotage against Pres. Kabila. They had been tortured and pictures with
the names: Gary George Blanchfield, Jona Lamonte-Dixon, and Joseph
Pettijohn were displayed. The men were associated with Harvestfield
Ministries in Indianapolis.
(SFC, 3/13/99, p.A13)(SFC, 3/15/99, p.A8)(WSJ,
3/15/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 14, In southeastern Congo
rebels reportedly killed over 100 villagers in retaliation for an
attack by pro-government militia. Moise Nyarugabo, head of the rebel
Congolese Democratic Coalition said his forces killed at least 150
Zimbabwean soldiers allied to Kabila at Kabinda. Zimbabwe denied the
report.
(SFC, 3/15/99, p.A9)(SFC, 3/17/99, p.C3)
1999 Apr 18, During a speech on
the 19th anniversary of independence Pres. Mugabe said that over 1200
Zimbabweans were dying each week from AIDS.
(SFC, 4/19/99, p.A10)
1999 Jun 22, Zimbabwe reported
that an estimated 3,000 people were dying per week, nearly 70% of them
from AIDS-related illnesses. 25% of the population was said to be
infected with the AIDS causing virus.
(SFC, 6/23/99, p.A14)
1999 Jun, In Zimbabwe the
opposition Daily News, founded by Geoffrey Nyarota, began publishing.
In 2003 he was forced out of his job and went into exile in America.
The paper closed shortly thereafter. In 2006 Nyarota authored “Against
the Grain: Memoirs of a Zimbabwean Newsman.”
(SSFC, 8/19/01, p.A11)(Econ, 10/7/06, p.91)
1999 Jul 1, Zimbabwe Vice
President Joshua Nkomo, traditional leader of the Ndebele tribe, died
at age 82.
(SFC, 7/2/99, p.D6)
1999 Jul 12, In Zimbabwe the trial
for 3 American held on sabotage and weapons charges was scheduled. They
were found guilty on Sep 10 and were sentenced to 1-year prison terms.
They were released on Nov 6 and sent home.
(SFC, 5/22/99, p.A16)(SFC, 9/11/99, p.A9)(WSJ,
9/16/99, p.A1)(SFC, 11/8/99, p.C14)
1999 Aug 1, David
Pleydell-Bouverie (18), a British student, was dragged from his tent by
a pride of lions and torn to pieces in Zimbabwe’s Matusadonha National
Park.
(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A9)
1999 Sep 13, In Zimbabwe AIDS
activists gathered in Lusaka for a 4-day conference on the disease that
had already killed 11 million Africans. 5 Africans were being infected
every 2 minutes.
(SFC, 9/14/99, p.A12)
1999 Sep 23, Moven Mahachi,
Defense Minister, announced that Zimbabwe’s and Congo’s armies had set
up a joint diamond and gold venture to help finance the war in Congo.
(WSJ, 5/30/00, p.A22)
1999 Dec 2, Congo rebels besieged
a large contingent of Zimbabwean troops allied with Kabila and captured
a Russian-built transport plane and 120 prisoners.
(SFC, 12/3/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 2, Congolese rebels lost
Bokungu as Zimbabwean soldiers broke through to save surrounded
comrades at Ikela airport.
(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A14)
1999 Dec 18, In Zimbabwe Pres.
Mugabe announced at a convention of the ruling party that land would be
seized from whites and that the constitutional clause guaranteeing
compensation would be scrapped.
(SFC, 12/20/99, p.A13)
1999 In Zimbabwe the Movement for
Democratic Change was created to defend democratic principles in
contrast to the ruling ZANU-PF.
(Econ, 11/19/05, p.50)
1999 The IMF suspended aid to
Zimbabwe after disputes over unbudgeted expenditures, the value of its
currency and the cost of its participation in the war in Congo. Within
a year the World Bank and the African Development Bank followed.
(AP, 9/10/05)
1999 Scientists announced that
Y-chromosome tests had turned up a genetic link between southern
Africa’s Lemba tribe (Zimbabwe) and the Jewish Cohanim, a priestly clan
going back to biblical times.
(www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3077146/)
2000 Jan, In Zimbabwe a new tax
law became effective. It imposed a 3% tax on personal and corporate
income to pay for a national AIDS trust.
(SSFC, 8/19/01, p.A11)
2000 Feb 12, In Zimbabwe voting
began on a new constitution with provisions for expropriating the land
of white farmers without compensation. A new party, the Movement for
Democratic Change, opposed the new constitution and Pres. Mugabe as
inflation in the country soared to over 60%. Voters spread word of
their opposition using Econet Wireless messaging and rejected the
proposal.
(SFC, 2/12/00, p.C1)(SFC, 2/16/00, p.A11)(WSJ,
4/24/00, p.A24)
2000 Feb 21, The Zimbabwe Supreme
Court ruled that lawyers may sue Pres. Mugabe to release secret reports
on government killings between 1980 and 1988.
(SFC, 2/22/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 26, Heavy rains continued
to ravage South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. 33 people
were reported dead in the northern province of South Africa and 29 dead
in Zimbabwe.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, p.A22)
2000 Feb 29, In Zimbabwe former
guerrillas invaded white-owned farms and occupied at least 36 with no
official interference.
(SFC, 3/1/00, p.A14)
2000 Mar 2, Zimbabwe ordered black
war veterans to quit white-owned farms.
(WSJ, 3/3/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 31, In Zimbabwe it was
reported that the hard-currency reserves were virtually non-existent,
that over half the population was unemployed, and that inflation stood
at 70%.
(WSJ, 3/31/00, p.A17)
2000 Apr 6, In Zimbabwe ruling
party lawmakers approved a bill empowering the government to seize
white-owned land without compensation. The squatter occupation reached
to 940 farms. 6 Western donors suspended $10 million in land reform aid.
(SFC, 4/7/00, p.D4)
2000 Apr 13, In Zimbabwe acting
Pres. Joseph Msika called for an end to squatter invasions of
white-owned farms after the high court ruled that police must comply
with an order to remove liberation war veterans and other government
supporters occupying the farms. Pres. Mugabe was visiting Cuba for a
summit of developing nations. Mugabe repudiated Msika’s order on his
return.
(SFC, 4/14/00, p.A20)(WSJ, 4/17/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 15, In Zimbabwe David
Stevens, a white farmer, was abducted and killed by squatters near
Macheke. 4 neighbors who went to help him were missing.
(SFEC, 4/16/00, p.C22)
2000 Apr 18, In Zimbabwe Martin
Olds, a white cattle rancher, was fatally shot by squatters.
(SFC, 4/19/00, p.A10)
2000 Apr 21, Pres. Mugabe met with
Presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique
and Sam Nujoma of Namibia at Victoria Falls concerning the crises in
Zimbabwe.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.C12)
2000 Apr 21, In Zimbabwe Robert
Mbuzi, an MDC organizer, was wounded by gunfire while organizing a
party meeting in Mhangura. He died a few days later.
(SFC, 4/26/00, p.A13)
2000 Apr 24, In South Africa Pres.
Mbeki brokered a deal with Pres. Mugabe of Zimbabwe for an end to the
campaign against white farmers in exchange for US and British funding
for land reform and a restoration of relations with the IMF.
(SFC, 4/25/00, p.A10)
2000 Apr 24, David Nhaurva, a
black supporter of the MDC, was killed by ax blows to the head north of
Harare, Zimbabwe.
(SFC, 4/26/00, p.A13)
2000 Apr 26, In Zimbabwe Morgan
Tsvangirai, president of the Movement for Democratic Change, threatened
to retaliate if attacks by ruling militants were not stopped.
(SFC, 4/27/00, p.A10)
2000 May 1, In Zimbabwe thousands
opposed to the rule of Pres. Mugabe rallied in Harare.
(WSJ, 5/1/00, p.A1)
2000 May 7, In Zimbabwe squatter
leader Chenjerai Hunzvi urged people attending a ruling party rally in
Glen Norah to seek out British passport holders and force them out of
the country. Allan Dunn was murdered at his farm by squatters.
(SFC, 5/8/00, p.A13)(WSJ, 6/8/00, p.a24)
2000 May 14, In Zimbabwe elections
were set for June 24-25, but the opposition objected because voting
districts were not yet established and a May 29 deadline for candidates
was thought too soon.
(SFC, 5/17/00, p.A18)
2000 May 18, The UN called for a
new land reform program in Zimbabwe as 2 more people were killed in
clashes.
(WSJ, 5/19/00, p.A1)
2000 May 29, Thadeus Rukuni, a
candidate for the Movement for Democratic Change, was beaten to death
in Bikita, Zimbabwe.
(SFC, 6/2/00, p.A18)
2000 May 31, Farmer Tony Oates was
killed by armed attackers at his home 40 miles northwest of Harare,
Zimbabwe.
(SFC, 6/2/00, p.A18)
2000 May, In Zimbabwe it was
reported that about 4,500 white commercial farmers owned 31 million
acres of prime agricultural land, 20.7% of the country’s total area.
Most rural blacks lived on state-owned land over 41% of the country.
(SFC, 5/24/00, p.C3)
2000 Jun 1, Zimbabwe Pres. Mugabe
announced that the state would begin seizing 804 mostly white-owned
farms and resettle them with landless blacks.
(SFC, 6/3/00, p.A10)
2000 Jun 17, Pres. Mugabe said
that whites may live in Zimbabwe, but they will never have a voice
equal to that of blacks.
(SFEC, 6/18/00, p.A14)
2000 Jun 19, Zimbabwe officials
said elections would not be monitored by foreign nongovernmental
organizations.
(WSJ, 6/20/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 24, After months of
political violence, elections began in Zimbabwe.
(SFC, 6/24/00, p.A1)(AP, 6/24/01)
2000 Jun 25, In Zimbabwe EU
observers said the voting in parliamentary elections was "not free or
fair."
(WSJ, 6/26/00, p.A1)
2000 Jun 27, Zimbabwe Pres. Mugabe
promised to work with the newly elected parliament. The Movement for
Democratic Change won 57 seats vs. 62 for Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party.
(SFC, 6/28/00, p.A12)
2000 Jul 9, In Zimbabwe 12 people
died in a soccer stampede set off when police fired tear gas at
bottle-throwing fans during a World Cup qualifier between Zimbabwe and
South Africa in Harare. South Africa’s 2-0 victory over Zimbabwe was
ruled official.
(WSJ, 7/10/00, p.A1)(AP, 7/8/01)
2000 Jul 20, The new Zimbabwe
Parliament opened with 57 opposition MDC members in the 150 seat body.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.A12)
2000 Jul 24, A 6th white farmer
was found beaten to death south of Harare, Zimbabwe in an apparent
robbery attempt.
(SFC, 7/26/00, p.A14)
2000 Jul 25, In Zimbabwe at least
230 white farmers quit working along with some businessmen in Karoi to
protest the breakdown in law and order.
(SFC, 7/26/00, p.A14)
2000 Jul 31, In Zimbabwe Vice
President Joseph Msika announced that 3,000 white-owned farms would be
resettled by landless black families.
(SFC, 8/2/00, p.A13)
2000 Aug 2, Zimbabwe’s Congress of
Trade Unions (ZCTU) called a one day general strike to protest the
policies of Pres. Mugabe. Finance minister Simba Makoni announced that
the government had agreed to devalue its currency 24%.
(WSJ, 8/2/00, p.A17)(WSJ, 8/3/00, p.A1,9)
2000 Sep 12, The Zimbabwe stock
exchange made a record 500 point gain after the IMF announced that it
would not resume financial assistance. The official inflation was 53.6%
and local cash could not be moved out of the country.
(WSJ, 9/15/00, p.A17)
2000 Oct 9, Morgan Tsvangirai,
opposition leader, defied threats of arrest and returned to Zimbabwe.
He called for Pres. Mugabe to quit or be ousted.
(WSJ, 10/10/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 10, Zimbabwe Pres. Mugabe
pardoned offenders for thousands of politically motivated crimes
committed between Jan 1 and July 31.
(SFC, 10/11/00, p.A14)
2000 Oct 16, Hundreds rampaged in
eastern Harare, Zimbabwe, over food prices. Opposition leaders called
for the resignation of Pres. Mugabe.
(SFC, 10/17/00, p.A16)(SFC, 10/18/00, p.A26)
2000 Oct 25, The Zimbabwe
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) presented articles of
impeachment against Pres. Mugabe.
(SFC, 10/26/00, p.A16)
2000 Nov 7, White farmers appealed
to the highest court on the constitutionality of the emergency powers
used by Zimbabwe Pres. Mugabe for farm seizures.
(SFC, 11/10/00, p.A16)
2000 Nov 10, The Zimbabwe Supreme
Court ruled that the government’s land reform plan and occupations of
white-owned farms were illegal.
(SFC, 11/11/00, p.A16)
2000 Nov 30, In Harare Pres. Mbeki
of South Africa and Pres. Obasanjo of Nigeria admonished Zimbabwe Pres.
Mugabe to abide by laws and to curtail the seizure of white-owned farms.
(WSJ, 12/1/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 13, In Zimbabwe a white
farmer was killed amid the land-expropriation drive.
(WSJ, 12/14/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 14, Zimbabwe Pres. Mugabe
claimed that his government has no control over the economy and blamed
the "white man" as the real enemy during an address to a Congress of
the ruling Zanu-PF Party
(SFC, 12/15/00, p.D10)
2001 Mar 7, Zimbabwe Pres. Mugabe
left Europe after meetings in France and Belgium over the 11,000 troops
he has stationed in Congo.
(SFC, 3/9/01, p.D3)
2001 Mar 19, A Zimbabwe delegation
wrapped up 2 days of meetings with South Africa to find ways to restore
the economy. South Africa feared a flood of Zimbabweans due to fuel and
food shortages there.
(WSJ, 3/20/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 9, Zimbabwe riot police
clashed with university students and one was killed with 30 injured.
The students protested "sugar daddies" who pursued impoverished female
students.
(WSJ, 4/10/01, p.A1)
2001 May 28, Zimbabwe's defense
chief died in a radio reported car accident.
(WSJ, 5/29/01, p.A1)
2001 Jun 4, Chenjerai Hunzvi
(Hitler Hunzvi), a leader of the Zimbabwe war veterans, died at age 51.
He had led the violent occupations of white-owned farms.
(SFC, 6/5/01, p.A14)
2001 Jun 13, The Zimbabwe
government increased gas prices by over 70% and labor unions threatened
to shut down the economy.
(SFC, 6/14/01, p.C3)
2001 Jun 29, Zimbabwe published a
new list of 2,030 white farm properties to be nationalized and handed
over to landless blacks.
(SFC, 6/30/01, p.A10)
2001 Jul 2, Zimbabwe deployed riot
police ahead of the start of a general strike.
(WSJ, 7/3/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 3, Joseph Made, Zimbabwe
Agriculture Minister, announced that the government increased acreage
acquisition from white farmers to 20 million acres.
(SFC, 8/10/01, p.A17)
2001 Aug 12, Some 300 family
members fled about 100 farms as rampaging mobs attacked and looted more
farms following a week of violence in Zimbabwe.
(SFC, 8/13/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 15, Four Zimbabwean Daily
News journalists were arrested after publishing a report that police
were helping loot white-owned farms.
(WSJ, 8/16/01, p.A1)(SSFC, 8/19/01, p.A11)
2001 Aug 21, Zimbabwe halted beef
exports as foot-and-mouth disease broke out in the latest series of
farm expropriations where militants released quarantined cattle.
(WSJ, 8/22/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 6, Zimbabwe Foreign
Minister Stan Mudenge pledged to abide by a brokered deal to stop
violent takeovers of white-owned farms. The government agreed to
"restore the rule of law to the process of land reform."
(SFC, 9/8/01, p.A8)
2001 Sep 8, Zimbabwe militants
seized the Logan Lee farm in Beatrice.
(SSFC, 9/9/01, p.A18)
2001 Sep 15, In Zimbabwe 2 ruling
party militants were killed during clashes with workers on the Bibby
family farm. John Bibby (70) was arrested the next day as an accessory
to the murders.
(SFC, 9/17/01, p.A18)
2001 Sep 23, In Congo rebel leader
Adolphe Onusumba acknowledged peace talks with Zimbabwe’s Pres. Mugabe.
(SFC, 9/24/01, p.B2)
2001 Oct 12, Zimbabwe Pres. Mugabe
imposed a price freeze on basic foods following cuts of 5-20% on basic
items.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.B6)
2001 Oct 15, In Zimbabwe Pres.
Mugabe announced the abandonment of market-based economics and a return
to a socialist-style economy.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.B6)
2001 Nov 8, Geoff Nyarota, editor
of the Daily News, was arrested in Harare, Zimbabwe, along with Wilf
Mbanga, CEO of the parent company.
(SFC, 11/9/01, p.A18)
2001 Nov 12, The Zimbabwe
government banned 1000 farmers from cultivating their fields and gave
them 3 months to vacate their homes as part of a "fast track" land
redistribution plan.
(SFC, 11/13/01, p.A14)
2001 Nov 15, Peace Corp workers
were recalled after the Zimbabwe government refused to issue permits
for new volunteers.
(WSJ, 11/16/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 16, The MDC headquarters
in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, were destroyed by pro-government militants. They
were protesting the recent killing of Cain Nkala, who helped lead
violent occupations of white-owned farms. 6 opposition activists
arrested for an alleged role in the murder were acquitted in 2004.
(SFC, 11/22/01, p.A20)(SFC, 8/7/04, p.A9)
2001 Nov 21, Zimbabwe Pres.
Mugabe’s administration planned to propose legislation for hanging
anyone found guilty of sedition.
(SFC, 11/22/01, p.A20)
2001 Nov 22, Patrick Chinamasa,
the Zimbabwe justice minister, announced plans to force residents to
carry identity documents at all times.
(SFC, 11/23/01, p.A21)
2001 Nov 23, The Mugabe government
of Zimbabwe accused 6 journalists working for foreign media of aiding
terrorism.
(SFC, 11/24/01, p.A13)
2001 Dec 4, The Zimbabwe high
court reversed a previous decision and ruled that seizures of
white-owned farms are legal. Pres. Mugabe had expanded the court and
replaced many of the justices.
(WSJ, 12/5/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 10, Zimbabwe Pres. Mugabe
said elections would be held in March.
(WSJ, 12/12/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 20, In Zimbabwe 2
opposition officials, Milton Chambati (45) and Titus Neya (50) were
killed west of Harare. Youth leader Trymore Midzi was assaulted the
next day and died Dec 24.
(SFC, 12/25/01, p.A20)
2001 Dec 21, President Bush signed
the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001, which
required the African nation to adopt land ownership protections in
order to continue receiving U.S. aid.
(SFC, 12/22/01, p.A5)(AP, 12/21/02)
2001 Dec 31, It was reported that
Zimbabwe planned to publish the names of nearly 100,000 black citizens
to be given portions of some 20 million acres of now farmland owned by
whites.
