Zimbabwe is a
landlocked country in Southern Africa with an area of 390,310 square kilometres and
a population of over 11.9 million people, of which 68% live in the rural areas. The
country is located between the Limpopo and the Zambezi rivers, and a large part of the
population lives in the highveld, the watershed between the two rivers. The major cities,
Harare and Buluwayo, and the largest towns are found in this area. Zimbabwe, a former
British colony known as Southern Rhodesia or Rhodesia, gained its independence in 1980.
However, the first years of independence were characterised by tough (sometimes bloody)
confrontations between two principal liberation movements. By the end of 1987, the two
parties agreed to form the Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF)
under the incumbent President Robert Mugabe. Since then, the country has been led by a
single party state which continue to survive thanks to ineffectual opposition.
Zimbabwe has the
largest and most diversified economy in sub-Saharan Africa. However, the country has been
struggling over the last decade following disastrous droughts and socialist-inspired
economic policies. Zimbabwe has a well-maintained railway and road infrastructure, and an
oil pipe linking to Beira, the nearest port in Mozambique. The main exports include
tobacco (the single most important commodity), mining (such as gold, chrome, nickel and
asbestos) and manufacturing (ferro-alloys, steel and clothing). The tourism industry is
well-developed and attracts more than a million visitors a year. Zimbabwe's economy is
suffering from large fiscal deficits resulting from excessive foreign borrowing. In 1989
the government introduced an Economic Structural Adjustment Program which resulted in the
removal of wage and price controls, including those for foreign exchange; devaluation of
the currency to increase exports and foreign exchange earnings; liberalisation of trade
with the goal of replacing qualitative controls with tariffs by 1995; and reduced
government spending and subsidies. Although improvements have been made in several areas,
government deficits still remain a major problem.
In 1999,
Zimbabwe's telephone network has a capacity of over 295,600 lines with 239,000 lines
currently connected. The telephone density is 2.07 lines per hundred population. The
penetration is biased heavily toward the largest cities which have a teledensity of
7.52 compared to 0.59 for the rest of the country. The Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (PTC) has monopoly
on the provision of telecommunications services, and there is currently no independent
telecommunications regulator in Zimbabwe. A new communications bill is expected to be
presented to parliament to facilitate the formation of a Communications Authority.
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