Zimbabwe (1983: Doomsday)

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Zimbabwe
Timeline: 1983: Doomsday
OTL equivalent: Zimbabwe

Flag Coat of Arms
Anthem	"Blessed be the land of Zimbabwe"
Capital (and largest city)	Harare

Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in southern Africa. Having survived Doomsday unharmed, due to good governance it has grown to become the most stable nation in this region of Africa, and a model for other countries in maintaining peace between blacks and whites in a nation.

History

Doomsday

Zimbabwe, in 1983, was a mostly stable country controlled by the Zimbabwe African National Union, with Robert Mugabe as Prime Minister. Having only become an independent country four years before the event of Doomsday, it was relatively stable and was growing steadily as demand for its exports increased internationally, while domestically there was high unrest in the largely Ndebele regions where a few hundred disgruntled former Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) combatants were waging armed banditry against the civilians in Matabeleland, to which the Fifth Brigade responding by killing civilians. Such unrest was beginning to threaten Zimbabwe's stable growth, which had steadily been growing since the elections in 1980.

However, with the onset of Doomsday, Zimbabwe faced the loss of its international markets as most countries in the northern hemisphere was wiped out. Fighting on both sides in what would come to be known as Gukurahundi grinded to a halt as party leaders became at a loss of what to do next. Within the next few months countries all around Zimbabwe suffered high unrest and/or collapsed, and it became clear to all the major parties in the nation that there would need to be discussions to ensure the unrest in the nation did not lead onto civil war. As a result, on May 14, 1984, the Zimbabwe African National Union and Zimbabwe African People's Union came together to discuss a compromise. Both parties' main supporters had been destroyed in the engulfing fire of Doomsday, removing any international support they enjoyed and loss of international markets meant that domestic stability was more important than ever.

Post-Doomsday

Almost immediately there were disagreements between both parties. Joshua Nkomo believed it would be more beneficial to the nation to have two parties which could help to counter-balance each other while Robert Mugabe had made it clear be believed two fellow socialist parties should come together to ensure further ethnic violence in the country did not take place. This point remained a cause for heated debate, until Nkomo finally agree to merge both parties to form the Patriotic Front. However, Nkomo was able to secure greater power for individual provinces, which allowed for the Ndebele to have greater power in their day to day running of their lives. The result was looked upon favourably, and Nkomo's popularity increased, while he took the position of Deputy Prime Minister. Other points were agreed on relatively easily, such as entering discussions with all parties over a constitutional convention along with outlawing all paramilitary groups to ensure the stability of the nation and the creation of a strong judiciary system to make sure corruption did not become a major problem.

With the creation of the Patriotic Front in the Unity Agreement of 1984, new laws were able to be passed through parliament with ease. Anti-corruption laws were signed into place by 1985 and a mimimum wage was established for those in the education and legistaive sectors, allowing for the safeguarding of workers in education and law. The government also put into place laws supporting the creation of a better health care system, in the hopes of preventing outbreaks of diseases such as cholera. However, the main focus was shifting economic focus into a more domestic role to make sure the economy did not collapse in the volatile state the world was in for a couple of years after Doomsday, and to ensure that Zimbabwe managed to get through the drought of the following years with no major impact.

Conventions and Stability

With the country stable by 1985, elections were called as the nation once again took to the voting booths to vote for the governing party. With the two largest parties from the previous elections untied unter the Patriotic Front, it was clear from the outset that the Patriotic Front was going to win the election. In their promises to the people, they had announced a constitutional convention would take place to engage with the white population of Zimbabwe and discuss things such as land ownership and representation in parliament. With this announcement, many whites in Zimbabwe grew worried and began to feel as if they would soon get sidelined from a country they could not leave.

However, things were not as one sided as they seemed.

Government

Zimbabwe is a Westminister-styled parliamentary system.

International Relations

Zimbabwe maintains a healthy relationship with most of its neighbours.