(WSJ, 12/31/01, p.A1)
2001 Thomas Mapfumo (57), musician
known as "the Lion of Zimbabwe," left Zimbabwe and settled in the US.
His innovations included translating sounds of the mbira to the
electric guitar.
(WSJ, 4/27/04, p.D10)
2002 Jan 4, It was reported that
$54 million in short term food aid was needed to ward off widespread
starvation in Zimbabwe. The AIDS epidemic, called "Nkondombera" (a
Shona word for "no condom") was claiming over 2,000 people per week.
Inflation was running at over 100% per month. Unemployment was
estimated at 50%.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A5)
2002 Jan 9, In Zimbabwe the
military chiefs put their support behind Pres. Mugabe saying they would
only accept a president who fought in the war for independence.
(SFC, 1/10/02, p.A8)
2002 Jan 10, Pres. Mugabe enacted
sweeping security and election laws to clamp down on critics and limit
election monitoring. Iden Wetherell, editor of the Zimbabwe
Independent, was arrested along with 2 staff members on charges of
defaming Mugabe.
(SFC, 1/11/02, p.A5)(WPR, 3/04, p.29)
2002 Jan 12, Police fired on some
5,000 opposition supporters in Buhera, Zimbabwe. Opposition MDC offices
were set on fire in Kwekwe.
(SFC, 1/15/02, p.A9)
2002 Jan 23, The UN sent famine
relief to Zimbabwe.
(SFC, 1/24/02, p.A8)
2002 Jan 28, In Zimbabwe Pres.
Mugabe’s government announced plans for compulsory national youth
service training.
(SFC, 1/29/02, p.A8)
2002 Jan 31, Zimbabwe enacted a
new media law that required local media people to be licensed and
restricted foreign reporters from working freely.
(SFC, 2/1/02, p.A15)
2002 Feb 6, A human rights group
said 16 people died in Zimbabwe in political killings in Jan.
(WSJ, 2/7/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 13, Morgan Tsvangirai,
Zimbabwe opposition leader, was implicated in a plot to overthrow Pres.
Mugabe in film footage made by a consulting firm with ties to Mugabe.
Tsvangirai said the tape was contrived.
(SFC, 2/14/02, p.A9)(WSJ, 2/14/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 16, Zimbabwe expelled
Pierre Schori, head of the EU’s 150-member mission to observe
elections. EU officials threatened sanctions.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A14)(SSFC, 2/17/02, p.A13)
2002 Feb 18, The EU ordered home
its 30-member observer team in Zimbabwe and voted to impose sanctions
on that country, which included cutting off $110 million in aid, a ban
on travel to the EU by Mugabe and 20 Cabinet members and freezing of
assets.
(SFC, 2/19/02, p.A8)
2002 Feb 25, Morgan Tsvangirai,
Zimbabwe presidential candidate, was charged with treason for allegedly
plotting to assassinate Pres. Mugabe.
(SFC, 2/26/02, p.A6)
2002 Feb 27, The Zimbabwe Supreme
Court struck down the General Laws Amendment Act that gave election
officers sweeping powers. A high court judge delayed the implementation
of new citizenship rules that disqualified thousands of voters.
(SFC, 2/28/02, p.A9)
2002 Mar 5, In Zimbabwe Pres.
Mugabe reinstated controversial election laws that had been struck down
by the Supreme Court.
(SFC, 3/6/02, p.A7)
2002 Mar 10, In Zimbabwe the high
court ordered the government to extend voting to a 3rd day as long
lines continued following the deadline. In Harare police chased away
some 2.5-3 thousand people from a polling station following the
extension.
(SFC, 3/11/02, p.A7)(WSJ, 3/11/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 11, In Zimbabwe the polls
closed. A request for a 4th day of voting was denied.
(SFC, 3/12/02, p.A70)
2002 Mar 13, Zimbabwe Pres. Mugabe
was declared the winner with 1.6 million votes to Tsvangirai’s 1.2 mil.
The opposition apposed the results and many observers described the
process as deeply flawed.
(SFC, 3/14/02, p.A7)
2002 Mar 18, Terry Ford became the
10th white farmer killed by Zimbabwe militants in the last 2 years.
(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A8)
2002 Mar 19, Zimbabwe was
suspended by the 54-nation Commonwealth for one year as punishment for
Pres. Mugabe’s conduct during the elections.
(SFC, 3/20/02, p.A11)
2002 Mar 20, In Harare, Zimbabwe,
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was charged with treason,
fingerprinted and released on bail.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 24, Zimbabwe opposition
officials reported that Mugabe militants had driven hundreds of
opposition supporters from their homes and that 4 opposition activists
had been killed since the elections.
(SFC, 3/25/02, p.A7)
2002 Mar 26, In nationwide vote
tallies Zimbabwe’s MDC found 185,961 missing votes and 106,731 extra
votes.
(SFC, 3/27/02, p.A6)
2002 Apr 5, Zimbabwe police
arrested 354 activists as they organized protests against the disputed
election of Pres. Mugabe.
(SFC, 4/6/02, p.A8)
2002 Apr 6, Police arrested at
least 22 people in Harare, Zimbabwe, who planned demonstrations against
Pres. Mugabe.
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A8)
2002 Apr 15, The editor of the
only private newspaper in Zimbabwe was arrested questioning the
legitimacy of Pres. Mugabe’s re-election under a new press law: for
"abuse of journalistic privilege."
(WSJ, 4/16/02, p.A1)
2002 May 6, Zimbabwe arrested an
8th journalist under its harsh new press law.
(WSJ, 5/7/02, p.A1)
2002 May 15, Zimbabwe was reported
to have begun evicting thousands of black families occupying
white-owned farms and other lands not listed for seizure under Pres.
Mugabe’s land plan.
(WSJ, 5/16/02, p.A12)
2002 May 31, Zimbabwe declared HIV
a national emergency. Some 25% of the adults there were infected with
the virus.
(SFC, 6/1/02, p.A11)
2002 Jun 10, In Zimbabwe the state
radio reported that a bus carrying student teachers back from a
sporting event collided with a heavy truck, killing at least 37 people.
(AP, 6/10/02)(SFC, 6/11/02, p.A11)(WSJ, 6/11/02,
p.A1)
2002 Jun 29, In Zimbabwe Dr. Roy
Raub, a retired American doctor, was killed in an apparent carjacking.
(SFC, 7/2/02, p.A9)
2002 Jul 1, A US federal
magistrate recommended a $73 million penalty against Zimbabwe's ruling
party for allegedly torturing and killing political opponents.
(AP, 7/1/02)
2002 Jul 23, In Zimbabwe at least
15 people illegally mining gold were killed when an abandoned mine
shaft in Mhondoro caved in.
(AP, 7/30/02)
2002 Aug 9, In Zimbabwe a
government deadline for the white farmers to give up their land passed
without incident, and it remained uncertain if police would try to
forcibly evict them.
(AP, 8/9/02)
2002 Aug 14, Black militants armed
with clubs and stones began evicting a white farmer from his land in
northeastern Zimbabwe, the first seizure since a government eviction
order expired last week.
(Reuters, 8/14/02)
2002 Aug 16, The Zimbabwean
government appeared to be cracking down on white farmers who defied
orders to leave their land, charging seven in court and detaining at
least 27 others across the country.
(AP, 8/16/02)
2002 Aug 25, In Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe announced his new Cabinet, firing the moderate finance
minister and keeping hard-liners who have spearheaded harsh media
controls and seizures of white-owned farms.
(AP, 8/25/02)
2002 Aug 28, The United Nations
confirmed that Uganda and Zimbabwe have begun their pledged troop
withdrawals from Congo.
(AP, 8/28/02)
2002 Aug 29, In Zimbabwe a bomb
attack gutted the office of a radio station critical of President
Robert Mugabe's government, and authorities raided a human rights group
and a camp for displaced farm workers run by a private charity.
(AP, 8/29/02)
2002 Sep 28, Zimbabweans in rural
areas voted in elections for local councils, and the main opposition
party said hundreds of its candidates were barred from running for
office.
(AP, 9/28/02)
2002 Oct 13, In Zimbabwe Sir
Garfield Todd (93), the former prime minister of Southern Rhodesia
(1953-1958), as Zimbabwe was once known, died after suffering a stroke.
(AP, 10/13/02)
2002 Oct 21, A UN panel accused
criminal groups linked to the armies of Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe and
Congo of plundering Congo's riches, and called on the United Nations to
impose financial restrictions on 29 companies and 54 individuals.
(AP, 10/21/02)
2002 Oct 22, In Zimbabwe a top
opposition lawmaker who was in jail on murder charges was found dead in
his cell, prompting calls for an independent investigation and autopsy.
Learnmore Jongwe (28) had been in custody since July, when he was
arrested in the stabbing death of his wife.
(AP, 10/22/02)
2002 Oct 28, Zimbabwe's ruling
party won a sweeping victory in a parliamentary by-election. The
opposition said that the vote was rigged and swayed by violence and
intimidation.
(AP, 10/29/02)
2002 Nov 11, Border police in
Zimbabwe shot and killed Richard Gilman (58), a Connecticut man
who was on a humanitarian mission in Africa.
(AP, 11/12/02)
2002 Nov 11, Zimbabwean journalist
and publisher Mark Chavunduka (37), whose arrest and subsequent torture
helped expose his government's increasing repression of dissent, died
after a prolonged illness.
(AP, 11/13/02)
2002 Nov 16, Zimbabwe's government
froze prices on a range of products from tractors to diapers, moving to
ease an economic crisis that has been worsened by continuing political
violence.
(AP, 11/16/02)
2002 Nov 18, Zimbabwe banned
citizens from swearing or making offensive gestures during the passage
of Pres. Mugabe’s motorcades.
(WSJ, 11/19/02, p.A1)
2002 Martin Meredith authored "Our
Votes, Our Guns," a look at Zimbabwe under the rule of Robert Mugabe.
(WSJ, 3/13/02, p.A16)
2002 Zimbabwe held a census but
results were not made public. In 2004 the population was reported to be
11.6 million. Normal growth should have put the number at 14 million.
(Econ, 11/27/04, p.48)
2003 Feb 1, In northwestern
Zimbabwe a crowded passenger train and a freight train with flammable
liquid collided, killed at least 50 people and injured about 40.
(AP, 2/3/03)(AP, 2/1/08)
2003 Feb 14, In Zimbabwe 2
Valentine's Day peace parades by women clutching roses and singing
hymns were broken up by baton-wielding police who arrested at least 88
people as well as eight journalists.
(AP, 2/14/03)
2003 Mar 7, Pres. Bush
invoked economic sanctions against Pres. Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and
dozens of officials of his government on grounds they undermined the
country’s democratic institutions.
(AP, 3/7/03)
2003 Mar 19, In Zimbabwe a
national strike called to protest the increasingly authoritarian
government shut down businesses and disrupted transportation services
across the country for a second day.
(AP, 3/19/03)
2003 Mar 24, In Zimbabwe the
Zwakwana human rights said forces loyal to President Robert Mugabe
hunted down government opponents after a national strike, beating them
with iron bars and whips. At least 1 person was killed.
(AP, 3/24/03)
2003 Mar 27, In Zimbabwe
opposition leaders urged the nation's soldiers and police to disobey
orders to crush any show of dissent against the government.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Apr 23, In Zimbabwe many
banks, factories and stores were forced to close as workers stayed off
the job to protest a government increase gasoline prices.
(AP, 4/23/03)
2003 Jun 3, In Zimbabwe a general
strike shut down much of the already crippled economy, and security
forces prevented efforts to organize massive street protests against
Pres. Mugabe.
(AP, 6/3/03)
2003 Jun 6, Zimbabwe police
arrested Morgan Tsvangirai, the main opposition leader, and charged him
with treason as hundreds of security forces took control of the streets.
(AP, 6/6/03)
2003 Jun 20, Morgan Tsvangirai
(51), Zimbabwe's opposition leader, was released on bail after two
weeks in jail on treason charges. He said he will not stop putting
pressure on Pres. Robert Mugabe (79).
(AP, 6/21/03)
2003 Jul 18, Zimbabwe government
inspectors and police ordered bakeries to pay fines Friday for
violating price controls.
(AP, 7/18/03)
2003 Aug 3, It was reported that
the economic crises in Zimbabwe has led to corpses being stacked up
because relatives could not afford burial costs.
(SSFC, 8/3/03, p.A16)
2003 Sep 18, Zimbabwe's high court
ordered the nation's only independent newspaper reopened. Police had
shut it down because it refused to get a government license.
(WSJ, 9/19/03, p.A1)
2003 Sep 19, Zimbabwe military
police barred journalists from entering their offices, defying a court
order to allow the country's only independent daily newspaper to resume
publishing.
(AP, 9/19/03)
2003 Sep 20, Zimbabwe Vice
President Simon Muzenda (81), a long time loyal aide of Zimbabwe's
autocratic leader Robert Mugabe, died.
(AP, 9/20/03)
2003 Oct 1, In southwestern
Zimbabwe a bus overturned and crashed after a tire burst, killing 16
people and injuring at least 28 in the second serious bus crash in
Zimbabwe in 24 hours.
(AP, 10/3/03)
2003 Nov 10, Canaan Sodindo Banana
(b.1936), the first black president of Zimbabwe (1980-1987), died after
a long illness. In 1998, Banana was sentenced to 10 years in prison for
his role in a gay sex scandal, but served only 6 months.
(AP, 11/11/03)(Econ, 11/29/03, p.85)
2003 Nov 18, In Zimbabwe police
broke up demonstrations across the country against President Robert
Mugabe's autocratic rule, arresting nearly 90 protesters, including 14
leaders of Zimbabwe's main labor federation.
(AP, 11/18/03)
2003 Nov 28, Pres. Robert Mugabe
threatened to pull Zimbabwe out of the Commonwealth after the 54-nation
grouping of Britain and its former territories barred him from an
upcoming summit in Nigeria.
(AP, 11/28/03)
2003 Dec 7, Zimbabwe pulled out of
the Commonwealth rather than endure a suspension after members in
Nigeria decided to extend the southern African country's suspension
from the organization of Britain and its former colonies.
(AP, 12/7/03)
2003 Dec 8, In Nigeria the
Commonwealth summit of 54-nations, representing nearly one-third of the
world's 6 billion people, ended with Western nations blaming Zimbabwe
for its own growing international isolation.
(AP, 12/8/03)
2003 Dec 19, In Zimbabwe riot
police shut down the printing plant of the only independent daily
newspaper, defying a court order that overturned a government ban.
(AP, 12/19/03)
2003 Dec, Gideon Gono took over as
governor of Zimbabwe’s central bank.
(Econ, 6/26/04, p.48)
2003 Inflation in Zimbabwe hit
over 600%.
(Econ, 6/26/04, p.48)
2003 The IMF suspended Zimbabwe's
voting rights and began a process that could lead to the country's
expulsion.
(AP, 9/10/05)
2004 Jan 22, Zimbabwe's only
independent daily newspaper brought out a slim edition that was
snatched up by readers after a court ordered police to allow the
popular Daily News to resume publishing.
(AP, 1/22/04)
2004 Jan 29, Widespread drought
was reported across southern Africa. Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa and
Zimbabwe were all affected.
(SFC, 1/29/04, p.A16)
2004 Jan, SHAZ, a new AIDS
prevention tool, was begun in Zimbabwe. The Shaping the Health of
Adolescents in Zimbabwe program offered economic security to help
shield young girls from liaisons with older men that often transmitted
AIDS.
(WSJ, 2/25/04, p.B1)
2004 Feb 5, Journalists at
Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper left their offices after
the Supreme Court upheld that it was a crime to work without a
government license.
(AP, 2/5/04)(WSJ, 2/5/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb, Zimbabwe Pres. Mugabe
bolstered police powers by decreeing that his police could hold people
for 28 days without charge.
(Econ, 3/13/04, p.48)
2004 Mar 7, Zimbabwean authorities
seized a US-registered cargo plane at Harare carrying 64 "suspected
mercenaries" and military equipment. Equatorial Guinea later said the
men were mercenaries from South Africa en route to stage a coup. Twenty
South Africans, 18 Namibians, 23 Angolans, two Congolese and one
Zimbabwean carrying a South African passport were arrested when their
aging Boeing 727 was impounded. Another 15 suspects were arrested in
Equatorial Guinea the next day. In 2006 Adam Roberts authored “The
Wonga Coup,” an account of the attempted coup.
(AP, 3/8/04)(WSJ, 3/10/04, p.A1)(AP, 3/10/04)(WSJ,
7/26/06, p.D11)
2004 Mar 28, Clashes between
supporters of Zimbabwe's ruling party and the opposition killed one
person and wounded at least 11 during the second day of polling in a
parliamentary by-election.
(AP, 3/29/04)
2004 Jun 8, The Zimbabwe
government announced that all farmland will be nationalized and private
land ownership abolished. Title deeds of farm properties will be
scrapped and replaced by 99-year leases with rent payable to the
government.
(AP, 6/8/04)
2004 Jun 20, Zimbabwe’s government
said it would honor ownership rights to land bought on the property
market, backtracking on previous announcements it would nationalize all
farmland.
(AP, 6/20/04)
2004 Jul 15, The Gates Foundation
announced a $44.7 million award at the AIDS Conference in Bangkok to a
consortium of TB and AIDS researchers. The 2 diseases were often
linked. A UN report cited 7 countries as the hardest hit by the AIDS
pandemic: Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Lesotho, Zambia, Malawi, the Central
African Republic and Mozambique.
(WSJ, 7/15/04, p.B1)(SFC, 7/16/04, p.A6)
2004 Jul 18, Economists and
international donors said mismanagement in Zimbabwe by Pres. Robert
Mugabe's regime is behind an annual inflation rate now close to 400
percent.
(AP, 7/18/04)
2004 Aug 27, A Zimbabwean court
found Briton Simon Mann guilty of attempting to illegally buy arms for
an alleged coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea but absolved 66
other suspected mercenaries.
(AP, 8/27/04)
2004 Sep 10, Simon Mann, a former
British special forces soldier and the alleged leader of a foiled coup
plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, was sentenced to seven years in
prison for trying to buy weapons from Zimbabwe's state arms
manufacturer.
(AP, 9/10/04)
2004 Sep 22, Zimbabwe's government
dismissed reports of dozens of deaths linked to malnutrition as lies
peddled by detractors and insisted the nation has more food than it
needs.
(AP, 9/22/04)
2004 Sep, In Zimbabwe Kenny James
Froud and Simon Buckleywere, British nationals, were killed with an axe
in before the assailants stole goods and about 500 British
pounds. In November Zimbabwean police arrested three suspects in
the murder of the 2 men.
(AP, 11/15/04)
2004 Oct 15, Zimbabwe opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai was acquitted on treason charges following a
yearlong trial that his party had said was orchestrated by the
government of President Robert Mugabe.
(AP, 10/15/04)
2004 Nov 13, A Zimbabwe newspaper
reported that the annual rate of inflation last month dropped to 209%,
edging closer to a year-end target of 150% from a peak of 622.8% in Jan.
