Current Events in Zimbabwe

1. Current Events in Zimbabwe By: Billy Burrows Honors Communication 10

2. Olympic Champions • During the 2008 Beijing Olympics Zimbabweans Kirsty Coventry received the gold medal in the 200 meter women’s backstroke. Along with winning the gold she beat a number of tough competitors. One of these competitors was a U.S. swimmer by the name of Margaret Hoelzer. Along with her gold medal Kirsty Coventry has also accomplished a world record time of 2:05.24 seconds!

3. $Currency$ • Currently in Zimbabwe lack of currency is an ongoing problem. This problem is continuing to cause other problems as well such as the shortage of imported goods as well as fuel and oil. Hyperinflation is also caused by this shortage in currency devaluing the Zimbabwean dollar. At one point in time in the 1980’s the Zimbabwean dollar was worth approximately 1.59 U.S. dollars. Since that time hyperinflation has caused the value of the Zimbabwean dollar to decrease dramatically. Consumers are having trouble buying goods because of the hyperinflation in Zimbabwe which means that the products being sold are raising rapidly in price, while the Zimbabwean dollar is losing it’s value causing a lack of currency.

4. Bombings • Recently in Zimbabwe there was an overwhelming bombing of a police station located in the Zimbabwean town of Harare. Police have come to the conclusion that this particular bombing must have been an inside job. Since the bombing officials have intensified security measures making new rules to better protect incidents like these from happening. They are doing things such as making a new rule that no longer will private motorists be allowed to park their vehicles at the police stations for safe keeping. Also, they are going to take everybody’s name and information at the front desk before being able to proceed into the police station. The police have also come to the conclusion that no ordinary person planted these bombs. They have told the media that the bombs would have had to be planted by people with some sort of expertise in bomb related activities. Fortunately, this bomber was for some reason unable to detonate all of the bombs planted for the police had also found two active bombs located in various other parts of the station.

5. Government • Zimbabwe’s government is run off the governmental system of parliament. This means that the way that Zimbabwe’s government is run is that the part of the government in charge of managing the “state”, or better known as the executive branch of government, depends almost solely on the legislative branch, which allows laws to be amended or changed.

6. Political Leaders • Zimbabwe has manypolitical leaders that help to make Zimbabwe’s region a smoother place. These leaders very from president to the Permanent Representative to the UN, New York.

7. Robert Mugabe • Robert Mugabe has been serving as Zimbabwe’s president since December 31st,1987. Many people however question his right to be president. There are speculations that he took office over a false election. These speculations were based on the recent 2008 election where Robert Mugabe actually did not win the first round of the election but lost to Morgan Tsvangirai 43% to 48%. Now, in order to officially win without having a run-off vote either candidate would have had to have at least 50% of the vote or more to be considered the winner. However, the movement for democratic change stated that Robert Mugabe had actually altered the percentages in order to give himself a chance at the run-off votes. The original percent of votes that the returns awarded to his opponent Morgan Tsvangirai would have given Morgan 50.3% of the votes and would have therefore eliminated the chance for a run-off vote.

8. Military • xcv Defense Forces -Set up by 3 forces. 1.Zimbabwe African National Liberation 2. Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army, 3. Air Force of Zimbabwe -Defense amendment bill was approved joining all 3 forces together under 1 commander. -Est. 1933 -Commanded by General Vitalis Zvinavashe National Army -Est.1980 -Went from a non-structured guerilla style warfare to a battalion which was much more structured. -Commander varied, was chosen based on performance. -Originally = 4 brigades which in turn comes out to 29 battalions. -Battalion = 500-1500 men -5th brigade formed in 1991 and fell apart 3 years later due to amount murder during their time.

9. Works Cited "Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments." Central Intelligence Agency . 1 Mar. 2007. 16 Aug. 2008 <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/world-leaders- 1/world-leaders-z/zimbabwe.html>. "Bomb attack at Harare Central Police Station." Topix. 16 Aug. 2008 <http://www.topix.com/news/explosion/2008/08/bomb-attack-at- Harare-central-police-station>. Google . 16 Aug. 2008 <http://images.google.com/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi>. "Robert Mugabe ." Wikipedia . Wikimedia Foundation. 16 Aug. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mugabe>.

10. Works Cited Continued "Zimbabwe: Bombing Incident an Inside Job - Chihuri." The Herald 2008: 1+. 16 Aug. 2008 <http://allafrica.com/stories/200808150365.html>. "Zimbabwe: Coventry Swimmer Wins Gold." AllAfrica. 16 Aug. 2008. 16 Aug. 2008 <http://allafrica.com/ stories/200808160018.html>. "Zimbabwe." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 16 Aug. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe>.