Matabeleland area has important gold deposits. Industries include gold and other mineral mines, and engineering. There has been a decline in the industries in this region as water is in short supply. Promises by the government to draw water for the region through the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project have not been carried out. The region is allegedly marginalised by the government. Around the 10th and 11th centuries the Bantu-speaking Bakalanga arrived from the south and settled in Mapungubwe on the Limpopo and Shashi river valleys. Later they moved north to Great Zimbabwe. By the 15th century, the Bakalanga had established a
Matabeleland farms under Mugabe's program resulted in a 90% loss in productivity in large-scale farming, ever higher unemployment, and hyperinflation. White residents fled the country and strikes further crippled production, prompting ever more severe repression by the government. People in Matabeleland have described the 1980s massacres as genocide and insist they plan to have the perpetrators placed on trial at the International Criminal Court at The Hague. In 2006, the separatist Matabeleland Freedom Party (MFP) was founded by exiles living in Johannesburg South Africa. The MFP seeks a referendum to regain Matabeleland's independence, under a constitutional monarchy. The party has established