(AFP, 11/13/04)
2004 Dec 4, Zimbabwe's ruling
party elected longtime cabinet minister Joyce Mujuru as the country's
first woman vice-president at the end of a party congress, putting her
on course to succeed Mugabe when he eventually retires in 2008.
(AFP, 12/4/04)
2004 Dec 9, Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe's ruling party passed a controversial new law that aims
to bar foreign rights groups from the country, as well as foreign
funding for local groups doing similar work.
(AP, 12/9/04)
2004 White farmers from Zimbabwe
moved to Zambia and leased some 150 farms.
(Econ, 6/26/04, p.49)
2005 Jan 9, The Zimbabwe Standard
reported that a maize-meal shortage has become acute.
(http://allafrica.com/stories/200501100537.html)(Econ, 1/15/05, p.44)
2005 Jan 17, Iranian President
Mohammed Khatami arrived in Zimbabwe to a red carpet welcome from his
counterpart Robert Mugabe with whom he is due to hold talks over two
days.
(AP, 1/18/05)
2005 Jan 20, It was reported that
a Zimbabwe government crackdown on dissent is deepening a climate of
fear ahead of parliamentary elections due in March. President Robert
Mugabe appointed a new electoral commission to run parliamentary polls
due in March under a law which the opposition says does not guarantee a
free and fair vote.
(AP, 1/20/05)(Reuters, 1/20/05)
2005 Feb 11, Zimbabwe announced
that 1.5 million people needed food aid immediately.
(SFC, 2/12/05, p.A3)
2005 Feb 25, The Zimbabwe
government accused the independent Weekly Times of violating its
operating license and ordered it to shut down.
(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.A3)
2005 Feb, Zimbabwe Pres. Mugabe
fell out with Jonathan Moyo and fired him as information minister.
(AP, 8/22/05)
2005 Mar 13, In Musina, South
Africa, thousands of protesters held an 18-hour vigil on the border
with Zimbabwe to demonstrate against mounting repression in the
neighboring country two weeks before a key parliamentary election there.
(AP, 3/13/05)
2005 Mar 14, Zimbabwe's Supreme
Court quashed a ban on the independent Daily News newspaper, known for
its anti-government line, but upheld a controversial media law that has
forced three other newspapers to close down.
(AP, 3/14/05)
2005 Mar 17, Zimbabwe's highest
court barred 3.4 million citizens living abroad, over 20 percent of the
country's population, from voting in this month's parliamentary
elections.
(AP, 3/18/05)
2005 Mar 31, Zimbabweans waited in
long lines to vote in parliamentary elections that President Robert
Mugabe hopes will prove the legitimacy of a regime.
(AP, 3/31/05)
2005 Apr 1, Zimbabwe opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai dismissed the previous day's elections as
"massive fraud" and accused President Robert Mugabe of treating his
country like "his private property."
(AP, 4/1/05)
2005 Apr 2, President Robert
Mugabe's ruling party won 78 out of 120 contested seats in Zimbabwe's
disputed parliamentary elections, giving him enough seats to press
ahead with plans to change the constitution to strengthen his grip on
power. The Opposition for Democratic Change (MDC) won 35 seats.
(AP, 4/2/05)(SFC, 4/2/05, p.A12)(Reuters, 4/2/05)
2005 Apr 7, President Robert
Mugabe of Zimbabwe defied a European Union travel ban and arrived in
Rome to join world leaders attending Pope John Paul II's funeral. Italy
has a pact with the Vatican in which it does not interfere with people
transiting the country to see the pope.
(AP, 4/7/05)
2005 Apr 12, Zimbabwe's main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) lodged a first court
challenge against results from March 31 polls it says were rigged.
(Reuters, 4/12/05)
2005 Apr 13, Zimbabwe state radio
reported President Robert Mugabe's government has acquired six fighter
jets "to deal with any challenges." The aircraft appeared to be the K-8
advanced jet trainer, a Chinese copy of the British Aerospace BAE
"Hawk." Zimbabwe's opposition released a dossier to back claims that
last month's elections were rigged to hand victory to President Robert
Mugabe's ruling party.
(AP, 4/13/05)
2005 May 23, In Zimbabwe
paramilitary units armed with batons and tear gas patrolled Harare's
main roads as police warned they would not tolerate any more protests
against their crackdown on street trading, the only livelihood for
thousands in the shattered economy.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 Jun 1, Zimbabwe’s state
Herald newspaper reported that police have arrested more than 22,000
people as a fierce blitz on illegal stores and shantytowns gathered
pace, sending homeless people fleeing for the countryside.
(Reuters, 6/1/05)
2005 Jun 9, A strike over
Zimbabwe's razing of shantytowns made a slow start and the opposition
boycotted President Robert Mugabe's opening of a new parliament elected
in polls critics said were unfair.
(AP, 6/9/05)
2005 Jun 10, Zimbabwe police
fought running battles until dawn with supporters of a general strike
called to protest a government campaign against shack dwellers and
street traders. The mass strike failed on its final day.
(AFP, 6/10/05)
2005 Jun 14, Zimbabwe reported
that police have razed more than 20,000 shacks and other structures in
what President Robert Mugabe called “Operation Murambatsvina,” (drive
out the rubbish), an urban cleanup campaign. Some 700,000 people had
their homes or businesses destroyed in the campaign.
(AP, 6/14/05)(Econ, 6/11/05, p.46)(Econ, 5/27/06,
p.46)
2005 Jun 23, Zimbabwe state media
reported that 2 children were crushed to death by rubble during the
demolition of illegal houses this month in a government crackdown that
has made tens of thousands homeless.
(Reuters, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 27, PM Tony Blair
defended Britain's deportation of failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers, a
policy that has triggered a refugee hunger strike.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jun 30, Zimbabwe police
targeted an illegal settlement west of Harare in the government's
six-week demolition and resettlement campaign, and as many as three
people were reported dead. 2 women, one of them pregnant, died when
they fell off the back of trucks ferrying them to a "transit camp"
where thousands of displaced people are living in tents. A 4-year-old
boy was run over by a truck
(AP, 7/1/05)
2005 Jul 2, Australia and New
Zealand agreed on tough new measures to pressure Zimbabwe's President
Robert Mugabe to respect human rights, including a sports ban and
action against him in the International Criminal Court.
(AP, 7/2/05)
2005 Jul 4, In Zimbabwe armed
paramilitary police swept through a Harare township, pulling down more
100 prefabricated wooden cabins, including one with screaming children
inside.
(AP, 7/5/05)
2005 Jul 23, Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe arrived in Beijing for a visit expected to include a plea
for oil and food to aid his state's failing economy.
(AP, 7/23/05)
2005 Aug 18, A pride of lions
attacked a Japanese woman (50) visiting the Lion and Cheetah Park at
Norton, a Zimbabwe wildlife park. She died the next day.
(AP, 8/21/05)
2005 Aug 30, Zimbabwe lawmakers
endorsed a constitutional overhaul that sharply restricts property
rights and allows Zimbabwe's government to deny passports to its
critics.
(AP, 8/30/05)
2005 Aug 30, Australia and New
Zealand lobbied the United Nations Security Council to indict
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his government in the
International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.
(AP, 8/30/05)
2005 Aug 31, Zimbabwe state
television said the country has paid back 120 million dollars of its
300-million-dollar (245-million-euro) debt to the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), which had threatened to expel Harare for arrears.
(AFP, 8/31/05)
2005 Sep 7, Farmers and other
experts said Zimbabwe, once a regional breadbasket, is facing its worst
agricultural season since independence in 1980, with shortages of seed,
fertilizer and equipment threatening next year's harvest before it even
has been planted.
(AP, 9/7/05)
2005 Sep 9, Zimbabwe’s President
Robert Mugabe signed amendments that adopted constitutional changes
that make it easier for the state to seize private property and prevent
opponents from traveling abroad to criticize his 25-year rule. The
constitutional overhaul stripped landowners of their right to appeal
expropriation of their property by the state and declared all real
estate is now on a 99-year lease from the government.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 10, Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe arrived in Cuba, criticizing the International Monetary
Fund, even though the organization a day earlier deferred a decision
for six months on whether to expel the African nation.
(AP, 9/10/05)
2005 Sep 16, Zimbabwe's Pres.
Mugabe said that his government will take a stake in privately operated
mining enterprises, but he does not intend to nationalize the industry
as he has commercial farmland.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 22, In Britain 8
Zimbabwean soccer players and two officials deserted their teams after
a tour, joining thousands of fellow citizens who have sought refuge
abroad over a serious political and economic crisis at home.
(AP, 9/24/05)
2005 Oct 5, The official Herald
newspaper reported Zimbabwe needs to import more grain to feed at least
2.2 million needy people who cannot fend for themselves until the new
harvest next April.
(AP, 10/5/05)
2005 Oct 19, Zimbabwean Archbishop
Pius Ncube said he feared 200,000 of his countrymen could die by early
next year because of food shortages he blamed on his government, and
called for President Robert Mugabe's ouster.
(AP, 10/19/05)
2005 Nov 8, President Robert
Mugabe told the US ambassador to Zimbabwe to "go to hell," after the
envoy blamed the country's economic and political crisis on
mismanagement and corrupt rule. Police detained several trade union
leaders and were out in force ahead of planned demonstrations to
protest worsening living conditions in Zimbabwe.
(AP, 11/8/05)
2005 Nov 11, Zimbabwean war
veterans demanded that US ambassador Christopher Dell leave the
country, accusing him of trying to cause unrest and threatening to
demonstrate against him if he stays.
(AP, 11/11/05)
2005 Nov 16, More than 150
international rights groups petitioned African governments and the
continent's main political union to act on what they called a
humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe.
(Reuters, 11/17/05)
2005 Nov 17, UN officials said
Zimbabwe has backtracked on its refusal to allow the UN to help build
emergency housing for people whose homes were demolished in a
government eviction campaign.
(AP, 11/17/05)
2005 Nov 20, Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe said he will turn to nuclear power by processing recently
discovered uranium deposits to resolve its chronic electricity shortage.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 21, Zimbabwe's
state-owned national airline grounded its entire fleet after running
out of fuel as the southern African country's economy continues to
crumble.
(Reuters, 11/22/05)
2005 Nov 24, The UN food agency
said the United States has thrown a lifeline to six southern African
countries, donating food aid valued at $45 million. The food will be
distributed across Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and
Zimbabwe.
(AP, 11/24/05)
2005 Nov 26, In Zimbabwe senate
elections drew a low turnout under partial boycotting by the opposition
over accusations the poll is designed to consolidate President Robert
Mugabe's rule.
(Reuters, 11/26/05)
2005 Nov 27, Zimbabwe's ruling
party swept an overwhelming majority of seats in a newly created
Senate, according to partial results from an election marked by
record-low turnout and a deeply divided opposition.
(AP, 11/27/05)
2005 Dec 1, Zimbabwe signed an
agreement with the UN food agency to feed at least 3 million people
after previously denying major shortages.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 10, Zimbabwe's President
Robert Mugabe conceded that shortcomings in his land redistribution
program contributed to critical food shortages as his party wrapped up
its annual conference.
(AP, 12/11/05)
2005 Dec 10, Zimbabwe's ruling
party recommended a crackdown on Western-sponsored groups hostile to
President Robert Mugabe and asked security forces to make a list of
people whose passports should be seized.
(Reuters, 12/11/05)
2006 Feb 14, Zimbabwe police
arrested at least 60 women who took part in a march with a Valentine's
Day theme calling for love and harmony and protesting food shortages
and alleged human rights violations.
(CP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 23, A powerful earthquake
sent thousands of panicking people fleeing from swaying buildings in
Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and killed at least two people.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 25, In Zimbabwe Arthur
Mutambara, a former NASA researcher, was elected as president of a
faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). He vowed to unite
his divided party against the regime of Robert Mugabe which he accused
of creating chaos in the country.
(AFP, 2/26/06)
2006 Mar 3, Zimbabwe’s minister of
mines announced that 51% of all foreign mining shareholdings would have
to be transferred to the government.
(Econ, 3/18/06, p.64)
2006 Mar 5, Zimbabwe state media
reported that foreign hunters have bid a total of $1.5 million to shoot
leopards, lions, elephants and buffaloes in Zimbabwe this year.
(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 11, In Zimbabwe lawmaker
Giles Mutseyekwa of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
and seven others were formally charged with violating security laws.
The eight were rounded up on Mar 7-8 after security agents had arrested
one of the suspects identified as Mike Peter Hitschmann over an arms
cache found at his home in Mutare.
(AFP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 11, Zimbabwe’s Central
Statistical Office said inflation was 782 percent for the 12 months
that ended in February. Moffat Nyoni, acting director of the
government-run Statistical Office, said prices of food and nonalcoholic
beverages rose 824 percent during that time.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar, Inflation in Zimbabwe
touched 914%. Unemployment was estimated at 80%.
(SFC, 5/2/06, p.A2)
2006 May 6, A local rights group
said Zimbabwe state security agents have stepped up the use of torture
against government opponents, with 19 cases reported in March compared
with three during the previous two months.
(Reuters, 5/6/06)
2006 May 15, Zimbabwe state media
reported that police, carrying out a massive monthlong roundup, had
detained thousands of capital residents, charging many were responsible
for crime in Harare.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 Jun 9, A panel of Zimbabwe
lawmakers reported that prisoners there face acute food shortages and
are going weeks without soap or toilet paper.
(AP, 6/9/06)
2006 Jul 18, Nearly 300 striking
doctors in Zimbabwe ignored government demands for them to return to
hospital wards. The junior doctors walked out on July 13 after
authorities extended their seven-year attachment to state hospitals by
another year, to be spent working at rural facilities.
(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 31, Zimbabwe devalued its
currency by 60% and slashed loan rates 550 points to 300%. 3 zeroes
were off denominations amid 1200% inflation.
(WSJ, 8/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 11, The Zimbabwe Cabinet
slashed fuel prices for private motorists by almost half, but experts
said the move could lead to further shortages and fail to snuff out a
flourishing black market.
(AFP, 8/18/06)
2006 Aug 16, The presidents of
South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe gathered for the official opening
the new Giriyondo border post linking South Africa and Mozambique. This
was another step in the creation of the 14,000 square mile Greater
Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which would span the 3 countries.
(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A2)
2006 Sep 13, Zimbabwe police
arrested trade union leaders and blocked streets and the main square of
the capital to thwart an anti-government march, and the main labor
federation apparently called off a planned nationwide strike at the
last minute.
(AP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 15, Zimbabwe said its
annual inflation rate has reached a new record high of more than 1,200%
in August despite the conversion to a new currency designed to halt the
upwards spiral.
(AFP, 9/15/06)
2006 Nov 6, China's relations with
Zimbabwe are "unshakeable", President Hu Jintao said as he met Pres.
Mugabe amid accusations that Beijing's ties help shore up a pariah
regime.
(AFP, 11/6/06)
2006 Nov 16, Zimbabwe invited more
than 1,000 white farmers to collect compensation for property seized
during controversial lands reforms launched by President Robert
Mugabe's government.
(AP, 11/16/06)
2006 Nov 19, Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe left on a four-day state visit to Iran to beef up trade
and political ties.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 23, Farai Chiweshe,
deputy director for the Southern African Human Rights Trust (SAHRIT), a
leading Zimbabwean rights group, slammed President Robert Mugabe's
government for failing to ratify a United Nations convention against
torture and condoning its use by state agents.
(AFP, 11/23/06)
2006 Nov 30, Zimbabwe's finance
minister predicted marginal economic growth in the coming year and that
the country's four-figure inflation rate would dip to 350% as he
presented the budget for 2007.
(AFP, 11/30/06)
2006 Dec 1, Pres. Robert Mugabe
said Zimbabwe is showing the way for Africa in the fight against
HIV/AIDS. He urged Zimbabweans to take greater personal responsibility
in stopping the epidemic. HIV prevalence rate declined to 18.1% this
year from 25% five years ago.
(Reuters, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 5, Zimbabwe's top union
body vowed to stage new protests against the government, saying it had
failed to address the plight of workers reeling under four-digit
inflation, high taxes and a shrinking labor market.
(AFP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 11, Zimbabwe said its
inflation spiral had risen to 1,098.8 percent last month, a 28.6% hike,
as experts cast doubts on state efforts to slash it to the three-digit
level. The inflation rate peaked at 1,204.6% in August. Zimbabwe
clinched a deal to export 5,000 tons of beef to Hong Kong from next
year, the first such long-distance order in five years.
(AFP, 12/11/06)
2006 Dec 17, Zimbabwe's ruling
party recommended that President Robert Mugabe's term be extended by
two years, to 2010, delaying a showdown between rival factions over the
choice of his successor. Opposition and rights groups vowed to stage
mass street protests against plans by Mugabe's supporters to extend the
veteran ruler's term by another two years.
(AP, 12/17/06)(AFP, 12/18/06)
2006 Dec 28, Zimbabwean police
said they had arrested at least 16,000 suspected gold panners and
seized more than three kilogram’s of gold in a sweeping crackdown on
illegal miners. The operation, codenamed "Chikorokoza Chapera" (The End
of Illegal Gold Dealings), was launched last month.
(AFP, 12/28/06)
2006 Dec 29, In Zimbabwe 17
elephants and a rhino were found killed. A game ranger based near the
famed Victoria Falls bordering the two countries was wounded. Zambian
poachers were suspected.
(AFP, 12/31/06)
2006 In Zimbabwe the Marange
diamond fields were discovered at the height of the country’s
political, economic and humanitarian crisis. Villagers rushed to the
area and began finding diamonds close to the surface.
(AP, 6/26/09)
2007 Jan 5, Senior doctors at
Zimbabwe's state hospitals joined junior doctors in a strike over pay
that has left patients stranded at the country's major medical centers.
Health Minister David Parirenyatwa told state radio meanwhile that he
had met with representatives of the striking doctors and that they had
agreed to return to work.
(AFP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 10, Zimbabwe’s central
statistics office (CSO) said inflation had hit a new record high of
1,281%, puncturing government hopes of reining in the galloping rate
which has left households struggling to make ends meet.
(AP, 1/10/07)
2007 Jan 11, Former Ethiopian
dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam was sentenced to life imprisonment,
ending his 12-year trial in absentia for genocide and other crimes
committed during his iron-fisted rule (1974-1991). Mariam lived
comfortably in exile in Zimbabwe, where Pres. Robert Mugabe has said he
won't deport Mengistu if he refrains from political activity.
(AP, 1/11/07)
2007 Jan 17, Morgan Tsvangirai,
Zimbabwe's main opposition leader, urged mass protests against
President Robert Mugabe's nearly 27-year-rule.
(AFP, 1/17/07)
2007 Jan 31, Zimbabwe's central
bank chief Gideon Gono unveiled a battery of belt-tightening measures
which include slashing the money supply and state spending to put the
brakes on four-digit inflation. The Zimbabwe dollar traded at 250
against the greenback on the official market while fetching up to 4,200
on the black market.
