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The following lists events from the year 2016 in Zimbabwe .
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The following lists events from the year 2016 in Zimbabwe .
Until roughly 2,000 years ago, what would become Zimbabwe was populated by ancestors of the San people. Bantu inhabitants of the region arrived and developed ceramic production in the area. A series of trading empires emerged, including the Kingdom of Mapungubwe and Kingdom of Zimbabwe. In the 1880s, the British South Africa Company began its activities in the region, leading to the colonial era in Southern Rhodesia.
The following lists events that happened during 2000 in Zimbabwe.
Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa is a Zimbabwean politician who is serving as President of Zimbabwe since 24 November 2017. A member of ZANU–PF and a longtime ally of former President Robert Mugabe, he held a series of cabinet portfolios and was Mugabe's Vice-President until November 2017, when he was dismissed before coming to power in a coup d'état. He secured his first full term as president in the disputed 2018 general election. Mnangagwa was re-elected in the August 2023 general election with 52.6% of the vote.
The following lists events that happened during 2007 in Zimbabwe.
Patrick Antony Chinamasa is a Zimbabwean politician who served in the government of Zimbabwe as the minister of various cabinet ministries. Previously he served as the Minister of Finance and Investment Promotion and the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.
Zimbabwe began experiencing a period of considerable political and economic upheaval in 1999. Opposition to President Mugabe and the ZANU-PF government grew considerably after the mid-1990s in part due to worsening economic and human rights conditions. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was established in September 1999 as an opposition party founded by trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai.
Robert Gabriel Mugabe was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) from 1975 to 1980 and led its successor political party, the ZANU – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF), from 1980 to 2017. Ideologically an African nationalist, during the 1970s and 1980s he identified as a Marxist–Leninist, and as a socialist after the 1990s.
Prior to 1994, immigrants from elsewhere faced discrimination and even violence in South Africa due competition for scarce economic opportunities. After majority rule in 1994, contrary to expectations, the incidence of xenophobia increased. In 2008, at least 62 people were killed in the xenophobic uprising and attacks. In 2015, another nationwide spike in xenophobic attacks against immigrants in general prompted a number of foreign governments to begin repatriating their citizens. A Pew Research poll conducted in 2018 showed that 62% of South Africans expressed negative sentiment about foreign nationals living and working in South Africa, believing that immigrants are a burden on society by taking jobs and social benefits and that 61% of South Africans thought that immigrants were more responsible for crime than other groups. There is no factual evidence to substantiate the notion that immigrants are the main culprits of criminal activity in South Africa, even though the claim is incorrectly made in sometimes by politicians and public figures. Between 2010 and 2017 the number of foreigners living in South Africa increased from 2 million people to 4 million people. The proportion of South Africa's total population that is foreign born increased from 2.8% in 2005 to 7% in 2019, according to the United Nations International Organization for Migration, South Africa is the largest recipient of immigrants on the African continent.
The second round of voting in the Zimbabwean presidential election of 2008 was held between Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai after the first round failed to produce a 50% majority for either candidate. The election process was marred by violence against and intimidation of voters and party workers, which eventually led to the withdrawal of Tsvangirai from the poll. This left Mugabe as the winner of, effectively, a one-candidate election.
Morgan Richard Tsvangirai was a Zimbabwean politician who was Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 2009 to 2013. He was president of the Movement for Democratic Change, and later the Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai (MDC–T), and a key figure in the opposition to former president Robert Mugabe.
Anti-government protests were a series of protests in Cambodia from July 2013 to July 2014. Popular demonstrations in Phnom Penh took place against the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, triggered by widespread allegations of electoral fraud during the Cambodian general election of 2013. Demands to raise the minimum wage to $160 a month and resentment at Vietnamese influence in Cambodia have also contributed to the protests. The main opposition party refused to participate in parliament after the elections, and major demonstrations took place throughout December 2013. A government crackdown in January 2014 led to the deaths of 4 people and the clearing of the main protest camp.
General elections were held in Zimbabwe on 29 March 2008 to elect the President and Parliament. Because of Zimbabwe's dire economic situation, the elections were expected to provide incumbent President Robert Mugabe with his toughest electoral challenge to date. Mugabe's opponents were critical of the handling of the electoral process, and the government was accused of planning to rig the election. Human Rights Watch said that the election was likely to be "deeply flawed."
The 2016–2017 Zimbabwe protests began in Zimbabwe on 6 July 2016. Thousands of Zimbabweans protested government repression, poor public services, high unemployment, widespread corruption and delays in civil servants receiving their salaries. A national strike, named "stay-away day," began on 6 July and subsequent protests took place across the country and diaspora.
In November 2017, Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe was removed as president and party leader of ZANU–PF and was replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Public protests took place in several cities in Iran beginning on 28 December 2017 and continued into early 2018, sometimes called the Dey protests. The first protest took place in Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city by population, initially focused on the economic policies of the country's government; as protests spread throughout the country, their scope expanded to include political opposition to the theocratic regime of Iran and its longtime Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. The Iranian public showcased their fury in the protests with a wide repertoire of chants aimed at the regime and its leadership. According to The Washington Post, protesters' chants and attacks on government buildings upended a system that had little tolerance for dissent, with some demonstrators even shouting "Death to the dictator!"—referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei—and asking security forces to join them.
Evan Mawarire is a Zimbabwean pastor and democratic activist. He came to prominence during the 2016–17 Zimbabwe protests that challenged the rule of Robert Mugabe’s government. It was reported that Mawarire urged the people of Zimbabwe to remain defiant and refuse to return to work after the protests. In late 2017, it was reported by BBC News that Mawarire was acquitted by a Zimbabwe court where he faced a potential 20-year prison sentence if convicted for allegedly trying to overthrow Robert Mugabe. Thousands turned up at his hearing sparking a spontaneous social movement that challenged corruption, injustice and poverty On 13 July 2017 at least 150 lawyers stood up in court to represent Mawarire, while thousands amassed outside a Harare courthouse.
Protests began in Zimbabwe on 14 January 2019 following a 130% increase in the price of fuel imposed by the government of Emmerson Mnangagwa. Thousands of Zimbabweans protested against the price increase, along with increasing levels of poverty, the poor state of the economy, and declining standards of living. The government responded with a coordinated crackdown that resulted in hundreds of arrests and multiple deaths. The protests stopped after three days; by 17 January, businesses started reopening as the protests ended.
The 2019 Johannesburg riots occurred in the South African city of Johannesburg from 1–5 September 2019, leading to the deaths of at least seven people. The riots were xenophobic in nature, targeting foreign nationals from other African countries. Retaliatory actions by rioters in other African nations was taken against South African brands. The South African Institute of Race Relations stated that the riots were similar in nature and origin to the 2008 xenophobic riots that also occurred in Johannesburg.
The #ThisFlag movement is a social and political movement stemming from disapproval of the falling economic conditions of Zimbabwe. The name of the hashtag originated from Pastor Evan Mawarire's 2016 online video in which he reflects over the symbolism behind the flag of Zimbabwe. Many people related to the sentiment of the video, sparking thousands of views on his video and followers in Mawarire's calls for peaceful protests against the Mugabe administration.