Latest news about crime and security in Zimbabwe. Information about the black market is collected from various public sources.
An illegal logger told a reporter that he is able to make around $150 a month from illegally cutting down 10 trees in Zimbabwe.
Government officials estimate that illegal logging in the country causes several millions of dollars in lost tax revenue.
Source: “‘Illegal logging costs Zim millions of dollars’”, Standard, August 20, 2012.
Wildlife trafficking of Rhinos led to 95 percent of all rhino poaching in Africa between 2006 and 2009 to take place in Zimbabwe (235 Rhinos killed) and South Africa (210 Rhinos killed).
Source: “‘Global surge’ in rhino poaching,” BBC News, December 1, 2009.
The killings of rhinos in Africa was at a 15-year high in 2009.
In addition, in 2009 there were 3 times as many rhinos being poached per month in South Africa and Zimbabwe than the average of poached rhinos for all of Africa between 2000 and 205.
Around 120 rhinos were killed by wildlife traffickers in Zimbabwe between March 2008 and June 2009. The rhinos were killed by the traffickers in order to meet the demand in China’s for rhino horns.
There were between 400 to 700 rhinos left in Zimbabwe in 2009.
(Price of endangered animals around the world.)
Source: David Smith, “Poachers wiping out Zimbabwe’s rhinos as demand surges,” Guardian, June 9, 2009.
Software piracy and other forms of copyright piracy costs the Zimbabwe economy up to $4 million a year.
Up to 92 percent of all software used in Zimbabwe is pirated, according to the Business Software Alliance.
Source: Ish Mafundikawa, “Zimbabwe Among Top Software Piracy Countries,” Voice of America News, June 4, 2009.