(AFP, 1/31/07)
2007 Feb 5, Teachers across
Zimbabwe began an indefinite industrial action to press for better
salaries and better working conditions.
(AFP, 2/5/07)
2007 Feb 7, Zimbabwe’s President
Robert Mugabe, under mounting pressure over a world record-busting
inflation rate and escalating strike action in the public sector,
sacked his finance minister. A union chief said 60 Zimbabwean junior
doctors have been sacked from Harare's main hospital after going on
strike in December demanding salary hikes.
(AFP, 2/7/07)
2007 Feb 12, Zimbabwe's central
statistics office reported that the inflation rate, already the highest
in the world, had soared again by more than 300 points to 1,593% in
January.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 18, Zimbabwe riot police
crushed an opposition rally amid government fears of a new street
campaign against President Robert Mugabe. Morgan Tsvangirai cancelled a
planned mass rally in Harare after police blocked supporters from
attending the gathering in defiance of a court order.
(AFP, 2/18/07)(Reuters, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 19, The EU extended
sanctions on Zimbabwe for another year including an arms embargo,
travel ban and asset freeze on President Robert Mugabe and other top
officials.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 23, Teachers across
Zimbabwe called off a 3-week strike for better wages and working
conditions after the government agreed to a near four-fold increase in
their pay.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 28, In Namibia hundreds
of people protested a visit by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe,
holding signs reading, "Go home dictator." The local National Society
for Human Rights called Mugabe's three-day state visit an insult to
Namibia.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Mar 1, Zimbabwe's central
bank introduced two new bank notes as it battles a four figure rate of
inflation that is rapidly eroding the value of the local currency.
Zimbabwe state media reported that the government has admitted that
state agents are jamming radio broadcasts by foreign stations deemed
hostile to President Robert Mugabe's government.
(AP, 3/1/07)
2007 Mar 6, In Zimbabwe at least
34 people were killed when a train collided with a minibus at rail
crossing on the outskirts of the capital Harare.
(AP, 3/6/07)
2007 Mar 9, Zimbabwe state media
said authorities have sealed off the eastern Marange diamond fields as
part of measures to prevent plundering of the site.
(AP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 11, Zimbabwe's main
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was arrested as riot police
thwarted a planned mass demonstration in Harare against President
Robert Mugabe's government. Top opposition leaders were assaulted and
tortured by police who broke up a prayer meeting planned to protest
government policies. Tsvangirai suffered head injuries while in police
custody. Opposition militant Gift Tandare was killed as police
disbanded the prayer meeting. President Robert Mugabe (83) said in an
interview that he intends to stand in the country's next presidential
elections if they are held as scheduled in 2008.
(AFP, 3/11/07)(Reuters, 3/12/07)(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 14, In Zimbabwe Morgan
Tsvangirai (54), the country's main opposition leader, said that police
beat him repeatedly in the head, back, knees and arm and that he lost a
lot of blood in an attack that seemed intended "to inflict as much harm
as they could."
(AP, 3/14/07)
2007 Mar 15, A defiant Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe told his critics of his government to "go hang"
themselves in his first response to the arrest and assault of
opposition chief Morgan Tsvangirai. Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete
went into talks with Mugabe following growing international
condemnation of the crackdown on opposition demonstrators.
(AFP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 17, Three Zimbabwean
opposition activists were arrested as they tried to leave the country,
including two who were allegedly beaten by police and were going to
South Africa to seek medical treatment. The African Union (AU)
expressed "great concern" about Zimbabwe's crisis and called for human
rights to be respected, after opposition members said they were beaten
after an anti-government protest.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2007 Mar 18, In Zimbabwe Nelson
Chamisa, a spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), was prevented from leaving the country and suffered serious
injuries after being beaten up at Harare International Airport.
(AFP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 20, Zambian President
Levy Mwanawasa urged southern Africa to take a new approach to
Zimbabwe, which he likened to a "sinking Titanic" as millions flee
economic and political turmoil.
(Reuters, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 21, PM Tony Blair said
Britain would urge the EU to impose tougher sanctions on Zimbabwe,
describing the situation there as "appalling, disgraceful and utterly
tragic."
(AFP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 22, Zimbabwe's Catholic
Archbishop Pius Ncube urged his countrymen to stand up to the
iron-fisted government of President Robert Mugabe. State-media reported
that the Zimbabwean government has urged African nations to join hands
to fight domination by powerful Western countries. A Harare court ruled
that injured activists could seek treatment abroad.
(AFP, 3/22/07)(Reuters, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 23, Australia called on
South Africa to pressure Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to quit,
saying the 83-year-old leader was a disaster for his country. South
Africa defended its policy on Zimbabwe as the only way to approach
Mugabe's authoritarian government and said African nations might
convene a summit to deal with the crisis.
(AFP, 3/23/07)(Reuters, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 24, In southwestern
Zimbabwe a British woman and her 10-year-old daughter were killed by a
rogue elephant while her husband escaped unhurt during a walking safari
at Hwange National Park.
(AFP, 3/27/07)(SSFC, 4/1/07, p.G2)
2007 Mar 28, Police stormed the
offices of Zimbabwe's main opposition party and arrested leader Morgan
Tsvangirai, hours before he planned to talk to reporters about a wave
of political violence that had left him briefly hospitalized.
Tsvangirai was released after several hours.
(AP, 3/28/07)(AP, 3/29/07)
2007 Mar 29, In Tanzania African
leaders rallied around President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, ignoring
calls for tougher action against him and suggesting dialogue as the
solution to his country's deepening political crisis.
(Reuters, 3/29/07)
2007 Apr 3, In Zimbabwe trucks of
riot police drove through Harare and military helicopters flew overhead
on the first day of a national strike to protest deepening economic
hardships blamed on the government of President Robert Mugabe. The
strike received a cool response from workers worried about forfeiting
vital wages. A UN study said Zimbabwe was Africa's worst economic
performer in 2006.
(AP, 4/3/07)(AFP, 4/3/07)
2007 Apr 4, Offices and factories
in Zimbabwe's two main cities were operating as normal on the second
day of a 48-hour strike called by the main labor organization over the
deepening economic crisis. Many workers appeared to have shunned the
call on the second day of the stoppage organized by the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU).
(AFP, 4/4/07)
2007 Apr 6, Zimbabwe police said
they have opened a murder investigation into the death of an
independent journalist. The body of Edward Chikombo was found March 31.
He had been missing since March 29. A lawyer for another reporter
arrested under sweeping media laws said he was assaulted and tortured
in custody.
(AP, 4/6/07)
2007 Apr 9, In an Easter message
pinned to church bulletin boards around the country, Zimbabwe's Roman
Catholic bishops called on President Robert Mugabe to leave office or
face "open revolt" from those suffering under his government.
(AP, 4/9/07)
2007 Apr 12, Zimbabwe opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai expressed optimism about planned talks between
his party and President Robert Mugabe's government to end the crisis in
the country.
(AFP, 4/12/07)
2007 Apr 17, State radio said
Zimbabwe has deregistered all non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and
told them to submit new applications to try to weed out groups it says
are trying to oust President Robert Mugabe.
(AP, 4/17/07)
2007 Apr 19, In Zimbabwe 82
members of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise group were arrested in Bulawayo
during a protest against power outages. 18 of the women were stripped
and jailed for hours.
(SFC, 4/23/07, p.A10)
2007 Apr 21, A Zimbabwe cabinet
minister said the Chinese government has given Zimbabwe a 58 million
dollars financing facility that will be used to purchase farming
equipment, implements and tools.
(AP, 4/22/07)
2007 Apr 26, Zimbabwe's central
bank governor Gideon Gono said the annual rate of inflation, already
the highest in the world, rose to 2,200 percent last month.
(AP, 4/26/07)
2007 Apr 28, Zimbabwe announced
new controls to clamp down on charities and other humanitarian
organizations, including democracy and human rights groups that the
government accuses of campaigning against it. A state daily reported
that Zimbabwe has compensated 800 white farmers for property seized
during controversial land reforms launched by President Robert Mugabe's
government.
(AP, 4/28/07)
2007 May 1, Zimbabwe boosted the
price of corn meal, a keystone of the nation’s diet, by nearly 600%.
(WSJ, 5/2/07, p.A1)(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 2, Isaac Matongo (60),
the chairman of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) and former trade unionist, died.
(AP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 5, A state daily said
Zimbabwe has lost about 40 black rhinos to poachers who have killed the
animals in some government parks and conservancies over the past 3
years.
(AP, 5/5/07)
2007 May 8, In Zimbabwe riot
police violently broke up a demonstration by dozens of lawyers
protesting the arrest of two colleagues outside the High Court in
Harare.
(AP, 5/8/07)
2007 May 9, Zimbabweans braced for
darker days after President Robert Mugabe's government announced
20-hour daily electricity cuts for households across the country.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, A Zimbabwean court
authorized the extradition of Briton Simon Mann to Equatorial Guinea on
coup plot charges, sweeping aside concerns that he might face torture
or invalid justice there.
(AFP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 11, Zimbabwe won
approval, in a vote of 26-21 with three abstentions, to lead the
important UN Commission on Sustainable Development despite protests
from the US, European nations and human rights organizations. African
members nominated Francis Nhema, Zimbabwe's minister of environment and
tourism, for the post.
(AP, 5/12/07)(Econ, 5/19/07, p.49)
2007 May 13, Australia’s PM John
Howard said the Australian government has banned the country's cricket
team from touring Zimbabwe in September because he does not want to
support the regime of a "grubby dictator."
(AP, 5/13/07)
2007 May 15, In Zimbabwe a
spokesman said dozens of doctors at four of the largest state hospitals
have gone on strike to demand higher pay.
(AFP, 5/15/07)
2007 May 17, Analysts warned that
a new pricing law approved by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, as
inflation exceeded 3,700%, could worsen rather than relieve widespread
shortages and price rises.
(AP, 5/17/07)
2007 May 24, Zimbabwe police
slapped a new ban on political rallies and demonstrations in parts of
the capital Harare, citing a recent spate of "disturbances."
(AFP, 5/24/07)
2007 May 26, Zimbabwe riot police
arrested more than 200 opposition activists and officials during a
meeting they were holding at their party headquarters in Harare.
(Reuters, 5/26/07)
2007 May 27, Zimbabwean police
freed the bulk of 200 youth opposition activists arrested in a raid on
their party headquarters.
(AFP, 5/27/07)
2007 May 29, State media said
Zimbabwe will put 40,000 more people on life saving anti-retroviral
drugs by the end of the year despite an economic crisis.
(AP, 5/29/07)
2007 Jun 5, Zimbabwe's electricity
provider raised tariffs for both domestic and commercial customers by
50 percent at a time when a major outage has left large parts of the
country without power.
(AP, 6/5/07)
2007 Jun 7, Zimbabwe received 15
million dollars worth of anti-retroviral drugs from the United States
government to bolster its fight against HIV and AIDS.
(AP, 6/8/07)
2007 Jun 8, The Zimbabwean
government published a draft bill to amend the country's constitution,
provide for harmonized presidential and parliamentary polls and reduce
the presidential term. A party spokesman said 11 Zimbabwean opposition
supporters, who had been detained for two months for an alleged
"terrorism" plot, have been released after a court ordered the charges
to be dropped.
(AFP, 6/8/07)(AFP, 6/9/07)
2007 Jun 13, Zimbabwe’s country's
consumer watchdog said in its latest report that the cost of living for
an average urban family rose by 66 percent last month.
(AP, 6/13/07)
2007 Jun 14, In the Netherlands
four African states (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe),
after an 18-year ban, were allowed to put their ivory stocks on the
market in a one-time sale as part of a hard-fought compromise reached
with other Africans who tried to block the sale. The 171-member
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES,
approved the deal by consensus.
(AP, 6/14/07)
2007 Jun 22, Zimbabwe's currency
plunged to new depths as the US ambassador to Harare predicted
galloping inflation will force Pres. Mugabe from office before the end
of the year. Inflation hovered at around 4,500% and 8 of 10 citizens
did not have formal jobs.
(AP, 6/22/07)(Econ, 6/23/07, p.56)
2007 Jun 26, Zimbabwe's government
announced sweeping price cuts in a bid to curb inflation and said it
set up a unit drawn from all its security agencies to enforce the cuts.
Retailers shunned a new government order to slash the prices of basic
goods such as bread and sugar, arguing that such a move would drive
them out of business.
(AFP, 6/26/07)(AP, 6/26/07)
2007 Jun 28, Zimbabwe ordered a
blanket freeze on the prices of all goods and services, urging members
of the public to blow the whistle on retailers who ignore the latest
edict.
(AFP, 6/28/07)
2007 Jul 1, The state-run Sunday
Mail said a senator from Zimbabwe's ruling party and 20 business people
have been arrested for flouting a government-imposed ceiling on basic
commodity prices.
(AFP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 7, Zimbabwe's government
announced a new law making it an offense to defy steep price cuts
ordered in an effort to control runaway inflation and a growing
economic crisis.
(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 8, Zimbabwe’s official
media said police have arrested 16 more business leaders in a crackdown
on those suspected of violating the government's order to slash prices
by 50%.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 9, Zimbabwe police said
more than 1,300 shop owners and business managers have been arrested as
part of a crackdown on firms accused of flouting government-imposed
price controls. Thousands of students were evicted from Zimbabwe's main
university campus after they protested at the weekend against a
decision to deny them food for not paying their fees.
(AFP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 10, Zimbabwe police said
hundreds more business executives and store managers have been arrested
as part of a crackdown on violations of a government-ordered price
freeze.
(AFP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 13, Authorities in
Zimbabwe announced the arrest of hundreds more retailers and executives
as part of an ongoing price crackdown as it emerged the head of the
central bank had warned against the blitz.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 16, Zimbabwean Roman
Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube was named in an adultery case. State
radio reported that a woman, identified as Rosemary Sibanda, "admitted
the affair" to the state broadcasting company. The radio report said
the woman's husband, Onesimus Sibanda, was demanding $160,000 in
damages.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, The University of
Edinburgh confirmed that it had withdrawn an honorary doctorate awarded
to Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe in 1984, because of concern over
his human rights record.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 17, The US offered
additional food aid to Zimbabwe to ease its famine but criticized what
it said were reckless actions by Pres. Robert Mugabe to try to deal
with the problem.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 21, Zimbabwe’s official
Herald newspaper said the government had revived the Zimbabwe State
Trading Corporation (ZSTC) to work alongside the state Zimbabwe
Development Corporation (ZDC) "as vehicles for acquiring companies that
it might want to take over for engaging in economic sabotage."
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 23, Abel Mutsakani, the
editor of an independent Zimbabwean news service based in South Africa,
was shot and seriously wounded in Johannesburg.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 25, State television
reported that Zimbabwe is to import 200,000 tons of the staple maize
from Tanzania to avert widespread food shortages following a poor
harvest. An international rights group said Zimbabwe's government
routinely arrests and tortures women's rights activists as part of a
crackdown on protests against President Mugabe and his policies.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 26, Zimbabwe state media
reported that nearly 5,000 store owners, managers and business
executives have been arrested since the government began its campaign
to slash prices last month.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 27, Zimbabwe's former
finance minister Chris Kuruneri was acquitted by the high court for
allegedly smuggling money abroad to build a house in South Africa.
(AFP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 28, In Zimbabwe Arthur
Mutambara, leader of the breakaway faction of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), said on that the country could not wait for
outsiders to liberate them from on-going political and economic
problems.
(AFP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 31, Zimbabwe's central
bank introduced yet another higher denomination banknote as it grappled
with runaway inflation which is rendering lower-value banknotes
useless. The new 200,000-Zimbabwe dollar bearer check is worth 800 US
dollars at the official rate and one US dollar at the parallel market
rate.
(AFP, 7/31/07)
2007 Aug 3, In Zimbabwe the
Interception of Communication Act was published in the government
gazette. The bill, signed by President Robert Mugabe, allows the state
to eavesdrop on private phone conversations and monitor faxes and
emails.
(AFP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 6, Zimbabwe police said
at least 7,600 shop managers and business executives have been arrested
in a crackdown on businesses accused of profiteering, as President
Robert Mugabe vowed to continue the blitz.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 12, In north-eastern
Zimbabwe at least 9 people were killed and around 50 injured when a bus
collided with a car.
(AFP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 15, Hordes of shoppers
desperate to buy sugar amid severe shortages stampeded at a shopping
complex in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city, killing a
15-year-old boy and a security guard.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 16, The 14-member
Southern African Development Community (SADC) met in Lusaka, Zambia for
its 27th summit. The 2-day summit provided scant hope for the people of
Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe rejected the need for political reform at the summit
of regional leaders that is meant to find ways to ease the country's
political and economic crisis.
(AP, 8/16/07)(Econ, 8/25/07,
p.43)(www.dfa.gov.za/docs/2007/sadc0820.htm)
2007 Aug 22, Zimbabwe's main
opposition party denounced a two-month voter registration program as a
sham, saying its aim was to boost President Robert Mugabe's chances of
victory in next year's elections. State media reported that Zimbabwe's
government has authorized retailers to raise the prices of basic goods
in order to ease widespread shortages which followed the imposition of
price cuts.
(AFP, 8/22/07)(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 29, Thousands of hardline
supporters of Robert Mugabe marched through Harare, denouncing the
Zimbabwe president's Western critics and endorsing his controversial
program of farm seizures. Zimbabwe's state media called on the
government to sever ties with Australia, accusing PM John Howard's
government of seeking to topple Pres. Mugabe.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 31, State media said
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has banned all pay rises without
authorization and given himself extra powers in a new bid to curb the
world's highest inflation rate.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Sep 1, State media reported
that Zimbabwe's government will allow hotels, restaurants and bars to
raise their rates by up to 50 percent. A woman and a child were killed
in stampedes at an agriculture show in Harare packed with people lured
by scarce snack foods and cheap Chinese toys and exhibitors hoping to
skirt a government price freeze and sell their animals.
(AP, 9/1/07)(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 3, The Zimbabwean
government completed its takeover of the country's leading cooking oil
manufacturer by acquiring US food giant H.J Heinz's 49% stake for 6.8
million dollars.
(AFP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 5, Canada’s ambassador to
Zimbabwe said the number of people facing serious food shortages there
is expected to grow to 4.1 million over the first quarter of next year.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 11, In Zimbabwe
Archbishop Pius Ncube, a leading critic of President Robert Mugabe,
resigned after an adultery scandal but said he would not be silenced by
the "wicked regime."
(AFP, 9/11/07)
2007 Sep 16, Reports said the
Zimbabwean government has reversed a ban on pay increases put in place
in a bid to curb the world's highest inflation rate.
(AP, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 18, Zimbabwe's main
opposition party reached an agreement with the government on the
adoption of a bill which paves the way for joint presidential and
legislative elections next year. Police said 17 police officers have
been arrested on charges of corruption and trading in diamonds while
guarding a mine in the country's eastern district.
(AFP, 9/18/07)(AFP, 9/19/07)
2007 Sep 20, Zimbabwe lawmakers
voted unanimously in favor of a constitutional amendment that critics
say further consolidates ruling party power, but is hailed by the
government and opposition as a breakthrough in easing the political and
economic crisis.
(AP, 9/20/07)
2007 Sep 22, To date 144 countries
had ratified the UN Convention Against Torture. Holdouts included
Sudan, North Korea, Myanmar, Zimbabwe and India.
(Econ, 9/22/07, p.72)
2007 Oct 1, Zimbabwe's central
bank chief warned of "dangers" in a bill approved by legislators which
says that locals must own a majority of foreign-run firms.
(AFP, 10/2/07)
2007 Oct 2, Shop owners said
Zimbabwe's supermarkets have run out of bread after bakers were forced
to suspend their operations due to a critical shortage of wheat.
(AFP, 10/2/07)
2007 Oct 3, Teachers at state
schools across inflation-ravaged Zimbabwe began an indefinite strike to
press for better salaries.
(AP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 4, A union official said
Zimbabwean teachers have called off a strike for better wages after
reaching a deal with the government.
(AFP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 10, Zimbabwe said it will
import 30,000 tons of wheat from its neighbors in a bid to ease
widespread bread shortages of bread. The human rights group Women of
Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) said Zimbabwean security forces routinely torture
and sexually abuse women opposed to President Robert Mugabe's
government.
(AFP, 10/10/07)(Reuters, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 11, Eleven of Zimbabwe's
last remaining white farmers lost a bid to stay on their farms while
appealing the orders and are to be tried for defying government
eviction notices.
(AFP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 12, The Zimbabwean
government authorized new increases in the prices of basis foodstuffs
in a bid to ease widespread shortages that followed an order for
retailers to halve their tariffs. The government allowed bakers to
increase the price of a loaf of bread by more than 200 percent, as
shortages persisted across the country.
(AP, 10/12/07)(AFP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 24, Zimbabwe's central
bank chief pledged that empty shop shelves would soon be replenished as
he denounced the "anarchy" inspired by the government's order for
retailers to slash their prices in half.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 25,
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe launched an intelligence
academy named after him, saying it would produce officers able to
counter growing threats from Western powers.
(Reuters, 10/26/07)
2007 Nov 1, State media reported
that Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe signed a law giving him more
power to choose his successor. The new law also provides for
simultaneous presidential and parliamentary polls next year.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 5, Zimbabwe's supreme
court ruled the government can seize equipment belonging to white
farmers whose properties were expropriated under controversial land
reforms.
(AFP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 6, Zimbabwe’s Attorney
General Sobusa Gula-Ndebele was briefly detained over allegations he
promised to help a fugitive banker who had fled the southern African
nation avoid arrest. Police said he faces corruption charges.
(Reuters, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 15, President Robert
Mugabe commissioned the first biodiesel production plant in oil-starved
Zimbabwe, vowing that the country would "never collapse."
(AP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 19, President Robert
Mugabe's government published a draft bill forcing mining firms to
transfer majority shareholdings to local owners, including giving the
Zimbabwe government a free 25 percent stake.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 20, Ian Smith (88),
Rhodesia's last white prime minister, died in South Africa . His
attempts to resist black rule dragged the country, later renamed as
Zimbabwe, into isolation and civil war.
(AP, 11/20/07)(SFC, 11/23/07, p.B14)(Econ, 11/24/07,
p.92)
2007 Nov 28, Senegalese President
Abdoulaye Wade said he will propose the creation of a committee of
African heads of state to mend broken relations between Zimbabwe and
former colonial power Britain.
(AFP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 30, Thousands of
Zimbabwean war veterans gathered in Harare to lead a "million-man
march" in support of President Robert Mugabe's bid to extend his rule
despite a severe economic crisis blamed on his government. Thousands of
ZANU-PF supporters were ferried into the capital by bus and train.
(Reuters, 11/30/07)
2007 Dec 6, Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe arrived in Lisbon for an EU-Africa summit, which British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown is boycotting because he would not "sit
down at the same table" as him.
(Reuters, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 8, In Spain German
Chancellor Angela Merkel challenged European and African leaders to
confront human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, putting the country's
president Robert Mugabe in the spotlight at an EU-Africa summit.
(AP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 14, Zimbabwe reserve bank
governor Gideon Gono on said President Robert Mugabe's cronies were
fuelling the country's runaway inflation through illicit dealings.
Amnesty International said Zimbabwean police are still beating and
torturing human rights activists and opponents of the government
despite mediation efforts launched by fellow African nations.
(AP, 12/14/07)(AFP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 15, President Robert
Mugabe suspended Sobusa Gula-Ndebele, Zimbabwe's attorney general, and
appointed a three-member tribunal to investigate allegations that the
state's highest law officer abused his powers.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 18, The Zimbabwe
government introduced amendments to tough security and media laws,
which critics said were used by President Robert Mugabe to stifle
opposition to his 27-year rule.
(AFP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 27, In southern Zimbabwe
floodwaters swept a truck down a raging river, killing 7 people. Their
deaths bring the number of drownings in Zimbabwe to 21 in the past
month.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 28, In Zimbabwe junior
doctors and nurses at major state hospitals went on strike to press for
higher pay and improved working conditions.
(AFP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 29, Zimbabweans formed
queues at banks to beat a December 31 deadline to hand in a currency
series phased out by the central bank.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Zimbabwe and Namibia entered
into an agreement under which Namibia gave Zimbabwe a 40-million-dollar
loan for repairs to its thermal power stations while Zimbabwe would pay
back by exporting electricity to Namibia.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2007 The population of Zimbabwe
was about 13 million. 3 million were thought to have left, mostly to
South Africa, due to the economic crises.
(Econ, 8/11/07, p.37)
2008 Jan 4, Zimbabwe’s state-owned
The Herald daily reported that a diarrhea outbreak has hit Harare
following weeks of uncollected garbage, sewer blockages and erratic
water supplies.
(AFP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 6, Zimbabwe state media
reported that the government has awarded an immediate 600% pay rise to
striking magistrates and prosecutors in a bid to end a 3-month work
stoppage.
(AP, 1/6/08)
2008 Jan 19, Nationwide power
outages shut down basic services across Zambia and Zimbabwe as anger
mounted in South Africa over power cuts that have wreaked havoc in the
continent's economic hub.
(AP, 1/20/08)
2008 Jan 24, Zimbabwean police
arrested Nicholas van Hoogstraten (63), a British businessman, after
finding a large quantity of foreign currency and alleged pornographic
material in his possession. In 2002 the multi-millionaire was convicted
of the manslaughter of an associate and was sentenced to ten years
imprisonment but the conviction was quashed the following year and he
was freed. On Jan 29 a Zimbabwe court ordered his release.
(AFP, 1/26/08)(AFP, 1/29/08)
2008 Jan 30, South African police
raided a downtown Johannesburg church late at night where hundreds of
Zimbabweans had taken refuge, hauling people in pajamas to a police
station in scenes reminiscent of apartheid-era raids.
(AP, 1/31/08)
2008 Feb 5, Simba Makoni, a senior
member of Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party, said he would run for
president at the March 29 election in the first major internal
challenge to Robert Mugabe in 20 years.
(Reuters, 2/5/08)
2008 Feb 13, Zimbabwean opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai urged South African President Thabo Mbeki to
show some "courage" and pressure Robert Mugabe ahead of next month's
elections. Former finance minister Simba Makoni pledged to heal the
wounds of Zimbabwe as he unveiled his manifesto for next month's
election battle against veteran President Robert Mugabe.
(AFP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 14, Zimbabwe's inflation
rate, already the highest in the world, soared to a new high of
66,212.3%.
(AFP, 2/14/08)
2008 Feb 24, A rights group said
Zimbabwe's biggest state hospital has stopped surgical operations
because of a breakdown of equipment and shortages of drugs.
(AFP, 2/24/08)
2008 Mar 9, A government newspaper
reported that Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has signed into law a
bill giving local owners the right to take majority control of foreign
companies, including mines and banks.
(Reuters, 3/9/08)
2008 Mar 14, In Zimbabwe the
teacher’s union said thousands of teachers state schools have ended a
3-week strike after being awarded a 754% salary increase by the
government.
(AFP, 3/14/08)
2008 Mar 20, Morgan Tsvangirai,
Zimbabwe's main opposition leader and presidential candidate in March
29 general elections, said that the voters' register was filled with
tens of thousands of ghost voters.
(AFP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 29, Zimbabweans lined up
for hours to vote in elections that present President Robert Mugabe
with his toughest political challenge in 28 years in power.
(AP, 3/29/08)
2008 Mar 30, Zimbabwe's opposition
said it had won the most crucial election since independence, but
President Robert Mugabe's government warned premature victory claims
would be seen as an attempted coup.
(AP, 3/30/08)
2008 Mar 31, Zimbabwe's opposition
Movement for Democratic Change and President Robert Mugabe's ruling
ZANU-PF were on level-pegging, as the results trickled in from a
weekend general election. The MDC's own tally of votes in 128 of the
210 parliamentary seats showed that its leader Tsvangirai had secured
60 percent of votes against 30 for Mugabe in the presidential race.
(AFP, 3/31/08)
2008 Mar, It was reported that
life expectancy in Zimbabwe, once the highest in sub-Saharan Africa,
had fallen to 36 years.
(Econ, 3/22/08, p.53)
2008 Apr 1, In Zimbabwe an
independent African monitor said top members of President Robert
Mugabe's party worried the government may have lost weekend elections,
even as a tediously slow release of results fueled fears of rigging. A
ruling party projection said opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will
beat President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe's crucial election, but be
forced into a runoff vote in three weeks.
(AP, 4/1/08)(Reuters, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 2, In Zimbabwe the main
opposition party claimed outright victory for its leader Morgan
Tsvangirai, saying he had won 50.3 percent of the vote compared to 43.8
percent for President Robert Mugabe.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 3, Zimbabwe's ruling
party geared up for a final battle to keep Robert Mugabe in power,
saying it was ready for a presidential election run-off with opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
(AFP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 4, In Zimbabwe the ruling
ZANU-PF party decided President Robert Mugabe should contest a runoff
vote against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai if neither wins a
majority in a presidential election. Hundreds of guerrilla war veterans
who support President Robert Mugabe marched through the capital,
raising fears he might turn to violence to prolong his rule.
Authorities introduced a new 50 million bank note, state media
reported. The new Zimbabwe dollar note is worth $1 in black market
trading and can buy just three loaves of bread.
(Reuters, 4/4/08)(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 5, Electoral officials
said Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF took 30 seats in elections for the
country's senate, or upper house of parliament, with the combined
opposition taking the same number. The president and tribal chiefs are
to appoint the remaining 93 seats. Opposition chief Morgan Tsvangirai
claimed outright victory in presidential elections and warned Robert
Mugabe's ruling party would resort to violence to cling to power. 3
cattle ranchers were driven off their land, and equipment and livestock
were seized.
(Reuters, 4/5/08)(AFP, 4/5/08)(AP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 6, Zimbabwe’s state
Sunday Mail newspaper reported that President Robert Mugabe's ruling
party demanded a vote recount and a further delay in the release of
presidential election results, prompting outrage from the opposition
party. Several foreigners, including New York Times correspondent Barry
Bearak, remained in custody after being charged with "illegally
observing an election without official accreditation."
(AP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 7, Zimbabwe authorities
released Barry Bearak, a NY Times journalist, along with an
unidentified British citizen. They had been arrested last week and
accused of reporting without official accreditation.
(WSJ, 4/8/08, p.A10)
2008 Apr 8, Opposition officials
accused Zimbabwe's ruling party of orchestrating a campaign of violence
in remote rural areas in an effort to intimidate opponents of President
Robert Mugabe ahead of a likely runoff election. A farmers' union said
more than 60 mostly white Zimbabwean farmers have been evicted from
their land by war veterans loyal to President Robert Mugabe since the
weekend.
(AP, 4/8/08)(Reuters, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 9, International calls
for Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe to release long-delayed results from a
presidential vote mounted as ruling party militants continued to
overrun white-owned farms and the opposition accused the government of
waging a campaign of violence.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 11, Zimbabwe state radio
said President Robert Mugabe will snub a regional summit at the weekend
that was expected to pressure him to release delayed election results.
Police said all political rallies had been banned because officers were
too busy guarding ballot boxes or deployed to prevent post-election
violence.
(Reuters, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 12, African leaders hoped
to find a resolution to Zimbabwe's deepening political crisis at an
emergency summit in Zambia, but state media reported that President
Robert Mugabe would not attend the "unnecessary" meeting. The Electoral
Commission said it would conduct a full recount of the presidential and
parliamentary ballots cast in 23 constituencies, all but one of them
won by the opposition.
(AP, 4/12/08)(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 13, In Zambia African
leaders ended an emergency summit and called for the swift verification
of the Zimbabwe voting results in the presence of all parties. The
declaration fell far short of opposition calls for neighboring leaders
to pressure President Robert Mugabe to step down after 28 years in
power.
(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 14, Zimbabwe's High Court
rejected an opposition demand for the immediate release of results the
March 29 presidential election.
(AP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 15, An opposition general
strike to demand the release of Zimbabwe's delayed election result
flopped and the ruling party in South Africa said the situation in the
neighboring country was "dire."
(Reuters, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 16, President Mugabe's
security forces clamped down hard on unrest during a general strike,
arresting dozens of opposition supporters before the stoppage fizzled
out. A coalition of Zimbabwean doctors said its members had seen and
treated more than 150 patients who had been beaten and tortured since
the elections at the end of March. A court acquitted an American and a
British reporter who had been charged with covering Zimbabwe's March 29
election without official accreditation.
(AFP, 4/16/08)(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 17,
Zimbabwe's government accused opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai
of treason by plotting with former colonial power Britain to oust
veteran President Robert Mugabe. G8 foreign ministers called for the
swift release of the results of Zimbabwe's disputed presidential polls,
condemning recent violence there.
(AFP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 18,
South Africa's main transport union thwarted the delivery of a
controversial shipment of Chinese arms destined for Zimbabwe, saying
its workers would not offload the cargo. The Chinese ship left the
South African harbor and headed for neighboring Mozambique. Angola and
Mozambique said the ship is not welcome. China defended the cargo
against international criticism.
(AFP, 4/18/08)(AP, 4/19/08)(AFP, 4/22/08)(SFC,
4/23/08, p.A2)
2008 Apr 19,
Zimbabwe held a partial recount of votes from last month's
general election as the opposition accused President Robert Mugabe and
his party of trying to rig their way back to power.
(AFP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 20, Zimbabwe announced a
delay in the partial recount of its disputed March 29 election. The
opposition accused the authorities of waging a "war" that has killed 10
people and injured 500 others since disputed parliamentary and
presidential elections. The secretary general of the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change said 400 opposition supporters have been
detained in Zimbabwe following the elections.
(AFP, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 23, Zimbabwe state media
reported the first results from an election recount under way showing
President Robert Mugabe's party has won an additional parliamentary
seat. The recount in Goromonzi concluded with just a one-vote
difference from the original count from the poll, giving the seat to
Mugabe's ZANU-PF party,
(AP, 4/23/08)
2008 Apr 23, PM Gordon Brown
pledged that Britain would promote proposals for an arms embargo on
Zimbabwe.
(AP, 4/23/08)
2008 Apr 24, China said a shipment
of arms bound for Zimbabwe will be recalled after South African workers
refused to unload the vessel and other neighboring countries barred it
from their ports.
(Reuters, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 25, In Zimbabwe heavily
armed police swooped down on opposition headquarters and independent
election observers' offices, arresting hundreds and beating and shoving
scores of people.
(AP, 4/25/08)
2008 Apr 26, Official results
showed Zimbabwe's main opposition movement has won a historic victory
over President Robert Mugabe's ruling party, but the outcome of the
presidential vote remained unknown.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 Apr 28, Lawyers in Zimbabwe
appealed for the release of some 200 jailed opposition activists as
officials defied pressure from the West to release the results of last
month's presidential election.
(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 30, Zimbabwe said it has
decided to float its local currency on foreign exchange markets in an
attempt to eliminate speculation on the black market. Farmers tore up
their tobacco crop in protest on the auction floors of Harare as state
price controls to combat hyperinflation threatened to wipe out their
profits. An unidentified senior official with Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF
party said results from the March 29 election gave opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai 47% of the votes while Mugabe trailed with 43%.
(AP, 4/30/08)(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 1, A cabinet minister
said a runoff will be necessary to decide Zimbabwe's presidential
election, citing the government's own election results.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 2, Zimbabwe elections
officials said opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won 47.9% of the
vote in the presidential elections, more than longtime President Robert
Mugabe but not enough to avoid a runoff. The opposition said it was
willing to share power with the ruling party, but not with longtime
President Robert Mugabe.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 5, In Zimbabwe 2
truckloads of youths, led by senior members of Pres. Mugabe’s party,
marauded through Chiweshe and beat to death 11 opposition activists.
(SFC, 5/8/08, p.A15)
2008 May 7, Zimbabwe, already
facing a presidential run-off, hit new electoral turmoil after the
ruling party and opposition filed legal challenges to half of the
parliamentary results from March's polls.
(AFP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 8, In Zimbabwe farmers'
groups said the ruling ZANU-PF has pushed 40,000 workers off farms in a
post-election campaign targeting supporters of the opposition ahead of
a possible presidential run-off. Pressure mounted to admit foreign
observers to oversee a presidential election run-off amid fresh claims
pro-government militias were instilling terror in the countryside.
(Reuters, 5/8/08)(AFP, 5/8/08)
2008 May 9, South African
President Thabo Mbeki held intensive talks with veteran counterpart
Robert Mugabe over Zimbabwe's post-election crisis as doctors reported
a dramatic rise in violence.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 10, Morgan Tsvangirai,
Zimbabwe's opposition leader, said he would contest a presidential
runoff poll, but he called for peacekeepers and observers to ensure a
fair vote.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 15, Zimbabwe's opposition
reacted furiously to the prospect of a run-off poll being delayed until
the end of July, accusing authorities of flouting the law to help
Robert Mugabe cling to power. Zimbabwe introduced a new half-a-billion
dollar bank note in a bid to tackle cash shortages fed by rampant
inflation.
(AFP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 16, Zimbabwe's President
Robert Mugabe acknowledged he had suffered an electoral disaster in
losing a first round against arch rival Morgan Tsvangirai, as the date
for a run-off was fixed for June 27.
(AFP, 5/16/08)
2008 May 17, Zimbabwean opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai postponed his expected return home to contest
an election run-off after his party said it had discovered an
assassination plot against him.
(AP, 5/17/08)
2008 May 18, In South Africa mobs
killed at least six people and injured 50 in anti-foreigner violence
that has spread through poor suburbs of Johannesburg. Zimbabweans were
mainly targeted. The trouble started last week in the sprawling
township of Alexandra, where angry residents accused foreigners of
taking scarce jobs and housing.
(AP, 5/18/08)
2008 May 19, Zimbabwe's opposition
party accused the country's military of plotting to assassinate the
group's presidential candidate using snipers.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 24, Morgan Tsvangirai
returned to Zimbabwe for an election run-off with President Robert
Mugabe and said the veteran leader wanted to "decimate" MDC structures.
(Reuters, 5/24/08)
2008 May 26, Zimbabwe’s state-run
Herald newspaper reported that President Robert Mugabe will respect the
will of voters if they end his 28-year rule in a run-off election
against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 27, Zimbabwe's opposition
said a campaign of violence and intimidation designed to fix President
Robert Mugabe's re-election had now killed over 50 of its supporters.
(AFP, 5/27/08)
2008 May 30, Zimbabwe’s opposition
declared itself the new ruling party and convened what if called a
session of Parliament.
(WSJ, 5/31/08, p.A1)
2008 May 31, Zimbabwe state radio
reported that 2 supporters of the ruling party have been shot dead in
the country's northeast over the last 2 days, amid mounting violence
ahead of a presidential run-off next month. Police arrested Eric
Matinenga, a lawyer of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), as he went to visit arrested members in Buhera where more than
70 suspects had been arrested over recent outbreaks of violence.
(AFP, 6/1/08)(Reuters, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 1, In Zimbabwe police in
Harare jailed Arthur Mutambara, head of an MDC faction, for allegedly
making false statements that endangered state security.
(AP, 6/2/08)(Econ, 6/7/08, p.59)
2008 Jun 4, Zimbabwe police
detained opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai after his convoy was
stopped at a roadblock. The director of a national NGO association said
Zimbabwe has ordered aid groups Save the Children UK, CARE
International and ADRA to stop work in the country immediately due to
alleged political interference.
(AP, 6/4/08)(AFP, 6/4/08)(WSJ, 6/4/08, p.A1)
2008 Jun 5, Zimbabwe opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai vowed to push on with his bid to topple Robert
Mugabe at a run-off poll as he returned to the campaign trail a day
after being detained by police. The US Embassy said its diplomats and
British colleagues were attacked as they tried to investigate
Zimbabwe’s political violence.
(AP, 6/5/08)(AFP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 6, Zimbabwe police
briefly detained Zimbabwe's opposition presidential candidate for the
second time this week and told him the party's rallies had been banned
indefinitely three weeks before the runoff election.
(AP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 7, Zimbabwe's High Court
overturned a police ban on opposition rallies this weekend ahead of the
June 27 presidential run-off.
(Reuters, 6/7/08)
2008 Jun 9, The US said it will
spend seven million dollars to help international observers ensure that
presidential elections due at the end of the month in Zimbabwe are free
and fair.
(AFP, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 10, Morgan Tsvangirai,
Zimbabwe's opposition leader, said the country was now effectively
being run by a military junta as he vowed that he would not accept a
victory for President Robert Mugabe at this month's poll.
(AFP, 6/10/08)
2008 Jun 10, Zambia’s state media
said Zambia has granted political asylum to a dozen Zimbabwe opposition
supporters who have fled mounting political violence ahead of a run-off
presidential election this month.
(AP, 6/10/08)
2008 Jun 11, Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe's party said it would deploy more war veterans to
campaign in some opposition areas ahead of a presidential election
run-off marred by violence. South African President Thabo Mbeki said
levels of violence in the approach to Zimbabwe's run-off presidential
election on June 27 are a cause for "serious concern."
(Reuters, 6/11/08)(AFP, 6/11/08)
2008 Jun 12, Zimbabwe police
arrested opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai while he was campaigning
for the country's June 27 presidential run-off election. The Zimbabwean
opposition's secretary-general Tendai Biti was arrested at Harare
airport as he returned home from South Africa to campaign for the June
27 election.
(AP, 6/12/08)
2008 Jun 12, The University of
Massachusetts rescinded an honorary law degree awarded 22 years ago to
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, calling his politics "egregious"
and his leadership an "assault on human rights."
(AP, 6/13/08)
2008 Jun 13, Zimbabwe's President
Robert Mugabe said liberation war veterans would take up arms if he
loses a June 27 presidential run-off vote. UNICEF said some 500,000
Zimbabwean children are no longer getting the treatment and food they
urgently need since the government suspended the work of humanitarian
aid organizations.
(Reuters, 6/13/08)(AFP, 6/13/08)
2008 Jun 14, President Robert
Mugabe vowed that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
would never rule Zimbabwe and that he was prepared to fight to keep
them from taking power. Zimbabwe opposition's number two leader
appeared in court to face a treason charge, while police again detained
opposition chief Morgan Tsvangirai ahead of this month's presidential
run-off election.
(Reuters, 6/14/08)(AFP, 6/14/08)
2008 Jun16, In Zimbabwe Emmanuel
Chiroto's house in the suburb of Hatcliffe was attacked and destroyed
by ZANU-PF supporters. Chiroto had been elected Mayor of Harare. He was
not present but his wife was later found beaten to death.
(Econ, 6/28/08,
p.50)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Chiroto)
2008 Jun 18, The UN said up to 5
million people could go hungry in Zimbabwe next year due to a steady
drop in food production coupled with the world's highest rate of
inflation.
(AP, 6/18/08)
2008 Jun 19, Zimbabwe’s Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition said 4 more opposition activists
and the wife of an MDC politician have been killed, blaming the deaths
on ruling party supporters. The MDC youth members were abducted Jun 17
and their bodies were discovered in various locations in Chitungwiza,
southeast of Harare.
(AFP, 6/19/08)
2008 Jun 22, Zimbabwe’s opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he is pulling out of this week's
presidential runoff due to mounting violence and intimidation against
his supporters.
(AP, 6/22/08)
2008 Jun 23, Zimbabwe police
raided the opposition party's headquarters and took away about 60
people, a day after the party's presidential candidate withdrew from a
runoff against longtime leader Robert Mugabe. Opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai took refuge at the Netherlands embassy in Harare. World
leaders challenged Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's legitimacy and
threatened sanctions. UN Security Council members unanimously condemned
Zimbabwe's government, saying it has waged a "campaign of violence"
that has made it impossible to hold a fair presidential election. The
Zimbabwe opposition said that one of its lawmakers was in intensive
care after being beaten up by President Robert Mugabe's supporters
ahead of an aborted campaign rally.
(AP, 6/23/08)(AFP, 6/23/08)(AP, 6/24/08)(AFP,
6/24/08)
2008 Jun 24, Zimbabwe's opposition
hand-delivered a letter to the country's electoral commission
confirming that its leader Morgan Tsvangirai will not participate in
this week's presidential run-off.
(AFP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 25, Zimbabwe's opposition
leader emerged from his refuge at the Dutch Embassy to call for African
leaders to guide talks to end Zimbabwe's crisis, saying a presidential
runoff this week was no solution. Morgan Tsvangirai said the goal of
the talks would be forming a coalition transitional authority for his
country.
(AP, 6/25/08)
2008 Jun 26, Zimbabwe's President
Robert Mugabe held final campaign rallies on the eve of a one-man
election denounced as a sham by the West after the opposition leader
pulled out of the contest.
(AP, 6/26/08)
2008 Jun 27, In Zimbabwe marshals
led voters to polling stations and bands of government supporters
harassed people in the street as the government held an internationally
discredited, one-candidate presidential runoff marked by intimidation.
A film was taken by prison guard Shepherd Yuda using a camera supplied
by the Guardian newspaper. It was smuggled out of Zimbabwe and showed
prison staff being told by a war veteran how to fill in their ballot
papers for Mugabe.
(AP, 6/27/08)(Reuters, 7/5/08)
2008 Jun 28, The head of a foreign
observer mission said many Zimbabweans deliberately defaced their
ballots in a discredited presidential runoff with President Robert
Mugabe as the sole candidate, and voted only out of fear.
(AP, 6/28/08)
2008 Jun 29, In Zimbabwe according
to official results President Robert Mugabe (84) won an overwhelming
victory in the discredited, violence-wracked runoff election. On BBC TV
Archbishop Desmond Tutu said there is "a very good argument" for
sending an international force into Zimbabwe if diplomatic pressure
fails to sweep away President Robert Mugabe.
(AP, 6/29/08)(AFP, 6/29/08)
2008 Jun 30, In Egypt African
Union Commission chief Jean Ping told African leaders at a summit that
Africa must assume its responsibility in crisis-riven Zimbabwe.
(AFP, 6/30/08)
2008 Jul 1, The African Union,
meeting in Egypt, announced that it was extending the mandate of its
force in Somalia for another six months but urged the UN to take over
the peacekeeping mission. The African leaders also called for dialogue
between Zimbabwe's political foes and a national unity government
following President Robert Mugabe's widely discredited reelection.
(AFP, 7/1/08)(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 1, Munich-based Giesecke
& Devrient, caved in to pressure from the German government to stop
supplying Zimbabwe with special blank paper money. Zimbabwe required
new notes every few weeks as the inflation rate pushed well over one
million percent.
(WSJ, 7/2/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 2, Zimbabwe opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai rejected an African Union decision to keep
South Africa's president alone in charge of efforts to resolve
Zimbabwe's political crisis. The European Commission insisted that
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai should be named at the
head of any new government. South African President Thabo Mbeki
rejected the EU position.
(AP, 7/2/08)(AFP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 3, A group of around 200
Zimbabweans gathered outside the US embassy in Harare, pleading for
political asylum and food after being displaced in recent election
violence.
(AFP, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 4, Robert Mugabe ruled
out the prospect of talks with his opponents on ending Zimbabwe's
political crisis unless they acknowledge his victory in the one-man
presidential election. Botswana's government urged its neighbors not to
recognize Mugabe's re-election as it reiterated calls for Zimbabwe to
be suspended from a regional bloc.
(AFP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 8, In Japan G8 leaders
endorsed halving world emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. The G8
also agreed to impose targeted sanctions against leading Zimbabwean
officials after a violent election last month that extended President
Robert Mugabe's 28-year rule.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 10, European Union
lawmakers called for tougher EU sanctions against Zimbabwe, including
putting businessmen who finance Pres. Mugabe's regime on a visa ban
list.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 11, Zimbabwe’s opposition
Movement for Democratic Change said a total of 113 MDC supporters have
now been killed in politically-related violence. Zimbabwe's ruling
party and opposition held a second day of talks in South Africa. A UN
Security Council bid to pass sanctions against Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe
was vetoed by Russia and China.
(AP, 7/11/08)(AFP, 7/11/08)(AFP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 14, Britain vowed to
increase pressure on Zimbabwe's leaders by pushing for tougher EU
sanctions and hunting down their assets around the world, after failing
to secure bolstered UN action.
(AF, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 16, Zimbabwe’s central
bank's governor said the annual rate of inflation, already the highest
in the world, has hit a new record level of 2.2 million percent.
(AFP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 18, South Africa’s Pres.
Thabo Mbeki announced plans to work with the UN and African Union as he
attempts to mediate a settlement in Zimbabwe.
(SFC, 7/19/08, p.A8)
2008 Jul 20, A state newspaper
reported that Zimbabwe will transfer ownership of all foreign-owned
firms that support Western sanctions against President Robert Mugabe's
government to locals and investors from "friendly" countries.
(Reuters, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 21, In Zimbabwe mediator
South African Pres. Thabo Mbeki oversaw a ceremony in Harare at which
Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai signed an
agreement for negotiations to bring the country out of political chaos
in their first meeting in a decade.
(AFP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 24, In South Africa talks
began in earnest on resolving Zimbabwe's political crisis after
President Robert Mugabe gave his senior lieutenants the final go-ahead
to negotiate power-sharing with the opposition.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 25, President George W.
Bush signed an order expanding US sanctions against the "illegitimate"
Zimbabwe government of President Robert Mugabe.
(Reuters, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 29, Talks in South Africa
on Zimbabwe's political crisis broke up with no power-sharing deal
between President Robert Mugabe and his bitter rival Morgan Tsvangirai
in sight.
(AFP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 30, Zimbabwe’s reserve
bank said it will drop 10 zeros from its hyper-inflated currency —
turning 10 billion dollars into one. President Robert Mugabe threatened
a state of emergency if businesses profiteer from the country's
economic and political unraveling.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Aug 3, Zimbabwe's rival
parties resumed power-sharing talks, a day ahead of the expiry of a
deadline to conclude discussions to end a ruinous political crisis.
(AFP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 6, Zimbabwe's ruling
ZANU-PF and the opposition MDC called on their supporters to end
political violence in the country. A newspaper reported that President
Robert Mugabe would have amnesty from prosecution and a ceremonial role
in government under a draft settlement to resolve the country's crisis.
(Reuters, 8/6/08)(AFP, 8/6/08)
2008 Aug 10, South African
President Thabo Mbeki spent more than eight hours in talks with
Zimbabwe's president and opposition leaders to try to resolve a deadly
political dispute.
(AP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 13, South African
President Thabo Mbeki left Zimbabwe after failing to secure a
power-sharing deal between its main rivals during marathon talks,
adding to doubts over chances of an agreement.
(Reuters, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 16, In South Africa a
regional summit of southern African leaders opened with Zimbabwe's
crisis high on the agenda, and with the country's main political rivals
in attendance.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 25, Zimbabwe's opposition
won the vote for speaker of the first parliament since disputed
elections in March, claiming votes even from the ruling party of
autocratic President Robert Mugabe amid stalled talks over sharing
power.
(AP, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 26, Zimbabwe's opposition
heckled Robert Mugabe in an unprecedented show of defiance when the
president opened parliament with traditional pomp and his familiar
denunciations of the West.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 27, Zimbabwe's opposition
said it will not join any new government with President Robert Mugabe
until power-sharing talks are concluded, after the 84-year-old declared
he would name his own cabinet.
(AFP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 29, In Zimbabwe
power-sharing talks over a unity government resumed as Mugabe's
government made good on a promise to allow aid agencies to resume
operations. Mugabe announced cash awards for Zimbabwe’s Olympic
winners. He called Kirsty Coventry, who won three silvers and a gold at
the Beijing games, Zimbabwe's "golden girl" and gave her $100,000.
(AP, 8/29/08)(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 31, Zimbabwe's rival
parties returned home from talks in South Africa with no sign of a
power-sharing deal to resolve the country's bitter political crisis.
(AFP, 8/31/08)
2008 Sep 1, Zimbabwe's main
opposition called on regional powers to pressure President Robert
Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party to be more flexible in power-sharing
talks.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 4, Teachers in Zimbabwe's
public schools went on strike to press for higher pay, despite a pay
rise for civil servants announced by the government.
(AFP, 9/7/08)
2008 Sep 5, Canada joined the US
and EU in imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe's authoritarian regime headed
by President Robert Mugabe.
(AP, 9/6/08)
2008 Sep 7, Zimbabwean opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai said his party would rather withdraw from
power-sharing talks than sign an unsatisfactory deal and challenged
President Robert Mugabe to call a new poll.
(AP, 9/7/08)
2008 Sep 11, President Robert
Mugabe and the opposition reached an accord in which they will wield
equal power in a unity government aimed at ending Zimbabwe's protracted
political crisis and economic meltdown. One source said Mugabe will
chair the cabinet, while Morgan Tsvangirai takes charge of a national
security council which consists of 31 cabinet ministers.
(AFP, 9/12/08)
2008 Sep 11, Zimbabwe's health
minister said a cholera outbreak in a Harare suburb has killed at least
11 people.
(AP, 9/11/08)
2008 Sep 15, President Robert
Mugabe relaxed his iron hold on Zimbabwe for the first time in nearly
three decades of one-man rule, forced by escalating economic chaos into
sharing power with his bitter political rivals. PM Morgan Tsvangirai
used his first platform as head of government to call on Zimbabwe's
rival political parties to work together to "unite" the country.
(AP, 9/15/08)(AFP, 9/15/08)
2008 Sep 17, In Zimbabwe a
government-controlled newspaper said key aspects of the new
power-sharing deal won't go in effect until next month, adding to
concerns that President Robert Mugabe's agreement to cede some power
for the first time in 28 years will founder.
(AP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 19, Zimbabwe's ZANU-PF
and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) again failed to break a
deadlock over forming a cabinet after reaching a power-sharing deal.
(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 25, Zimbabwe's central
bank chief said nearly 600 shops had been licensed to sell goods in
foreign currency to fight the world's highest inflation rate and
critical shortages of basic goods.
(AFP, 9/25/08)
2008 Sep 27, Zimbabwe's main
opposition leader and designated prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai said
it was "urgent" the country form a new government to ensure food
supplies and prevent starvation.
(AP, 9/27/08)
2008 Sep 29, Zimbabwe's central
bank introduced 10,000- and 20,000-dollar bank notes to ease a cash
crunch in the country struggling to cope with the world's highest
inflation rate.
(AFP, 9/29/08)
2008 Oct 9, Zimbabwe's opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai said that power-sharing talks with President
Robert Mugabe's government had stalled and outside mediation was needed
to break the deadlock. The UN food agency made an urgent appeal for 140
million dollars (102 million euros) in food aid for more than five
million Zimbabweans facing severe hunger. A state newspaper said
Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate soared to 231 million percent in July.
(AFP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 10, Zimbabwe's political
rivals agreed to seek renewed mediation from former South African
President Thabo Mbeki to try to end deadlock over posts in a unity
government.
(Reuters, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 11, Zimbabwe’s state
Herald newspaper published a list from the official government gazette
giving the ruling ZANU-PF party 14 ministries, including the key
portfolios of defense, home and foreign affairs, justice, media, mines
and land. This would allow 83-year-old Mugabe to retain his iron grip
on power. Opposition party spokesman Nelson Chamisa said it was a
"midnight ambush style of attack" and meant the proposed national unity
government was now in jeopardy.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 13, The EU condemned
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's "unilateral decision" to form a new
government and threatened fresh sanctions unless he respects a
power-sharing deal. Mugabe swore in his two vice presidents, casting
doubt on a new mediation effort aimed at saving a power-sharing deal
with the opposition.
(AFP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 15, Former South African
leader Thabo Mbeki opened a second day of talks with Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe and his main rival to save a power-sharing deal that has
floundered over cabinet posts.
(AFP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 18, Zimbabwean opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai characterized failed talks to form a unity
government with President Robert Mugabe as "a monologue" saying the
veteran ruler refused to compromise on the allocation of key ministries.
(AFP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 21, Zimbabwe's main
opposition party warned that unless its leader Morgan Tsvangirai is
issued a passport he will not attend a meeting next week aimed at
breaking a deadlock in power-sharing talks. The party also said that
only fresh elections would resolve a dispute over who controls key
cabinet posts, a make-or-break issue under a power-sharing pact signed
with President Robert Mugabe.
(AP, 10/21/08)(Reuters, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 27, Leaders of a Southern
African bloc gathered in Zimbabwe to press President Robert Mugabe and
the main opposition leader to break an impasse on forming a unity
government.
(AP, 10/27/08)
2008 Oct 28, Zimbabwe’s opposition
issued an urgent call for a regional summit after talks aimed at
breaking a political deadlock with Pres. Mugabe’s party failed.
(SFC, 10/29/08, p.A6)
2008 Nov 1, Zimbabwe opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai called for a truth commission to examine
atrocities in the country dating back to the massacres of ethnic
minorities in the 1980s.
(AFP, 11/1/08)
2008 Nov 3, Zimbabwean officials
say they have sold almost 4 tons of ivory for over $450,000 and the
money will go to the country's cash-strapped wildlife authorities.
(AP, 11/3/08)
2008 Nov 5, Zimbabwe issued three
new denominations of banknotes, including a one-million-dollar note, as
the impoverished country struggles to cope with runaway inflation.
(AP, 11/5/08)
2008 Nov 6, State media reported
that Zimbabwe's government will release millions of dollars in unspent
foreign aid given to the country last year to fight AIDS, tuberculosis
and malaria. An official said Zimbabwe's largest gold mining firm has
stopped operations at its five mines across the strife-torn country,
resulting in 5,000 people losing jobs. The closures resulted from long
delays in receiving payments for gold delivered to the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe, which has a monopoly on the country's gold trade.
(AFP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 9, Southern African
leaders opened a regional summit on Zimbabwe, hoping to break a
deadlock over the allocation of cabinet posts which has prevented
formation of a power-sharing government.
(AP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 9, Zimbabwe's neighbors
failed to break an impasse on forming a unity government, prompting
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to appeal to the African Union to
step in.
(AFP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 10, President Robert
Mugabe said a new Zimbabwe government would be formed "as quickly as
possible" despite his rival Morgan Tsvangirai's rejection of a regional
compromise on a power-sharing deal.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 11, In Zimbabwe riot
police beat dozens of students and pro-democracy activists marching
through Harare to demand a new government to tackle the country's
worsening economic and political crisis.
(AFP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 12, Zimbabwe's main
opposition said it would not join a new government with President
Robert Mugabe until unresolved power-sharing issues were ironed out.
(AFP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 14, Zimbabwe's main
opposition party said that it will not join a unity government with
Pres. Mugabe until the rivals resolve their differences over a
power-sharing deal.
(AFP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 18, In Zimbabwe riot
police prevented striking doctors and nurses from protesting against
the collapsing health care system, which lacks even basic drugs amid a
rapid spread of cholera in the country.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 19, The World Food
Program said that it has signed a new food aid deal to allow the UN
agency to provide 350,000 tons of grain to millions in Zimbabwe.
(AFP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 20, South Africa said it
will withhold aid for Zimbabwe until a representative government is in
place, in what appeared to be the first punitive measure by a regional
country to enforce a power-sharing agreement.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, The US ambassador to
Harare, James McGee, said that a total of 294 people have been
confirmed dead from cholera in Zimbabwe, amid some 1,200 cases of the
water-borne disease.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 21, Zimbabwe refused to
let former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, ex-US President Jimmy
Carter and rights advocate Graca Machel to visit the impoverished
African country for a humanitarian mission. They came as members of The
Elders group, formed by former South African President Nelson Mandela
to foster peace and tackle world conflicts.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 23, Kenyan PM Raila
Odinga called for the deployment of African Union peacekeepers to
Zimbabwe to bring President Robert Mugabe back into line.
(AFP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 26, South Africa's health
minister said Zimbabwe faced a humanitarian crisis after a major
outbreak of cholera, vowing not to turn away anyone who crosses the
border for treatment. Botswana's foreign minister said Zimbabwe's
neighbors should close their borders in an attempt to bring down Pres.
Robert Mugabe, in the strongest call yet for action from Africa.
(AFP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 28, Zimbabwe’s opposition
said it has agreed on a draft constitutional amendment to allow the
formation of a power-sharing government, but obstacles still remain to
setting it up. The UN warned that cholera has killed 389 people in
Zimbabwe to date and that the disease is also spreading into
neighboring Botswana and South Africa.
(AFP, 11/28/08)(Reuters, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 28, A regional tribunal
in Namibia ruled that 78 white Zimbabweans can keep their farms because
the government's land reform scheme discriminated against them.
(AFP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 30, Zimbabwe's health
minister insisted that the country's crumbling medical system was
taking all necessary measures to combat a cholera epidemic, even as
more than 1,000 new cases were reported.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Dec 1, In Zimbabwe gunfire
broke out in downtown Harare when rampaging, unpaid soldiers attacked
money changers and clashed with police. Zimbabwe rejected a court
ruling that demanded the government stop its policy of seizing land
from white farmers. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai urged the world
to help end a "man-made" humanitarian crisis which has left hundreds of
people dead in a cholera epidemic.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 2, Zimbabwe slipped
deeper into crisis as the death toll from a cholera epidemic neared 500
and members of President Robert Mugabe's armed forces were accused of
taking part in a looting spree.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 3, Zimbabwe riot police
charged into a group of doctors and nurses protesting the deepening
economic and health crisis, as deaths rose sharply from a cholera
epidemic blamed on collapsing infrastructure.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 4, Zimbabwe declared a
national emergency over a cholera epidemic and the collapse of its
health care system, as the government sought more international help to
pay for food and drugs to combat the crisis.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 6, Zimbabwe's President
Robert Mugabe came under fresh international pressure over his
country's economic collapse as his government announced plans to
introduce a 200 million dollar bill.
(AFP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 7, Kenya’s PM Raila
Odinga said foreign troops should prepare to intervene in Zimbabwe to
end a worsening humanitarian crisis and Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe should be investigated for crimes against humanity.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 8, The EU joined calls
for President Robert Mugabe to step down after 28 years ruling
Zimbabwe, where spreading cholera and food shortages have worsened a
desperate humanitarian crisis.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 9, President Robert
Mugabe rejected mounting Western pressure for him to resign, even as
his health minister called for more international aid to battle a
deadly cholera epidemic. US President George W. Bush joined calls for
Robert Mugabe to step down, but the African Union rejected tougher
action against Mugabe and said only dialogue could solve its crisis.
(AFP, 12/9/08)(Reuters, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 10, The death toll from
Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak soared to nearly 800 and a court ordered
police to find a missing rights activist, piling more pressure on
President Robert Mugabe's government.
(Reuters, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 11, President Robert
Mugabe declared that Zimbabwe's cholera crisis was over, even as the UN
raised the death toll from the epidemic to 783.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Dec 12, Zimbabwe's central
bank introduced a 500 million dollar note, as the African country
struggles to cope with the world's highest inflation and crippling
currency shortages.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2008 Dec 13, The Zimbabwean
government accused the West of deliberately starting the country's
cholera epidemic, stepping up a war of words with the regime's critics
as the humanitarian crisis deepened. Air Marshal Perrance Shiri, head
of Zimbabwe's air force, was wounded in the hand in an alleged
assassination attempt by gunmen who ambushed his car.
(AP, 12/13/08)(AP, 12/16/08)
2008 Dec 15, President Robert
Mugabe's government vowed to thwart western efforts to put Zimbabwe on
the UN Security Council agenda, saying it was not a threat to
international security.
(AP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec 17, South African
President Kgalema Motlanthe said Zimbabwe's neighbors will launch an
urgent humanitarian campaign in the hope of saving the country from
economic collapse and a cholera epidemic. Motlanthe also said South
Africa would not join international calls for Zimbabwe's President
Robert Mugabe to step down, saying it was "not for us" to do so.
(AP, 12/17/08)(AFP, 12/17/08)
2008 Dec 19, President Robert
Mugabe declared that "Zimbabwe is mine" and vowed never to surrender to
calls to step down, as his political rival threatened to quit stalled
unity government talks.
(AP, 12/19/08)
2008 Dec 22, UN experts said some
5.5 million people in Zimbabwe, about half the population, need food
aid, as they called for increased international help for the country
which is battling a cholera epidemic. A UN human rights expert said
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is "a mad dictator" who has lost all
sense of reality.
(AP, 12/22/08)(Reuters, 12/22/08)
2008 Dec 24, Leading Zimbabwean
human rights campaigner Jestina Mukoko and nine other activists were
charged with plotting to overthrow President Robert Mugabe's government.
(Reuters, 12/24/08)
2008 Dec 25, Zimbabwe police
ignored a court order to allow the release to hospital of a rights
activist and several opposition figures accused of recruiting
anti-government plotters.
(AFP, 12/25/08)
2008 Dec 28, Zimbabwe’s state
media said the government will prosecute 140 white landowners on
charges of failing to vacate their farms under the country's
controversial 2000 land reform program.
(AP, 12/28/08)
2008 Heidi Holland authored
“Dinner with Mugabe: The Untold Story of a Freedom Fighter who Became a
Tyrant.”
(Econ, 3/22/08, p.94)
2009 Jan 6, The WHO said at least
1,732 people have died in Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic and the number of
cases diagnosed has risen to 34,306.
(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 7, In Zimbabwe seven
members of the main opposition party were the first of dozens of jailed
dissidents to be formally charged, and they pleaded not guilty in a
bombing plot. Zimbabwe delayed the opening of schools by two weeks,
amid fears that teachers may not show up for classes due to the
country's worsening humanitarian crisis.
(AP, 1/7/09)(AFP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 8, In Zimbabwe opposition
members accused of being involved in a bomb plot said they were
tortured into making false confessions.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 13, The WHO said
Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic has killed more than 2,000 people and
almost 40,000 have contracted the normally preventable disease in
Africa's worst outbreak in nearly a decade.
(Reuters, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 14, South Africa’s health
ministry said the death toll from a cholera outbreak has risen to 15,
with more than 2,100 cases registered in a spillover from Zimbabwe's
epidemic. The UN said the death toll from Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak
has risen to 2,106.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 15, In Hong Kong Grace
Mugabe (43), the wife of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, struck a
photographer in the face repeatedly as her bodyguard grabbed him when
he was trying to snap photos of her leaving the five-star Kowloon
Shangri-la Hotel. She was later granted diplomatic immunity from
prosecution over her alleged assault of the British journalist.
(AFP, 3/22/09)(http://tinyurl.com/clw9hb)
2009 Jan 16, The EU threatened new
sanctions against Robert Mugabe's government in Zimbabwe, blamed for
political deadlock, a surging cholera epidemic and runaway inflation.
The UN said the death toll from the cholera outbreak had risen to 2,201
and that the epidemic is still not under control.
(AP, 1/16/09)
2009 Jan 19, In Zimbabwe Southern
African mediators tried to forge a compromise between Zimbabwe
President Robert Mugabe and his rival Morgan Tsvangirai, in a
last-ditch effort to save a power-sharing deal. The power-sharing talks
ended without a deal and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said no
progress was made on what he called the "darkest day of our lives."
(AFP, 1/19/09)(Reuters, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 21, Zimbabwe activists
launched a hunger strike to demand faster political change and urge
African leaders to isolate the country's president, Robert Mugabe, who
is accused of overseeing its political and economic collapse.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 23, In Zimbabwe city
workers in Harare began an indefinite strike, demanding to be paid in
hard currency. President Robert Mugabe's ruling party refused to budge
on opposition demands for a unity government, whose fate hinges on the
outcome of a regional summit next week. The WHO said cholera in
Zimbabwe has so far killed 2,773 people.
(AP, 1/23/09)(AFP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 26, European Union
nations announced the addition of 27 Zimbabwean officials and 36
companies to the EU's visa and assets freeze blacklist to pressure
President Robert Mugabe to share power with Zimbabwe's opposition.
(AP, 1/26/09)(Econ, 1/31/09, p.52)
2009 Jan 26, Southern African
leaders opened fresh talks in Pretoria to end Zimbabwe's political
crisis amid a new threat by President Robert Mugabe to form a
government excluding his arch rival from power.
(AFP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 27, In South Africa the
15-nation SADC grouping said after a meeting, its fifth attempt to
secure a deal on forming a unity government, it had agreed that
opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai should be sworn in as prime
minister by February 11. An analyst said chances for a deal appeared
slim. The recently introduced 10 trillion Zimbabwean dollar note cannot
buy a loaf of bread, which costs Z$30 trillion. Two weeks ago, a loaf
of bread cost Z$30 billion.
(Reuters, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 29, Zimbabwe Finance
Minister Patrick Chinamasa said citizens will be allowed to conduct
business in other currencies, alongside the Zimbabwean dollar. A UN
report said Zimbabwe's humanitarian disaster is far worse than
anticipated with only six percent of the population formally employed
and more than half in need of emergency food aid.
(Reuters, 1/29/09)(AFP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 30, Zimbabwe's opposition
decided to join a government with President Robert Mugabe next month,
ending a paralyzing political deadlock that has worsened the desperate
economic and humanitarian crisis. WHO reported that the death toll in
Zimbabwe’s cholera outbreak had reached 3,161, out of 60,401 recorded
cases.
(Reuters, 1/30/09)(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Feb 2, Zimbabwe's central
bank revalued its dollar again, lopping another 12 zeros off its
battered currency to try to tame hyperinflation and avert total
economic collapse.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 5, Zimbabwe's parliament
passed a constitutional bill to allow a coalition government of
President Robert Mugabe and opposition rivals, being set up under a
deal to end political and economic crisis.
(Reuters, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 11, Zimbabwe's opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as prime minister, joining
President Robert Mugabe in a unity government after a decade of
struggling to push him from power.
(AFP, 2/11/09)
2009 Feb 13, In Zimbabwe Roy
Bennett, a white farmer turned politician with Tsvangirai's Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC), was arrested by state agents just as the
new cabinet was preparing to take office. Tsvangirai had named Bennett
to become the deputy minister of agriculture in the new coalition
cabinet.
(AFP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 15, Britain's Sunday
Times reported that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has bought a 4
million pound ($5.6 million) home in Hong Kong. It was bought last
year, as Mugabe's 20-year-old daughter began studying at the University
of Hong Kong. The paper said it was one of several properties the
Mugabes own in Asia but the first to be documented.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 17, In Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe and his arch rival Morgan Tsvangirai sat at a cabinet
table for the first time as ministers of the country's new unity
government held their inaugural meeting. A Zimbabwe court charged Roy
Bennett, a senior MDC party official, over a plot involving terrorism
and insurgency, just days after the party joined a unity government.
(AFP, 2/17/09)(Reuters, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 18, Zimbabwe’s the new
finance minister announced that Zimbabwe has begun paying government
workers in US dollars and will allow more trade in foreign currency in
the first act by a unity government that gave the opposition control of
much of the devastated economy. A court ordered ministerial nominee Roy
Bennett to be kept in custody until March 4, on the grounds there was
"reasonable suspicion" against him in a terrorism case.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 19, Trading resumed at
the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) after a three-month suspension but
transactions were carried out only in US dollars, the first time in
President Robert Mugabe's 29-year rule.
(AFP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 24, Officials said
Zimbabwe's teachers have agreed to end a strike that emptied classrooms
for a year, after the government promised to review salaries and
appealed for 458 million dollars' aid for schools.
(AFP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 28, In Zimbabwe Pres.
Robert Mugabe told followers at his lavish $250,000 birthday party to
respect the new power-sharing government but vowed to press on with
seizures of white farms. A melee broke out in a dining hall among
thousands lined up for a free meal of porridge and vegetables. Soldiers
used truncheons to maintain order.
(AFP, 2/28/09)(SSFC, 3/1/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 3, In Zimbabwe’s
parliament former opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in. A
judge ordered the release on bail of senior opposition lawmaker Roy
Bennett after nearly three weeks in prison on weapons charges.
(AP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 4, Zimbabwe’s PM Morgan
Tsvangirai made his first call for an end to international sanctions,
part of his bid to start rebuilding the shattered economy. He also said
the detention of political prisoners is undermining donor confidence in
Zimbabwe's unity government, hurting efforts to rebuild the economy. US
President Barack Obama extended sanctions against Zimbabwe, saying the
troubled African nation had not resolved its political crisis.
(Reuters, 3/4/09)(AFP, 3/4/09)(Reuters, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 5, In Zimbabwe PM Morgan
Tsvangirai said more than 4,000 people have died in the cholera
epidemic that has hit at least 85,000 people, warning the figures were
likely an underestimate.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 6, In Zimbabwe PM Morgan
Tsvangirai was injured in a car crash that killed his wife. Tsvangirai
was flown the next day to neighboring Botswana for medical tests.
(Reuters, 3/7/09)(AFP, 3/7/09)
2009 Mar 11, Australia said it
would provide funding to Zimbabwe's new unity government, the first
Western power to announce direct support to the new administration.
(Reuters, 3/11/09)
2009 Mar 12, In Zimbabwe Roy
Bennett, a top aide to PM Morgan Tsvangirai, was released on bail after
a legal battle that has raised doubts about Zimbabwe's new unity
government.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 14, Zimbabwe's President
Robert Mugabe denounced political violence and urged Zimbabweans to
work together following the formation of an inclusive government with
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
(AFP, 3/14/09)
2009 Mar 27, Zimbabwe PM Morgan
Tsvangirai decried a fresh wave of farm invasions across the country
and warned that those responsible for the farm disruptions risk arrest.
(AFP, 3/27/09)
2009 Apr 3, The global diamond
certification body ordered a ban on trade in diamonds from eastern
Zimbabwe over concerns about human rights violations.
(AP, 4/3/09)
2009 Apr 6, In Zambia western
nations and lending agencies meeting in Lusaka agreed a financing
package of more than $1 billion to improve infrastructure in southern
and central Africa at an investment conference meant to expand
transport links and trade. Britain said it would separately provide 100
million pounds ($149.2 million) to transform the region's
infrastructure to increase trade and mitigate the effects of the global
financial crisis. New projects will link businesses in 8 African
countries: Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Malawi,
Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa.
(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 12, Zimbabwe set up a
parliamentary team to spearhead the writing of a new constitution which
Pres. Mugabe's opponents say will be key to holding free and fair
elections. A state newspaper reported that Zimbabwe will not use its
own local currency for at least a year, while it tries to repair an
economy which critics say was destroyed by President Mugabe.
(Reuters, 4/12/09)
2009 Apr 15, In southern Zimbabwe
at least 29 people were killed and 39 injured when a bus plunged into a
river bed near Chivhu town.
(AFP, 4/16/09)
2009 Apr 17, Zimbabwe deputy prime
minister Arthur Mutambara vowed to act against illegal farm invasions
amid claims that a top lawmaker and Pres. Mugabe ally was behind a
fresh seizure. Mugabe made a new call for western nations to lift
sanctions and prodded his unity government partners to join his
campaigning against them.
(AFP, 4/17/09)
2009 Apr 18, Zimbabweans
celebrated their first Independence Day under a coalition government,
with President Robert Mugabe calling for national conciliation as he
shared the stage with his former political rival.
(AP, 4/18/09)
2009 Apr 20, Zimbabwe's central
bank governor admitted that he took hard currency from the bank
accounts of private businesses and foreign aid groups without
permission, saying he was trying to keep his country's cash-strapped
ministries running.
(AP, 4/20/09)
2009 Apr 29, Zimbabwe's teachers
vowed to go on strike when the new school term begins next week after
government reneged on a pledge to increase their salaries.
(AFP, 4/29/09)
2009 May 5, In Zimbabwe prominent
human rights campaigner Jestina Mukoko and the 17 others were taken
back into custody, just two months after their release on bail over an
alleged plot to overthrow President Robert Mugabe. PM Morgan
Tsvangirai's party warned their detention threatened the survival of
Zimbabwe's fledgling unity government. Zimbabwe's teachers unions
called off a threatened strike at state schools after the government
agreed to scrap fees for children of teachers.
(AFP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 5, China said it has
given 10 million dollars (7.5 million euros) to Zimbabwe, half of it
directly into the state coffers, to help boost the country's troubled
economy.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 6, In Zimbabwe a top
rights activist and 14 others were ordered freed on bail after
Zimbabwe's president and prime minister forced a judge to reverse her
decision to send them back to the prison where they said they had been
tortured. She refused, however, to free three others she had ordered
returned to prison, saying their case was more serious because they had
allegedly been found with explosives. The last 3 were released on May
13.
(AP, 5/6/09)(AFP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 7, Zimbabwe’s finance
minister, Tendai Biti, said African financial institutions have
extended $428 million in credit lines in a bid to rescue the country's
ailing economy.
(AP, 5/7/09)
2009 May 18, The World Bank said
it would give $22 million to Zimbabwe, but said the country must clear
its long-standing arrears to qualify for more aid.
(AP, 5/18/09)
2009 May 21, Zimbabwe’s PM Morgan
Tsvangirai said the unity government has agreed on key appointments in
an attempt to resolve the political impasse that has paralyzed the new
administration.
(AP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 26, The Red Cross said
the number of cholera cases in Zimbabwe is expected to cross the
100,000 mark in the coming days, warning that the epidemic was Africa's
worst in 15 years.
(AFP, 5/26/09)
2009 May 30, Zimbabwe’s PM Morgan
Tsvangirai said that his efforts to restore democratic freedoms and the
rule of law to Zimbabwe have so far failed. Tsvangirai urged southern
African leaders to help resolve a deadlock over the appointments of the
country's bank chief and attorney general. The national statistical
agency said Zimbabwe had recorded a minus 1.1 percent inflation rate in
April, a slower fall than March, after scrapping its worthless currency
to combat world record prices.
(AP, 5/30/09)(AFP, 5/30/09)
2009 Jun 7, Zimbabwe PM Morgan
Tsvangirai launched a three-week trip to the West. He spoke at The
Hague saying he is seeking re-engagement, not touring with a "begging
bowl" asking for aid. Pres. Robert Mugabe launched a new pact aimed at
tearing down trade barriers across 19 African nations with appeals for
external investors and an end to domestic conflicts.
(AP, 6/7/09)(AFP, 6/7/09)
2009 Jun 16, The US added six
African countries to a blacklist of countries trafficking in people,
and put US trading partner Malaysia back on the list. Chad, Eritrea,
Niger, Mauritania, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe were added to the list in
the annual report. Removed from the list were Qatar, Oman, Algeria, and
Moldova.
(AFP, 6/16/09)
2009 Jun 20, Zimbabwean PM Morgan
Tsvangirai was booed and shouted down by exiles during a speech in
London when he pleaded with them to return home to help rebuild the
shattered country.
(AFP, 6/21/09)
2009 Jun 22, Britain pledged an
extra five million pounds in aid to Zimbabwe, hailing progress under a
new unity government but urging more reform after landmark talks
between leaders of the two countries.
(AFP, 6/22/09)
2009 Jun 26, Human Rights Watch
said that Zimbabwe's armed forces have taken over diamond fields in the
east and killed more than 200 people, forcing children to search for
the precious gems and beating villagers who get in the way.
(AP, 6/26/09)
2009 Jun 29, In Zimbabwe PM Morgan
Tsvangirai's party boycotted a meeting of the cabinet on the grounds
that it made a mockery of the country's power-sharing deal. Tsvangirai
said Zimbabwe has won 950 million dollars in credit lines from China,
the largest loan secured by the unity government since it was formed in
February.
(AFP, 6/29/09)AFP, 6/30/09)
2009 Jul 1, Zimbabwe's former
finance minister Simba Makoni launched a new opposition party that
promises to "clean up" the country's political landscape.
(AFP, 7/1/09)
2009 Jul 5, An official Zimbabwe
newspaper reported that the government has promised to withdraw
soldiers from diamond fields in the east, a week after a rights group
alleged the military was committing killings and abuses in the area.
(AP, 7/5/09)
2009 Jul 10, Zimbabwe's army and
police refused to vacate diamond fields where security forces are
accused of human rights abuses, despite a pledge last week for their
withdrawal. Finance Minister Tendai Biti said the government will
provide 142 million dollars in aid to small-scale farmers as the
country struggles to revive its shattered agricultural sector.
(AFP, 7/10/09)(AP, 7/10/09)
2009 Jul 13, In Zimbabwe militants
from President Robert Mugabe's party disrupted the start of a national
conference aimed at drawing up a new constitution.
(AP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 14, Zimbabwe's
constitution talks, violently disrupted by militant backers of
President Robert Mugabe, resumed with calls for tolerance in work on a
charter meant to pave the way to fresh polls.
(AFP, 7/14/09)
2009 Jul 24, Zimbabwe's coalition
government launched a campaign of "national healing" and
reconciliation, with political leaders urging supporters to end years
of political violence and intimidation.
(AP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 25, Zimbabwe’s PM Morgan
Tsvangirai said compensation must be considered for victims of
political violence as the country held a weekend of national
reconciliation.
(AFP, 7/25/09)
2009 Jul 29, In Zimbabwe the
British Broadcasting Corp. resumed broadcasting for the first time
since it was banned in 2001. The five-month-old coalition government
said it also was considering allowing CNN back.
(AP, 7/30/09)
2009 Jul 30, Zimbabwe’s Daily
News, a popular newspaper banned nearly six years ago, won a new
license to resume printing. It was renowned for its willingness to
criticize Pres. Robert Mugabe. CNN said Zimbabwe agreed last week to
allow it to resume working in the country.
(AFP, 7/31/09)
2009 Jul 30, Zimbabwe's health
minister said a cholera epidemic has ended, after more than 4,200
deaths and 100,000 cases since last August, but warned new outbreaks
remain a threat.
(AP, 7/30/09)
2009 Jul 31, Global Witness, which
monitors the exploitation of natural resources, backed calls for a ban
on trading in Zimbabwe diamonds due to human rights abuses in mining of
the gem.
(AFP, 7/31/09)
2009 Aug 2, In Zimbabwe 40 people
were killed and 30 others injured when a bus overturned after colliding
with a lorry south of Harare.
(AP, 8/2/09)(AP, 8/3/09)
2009 Aug 5, Zimbabwe's veteran
Vice-President Joseph Msika (86) died. His death was expected to
reignite debate over who will eventually succeed President Robert
Mugabe.
(Reuters, 8/5/09)
2009 Aug 7, International donor
the Global Fund, which had a financial dispute with Zimbabwe's previous
government, took the unusual step of giving $37.9 million in aid
directly to Zimbabwe's new unity government instead of channeling it
through private groups.
(AP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 12, Doctors at Zimbabwe's
state hospitals went on strike, demanding higher salaries and payment
of their monthly allowances.
(AFP, 8/12/09)
2009 Aug 18, In Zimbabwe a truck
hit a bus head-on, killing 11 people including six members of a family
returning from a funeral.
(AP, 8/19/09)
2009 Aug 19, In Zimbabwe 10
lawmakers from PM Morgan Tsvangirai's party were arrested and charged
with disturbing the peace as they headed into the Finance Ministry for
a meeting.
(AP, 8/19/09)
2009 Aug 23, In Zimbabwe a cabinet
retreat by the unity government collapsed this weekend as President
Robert Mugabe's ministers walked out after the deputy prime minister
said last year's polls were fraudulent.
(AP, 8/23/09)
2009 Aug 26, Doctors at Zimbabwe's
state hospitals called off a crippling two-week strike, broken by the
reality that the government had no money to meet their wage demands.
(AFP, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 27, In Zimbabwe South
Africa’s President Jacob Zuma he met with PM Tsvangirai who has accused
Mugabe's ZANU-PF party of stalling on reforms and continuing to attack
and harass its activists.
(AP, 8/28/09)
2009 Aug 28, In Zimbabwe South
Africa’s President Jacob Zuma met with President Robert Mugabe and
other leaders and appeared cautiously optimistic that their differences
within the coalition government could be resolved.
(AP, 8/28/09)
2009 Aug 29, The EU signed a
temporary trade pact with Mauritius, Seychelles, Zimbabwe and
Madagascar calling for tariffs on European goods to be removed over the
next 15 years.
(AP, 8/29/09)
2009 Aug 30, In Zimbabwe Godknows
Dzoro Mtshakazi, a member of PM Morgan Tsvangirai's party, was
killed by soldiers in Shurugwi for playing a song praising the
premier.
(AFP, 9/8/09)
2009 Sep 5, The IMF said Zimbabwe
has received about 400 million dollars, as Special Drawing Rights, in
support from the International Monetary Fund, part of its broader
effort to cushion the blows of the global economic crisis. To convert
the SDRs into hard currency, Zimbabwe would have to find another
country to buy them. Otherwise the money serves to bolster Harare's
meager foreign reserves.
(AFP, 9/5/09)
2009 Sep 11, South Africa and the
European Union started a summit expected to be dominated by calls from
African nations for sanctions against Zimbabwe to be lifted.
(AP, 9/11/09)
2009 Sep 12, Zimbabwe’s President
Robert Mugabe welcomed the first top-level European Union delegation to
visit in seven years with "open arms" and said talks on implementing a
power-sharing deal went well.
(Reuters, 9/12/09)
2009 Sep 13, Zimbabwe's PM Morgan
Tsvangirai accused President Robert Mugabe of violating a fledgling
power-sharing deal. The EU said ties with Zimbabwe would only normalize
once a unity accord is properly implemented, but pledged a further 90
million euro this year to assist the troubled nation.
(AFP, 9/13/09)
2009 Sep 21, Zimbabwe teachers,
who went on strike over salaries at the start of the new school term
three weeks ago, returned to work after their union called off the
boycott.
(AFP, 9/21/09)
2009 Sep 30, The World Bank
announced a 74-million-dollar grant to revive Zimbabwe's agriculture
sector.
(AFP, 9/30/09)
2009 Oct 1, Nestle said it will
stop buying milk from Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's wife's farm
after facing worldwide boycott threats.
(AP, 10/2/09)
2009 Oct 10, Zimbabwe's central
bank chief said the government has frozen Nestle's local accounts and
ordered an audit after Nestle stopped buying milk from a farm owned by
President Robert Mugabe's wife.
(AP, 10/11/09)
2009 Oct 12, Nestle said its
Zimbabwe banking is back to normal just days after newspapers reported
that the government froze their accounts and ordered an audit after the
company stopped buying milk from a farm owned by President Robert
Mugabe's wife.
(AP, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 14, A Zimbabwe court
ordered ministerial nominee Roy Bennett, a close aide to PM Morgan
Tsvangirai, back to jail until his terrorism trial begins next week.
Bennett was accused of possessing arms for the purposes of banditry,
terrorism and inciting acts of insurgency.
(AFP, 10/14/09)
2009 Oct 16, Zimbabwe PM Morgan
Tsvangirai suspended cooperation with President Robert Mugabe's
"dishonest and unreliable" camp but said he will not quit the unity
government. The snub was sparked by the renewed detention of
Tsvangirai's top aide Roy Bennett.
(AFP, 10/16/09)
2009 Oct 21, South Africa’s
President Jacob Zuma said Zimbabwe must not return to instability,
after holding talks with PM Morgan Tsvangirai who has cut ties within
his unity government. Tsvangirai flew to South Africa after meeting
Mozambican President Armando Guebuza a day earlier and then headed to
the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola to brief leaders on
Zimbabwe's worst impasse in eight months.
(AFP, 10/22/09)
2009 Oct 23, In Zimbabwe armed
police raided a house belonging to PM Morgan Tsvangirai's party in a
new threat to the country's faltering unity government.
(AFP, 10/24/09)
2009 Oct 24, Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe accused PM Morgan Tsvangirai of failing to act in the
national interest after withdrawing his support for the country's
fragile unity government, state media reported.
(AFP, 10/24/09)
2009 Oct 27, Zimbabwe's PM Morgan
Tsvangirai and ministers drawn from his MDC party boycotted a cabinet
meeting led by Pres. Mugabe for the second time in as many weeks. The
Southern African Development Community (SADC) confirmed that it will be
sending its politics, defense and security body on a fact-finding
mission to Harare. The bloc mediated the unity pact that underpins the
government.
(AFP, 10/27/09)
2009 Oct 28, The UN said
Zimbabwe's government has blocked a visit by Manfred Nowak, the UN’s
torture investigator who was to examine alleged attacks on opposition
activists by ruling party supporters.
(AP, 10/28/09)
2009 Oct 29, In eastern Zimbabwe
Elmon Mupombwa (41) killed three of his children with an ax and wounded
two others. He also torched his home and killed his livestock — five
cattle, 20 goats and 17 chickens — before hanging himself. Police said
Mupombwa had attended a tribal ritual conducted by a spirit medium,
also known as a witch doctor.
(AP, 11/1/09)
2009 Nov 5, Zimbabwe's rival
leaders met with Mozambican leader Armando Guebuza, the head of a
regional security body, ahead of an emergency summit aimed at hauling a
fragile power-sharing deal out of a three-week impasse. The summit was
set to open with leaders from the Democratic Republic of Congo, South
Africa, Swaziland and Zambia.
(AP, 11/5/09)
2009 Nov 6, Zimbabwe averted a
political meltdown after PM Morgan Tsvangirai ended a boycott of the
unity government, but faced a new deadline to resolve a slate of thorny
disputes. He said assurances South Africa will be watching persuaded
him to end his boycott.
(AP, 11/6/09)
2009 Nov 16, A 3-day summit on
world hunger opened in Rome. Zimbabwe’s Pres. Mugabe used the UN summit
on world hunger to lash out at the West and defend land reforms blamed
for plunging his people into starvation. Some 60 heads of state and
dozens of minister rejected a UN call to commit $44 billion annually
for agricultural development in poor countries.
(AP, 11/17/09)(SFC, 11/17/09, p.A8)
2009 Nov 18, South African police
fired rubber bullets to disperse a mob who attacked shacks belonging to
hundreds of migrants following several days of tension. Up to 2,700
Zimbabwean asylum seekers have set up a temporary "safety camp" in a
rural South African town following attacks on their shacks in a dispute
over jobs.
(Reuters, 11/18/09)
2009 Nov 19, Zimbabwe’s government
said security forces have started withdrawing from the country's
eastern diamond fields to meet Kimberley Process reforms over human
rights abuses.
(AFP, 11/19/09)
2009 Nov 25, Zimbabwe's state
media said the ailing public health system will receive a 180 million
US dollar boost to fight HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria from
the Global Fund.
(AP, 11/25/09)
2009 Nov 27, Zimbabwe and South
Africa signed a bilateral investment agreement which would protect
investments made by nationals of both countries in each other's
territory.
(AFP, 11/27/09)
2009 Nov 28, In China a
Zimbabwe-registered cargo plane crashed in flames during takeoff from
Shanghai's main airport, killing 3 American crew members and injuring 4
others on board.
(AP, 11/28/09)
2009 Dec 9, The International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it needs $32
million to feed 220,000 Zimbabweans who cannot access hard currency in
the collapsed economy.
(AP, 12/9/09)
2009 Dec 10, In South Africa the
Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC) said it has
approved a 10-million-dollar grant to fund the expansion of Zimbabwe's
Freda Rebecca gold mine.
(AFP, 12/10/09)
2009 Dec 12, Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe was re-elected as ZANU-PF leader for the next five years,
urging supporters to work for the survival of the party. Mugabe said
the unity government is short-lived and he plans to regain his hold
over the country.
(AFP, 12/12/09)(AP, 12/13/09)
2009 Dec 14, The World Health
Organization (WHO) said polio has re-emerged in several African
countries where it had been eradicated, at the start of a conference on
child immunization in Zimbabwe.
(AP, 12/14/09)
2009 Dec 18, Zimbabwe, for years
plagued by hyper inflation, presented official data showing it has
switched narrowly into an absolute price fall on a monthly basis,
following adoption of foreign currencies.
(AFP, 12/18/09)
2009 Dec 21, Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe and his rival PM Morgan Tsvangirai announced an agreement
on commissions to drive media and electoral reforms, one of the key
issues which has been threatening their power-sharing deal.
(AP, 12/22/09)
2009 Dec 23, Nestle, the
Swiss-based food giant, said Zimbabwean government officials and police
had made an "unannounced visit" to the plant on Dec 19, forcing staff
to take delivery of a tanker of milk from non-contracted suppliers.
"Since under such circumstances normal operations and the safety of
employees are no longer guaranteed, Nestle decided to temporarily shut
down the factory."
(AFP, 12/23/09)
2009 In Zimbabwe Godknows Nare
produced a documentary on the conditions of the country’s jails and
prisons titled “Hell Hole.”
(SFC, 4/2/09, p.A2)
2010 Jan 6, Zimbabwe state media
reported that Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) has signed an eight million
dollar deal with Botswana to revive a shut-down thermal power station
and ease national blackouts.
(AFP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 7, Zimbabwe halted a
controversial sale of 300,000 carats of diamonds, but blamed
bureaucratic hold-ups rather than a scandal over rights abuses by the
military in the diamond fields.
(AFP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 13, Zimbabwe civil
servants, who earn only 150 US dollars a month, rejected the
government's "paltry" offer to raise salaries by a maximum of 14%.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, A Zimbabwe state
daily reported that the nation’s power utility has been ordered to stop
electricity exports to Namibia until it can meet its own country's
needs.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 14, Key southern African
leaders gathered in the Mozambican capital Maputo for a special summit
on the political crises in Zimbabwe and Madagascar. Leaders called for
a return to dialogue in the ongoing political crisis in Madagascar. A
medical aid group said Zimbabweans crossing illegally into neighboring
South Africa after holidays at home are being raped and robbed by gangs
on both sides of the border.
(AFP, 1/14/10)(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Zimbabwe a lawyer
said the Supreme Court has ordered the central bank to safeguard
millions of dollars' worth of diamonds from a mine where the military
is accused of killings and forced labor. State media said a Zimbabwe
high court has rejected a southern African court's ruling that blocked
the government's move to resettle blacks on more than 70 white-owned
farms.
(AFP, 1/27/10)
2010 Feb 5, Zimbabwe's civil
servants launched an open-ended strike for a more than four-fold hike
to their salaries, piling pressure on the strained unity government
struggling to fix the economy.
(AFP, 2/5/10)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Zimbabwe
End of file