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Robert Gabriel Mugabe (born 21 February 1924) is the second and current President of Zimbabwe. One of the leaders of the liberation movement against white minority rule, he was elected into power as the head of government since 1980, as Prime Minister from 1980 to 1987, and as the first executive head of state since 1987. Mugabe rose to prominence in the 1960s as the Secretary General of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) during the conflict against the white minority rule regime of Ian Smith. Mugabe was a political prisoner in Rhodesia for more than 10 years between 1964 to 1974. Upon release with Edgar Tekere, Mugabe left Rhodesia in 1975 to re-join the Zimbabwe Liberation Struggle (Rhodesian Bush War) from bases in Mozambique. At the end of the war in 1979, Mugabe emerged as a hero in the minds of many Africans. He
won the general elections of 1980, the second in which the majority of
Black Africans participated in large numbers (though the electoral
system in Rhodesia had allowed Black participation based on qualified
franchise). Mugabe then became the first Prime Minister after calling for reconciliation between formerly warring parties, including the white people as well as rival parties. The
years following Zimbabwe's independence saw a split between the two key
belligerents who had fought alongside each other during the 1970s
against the government of Rhodesia. An armed conflict between Mugabe's
Government and dissident followers of Joshua Nkomo's pro-Marxist ZAPU erupted.
Following the deaths of thousands, neither warring faction able to
defeat the other, the heads of the opposing movements reached a
landmark agreement, whence was created a new ruling party, ZANU PF, as
a merger between the two former rivals. In 1998, Mugabe's government supported the Southern African Development Community's intervention in the Second Congo War by
sending Zimbabwean troops to assist the Kabila government. Since 2000,
the Mugabe-led government embarked on a controversial fast-track land reform program intended to correct the inequitable land distribution created by colonial rule. Mugabe's
policies have been condemned in some quarters at home and abroad,
especially receiving harsh criticism from the British and American
governments arguing they amount to an often violent land seizure.
Eventually a wide range of sanctions was imposed by the US government and European Union against the person of Mugabe, individuals, private companies, parastatals and the government of Zimbabwe.
The period has been marked by the deterioration of the Zimbabwean
economic situation. In
2008, his party suffered a tight defeat in national parliamentary
elections, but after disputed presidential elections, Mugabe retained
presidential power with the signing of a power sharing deal with
opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara of the MDC-T
and MDC-M opposition party. Robert Gabriel Mugabe was born near Kutama Mission in the Zvimba District northwest of Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia to
a Malawian father Gabriel Matibili and a Shona mother Bona. He had two
older brothers, and one of them, Michael, was very popular in the
village. Both his older brothers died when he was young, leaving Robert
and his younger brother, Donato. His father, Gabriel Matibili, a carpenter, abandoned the Mugabe family in 1934 after Michael died, in search of work in Bulawayo. Mugabe was raised as a Roman Catholic, studying in Marist Brothers and Jesuit schools, including the exclusive Kutama College,
headed by an Irish priest, Father Jerome O'Hea, who took him under his
wing. Through his youth, Mugabe was never socially popular nor
physically active and spent most of his time with the priests or his
mother when he was not reading in the school's libraries. He was
described as never playing with other children but enjoying his own
company. He qualified as a teacher, but left to study at Fort Hare in South Africa graduating in 1951, while meeting contemporaries such as Julius Nyerere, Herbert Chitepo, Robert Sobukwe and Kenneth Kaunda. He then studied at the University of Oxford in 1952, Salisbury (1953), Gwelo (1954), and Tanzania (1955 – 1957). Originally graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Fort Hare in
1951, Mugabe subsequently earned six further degrees through distance
learning including a Bachelor of Administration and Bachelor of
Education from the University of South Africa and a Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Laws, Master of Science, and Master of Laws, all from the University of London External Programme. The two Law degrees were earned while he was in prison, the Master of Science degree earned during his premiership of Zimbabwe. After graduating, Mugabe lectured at Chalimbana Teacher Training College, in Zambia from 1955 – 1958, thereafter he taught at Apowa Secondary School at Takoradi, in the Western region of Ghana after completing his local certification at Achimota School (1958 – 1960), where he met Sally Hayfron, whom he married in April 1961. During his stay in Ghana, he was influenced and inspired by Ghana's then Prime Minister, Kwame Nkrumah. In addition, Mugabe and some of his Zimbabwe African National Union party cadres received instruction at the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute, then at Winneba in southern Ghana. Mugabe returned to Southern Rhodesia and joined the National Democratic Party (NDP) in 1960. The administration of Prime Minister Ian Smith banned the NDP when it later became Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU).
Mugabe left ZAPU in 1963 to join the rival Zimbabwe African National
Union (ZANU) which had been formed in 1963 by the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole, Edgar Tekere, Edson Zvobgo, Enos Nkala and lawyer Herbert Chitepo. ZANU was influenced by the Africanist ideas of the Pan Africanist Congress in South Africa and influenced by Maoism while ZAPU was an ally of the African National Congress and was a supporter of a more orthodox pro-Soviet line on national liberation. Similar divisions can also be seen in the liberation movement in Angola between the MPLA and UNITA. It would have been easy for the party to split along tribal lines between the Ndebele and Mugabe's own Shona tribe,
but cross-tribal representation was maintained by his partners. ZANU
leader Sithole nominated Robert Mugabe as his Secretary General. In
1964 Mugabe was arrested for “subversive speech” and spent the next 11
years in Salisbury prison. During that period he earned three degrees,
including a law degree from London and a bachelor of administration
from the University of South Africa by correspondence courses. Smith
did not allow Mugabe out of prison to attend the funeral of Mugabe's
four-year-old son. In 1974, while still in prison, Mugabe was elected — with the powerful influence of Edgar Tekere — to take over the reins of ZANU after a no-confidence vote was passed on Ndabaningi Sithole - Mugabe himself abstained from voting. His time in prison burnished his reputation and helped his cause. Following
a South African détente initiative, Mugabe was released from
prison in November 1974 along with other Nationalist leaders and having
initially travelled to Zambia, where he was ignored by Kenneth Kaunda,
returned then left once again in April 1975 for Mozambique assisted by
a Dominican nun, where he was later placed in temporary protective
custody by President Samora Machel. According to Eddie Cross who
participated in interviews of the leadership at that time to determine
their views on the "longer term future", Mugabe's political viewpoint
was that "a new 'progressive' society could not be constructed on the
foundations of the past [and] that they would have to destroy most of
what had been built up after 1900 before a new society, based on
subsistence and peasant values could be constructed". Mugabe
unilaterally assumed control of ZANU after the death of Herbert Chitepo
on 18 March 1975. Later that year, after squabbling with Ndabaningi Sithole, Mugabe formed a militant ZANU faction, leaving Sithole to lead the moderate Zanu (Ndonga) party.
Many opposition leaders mysteriously died during this time (Including
one who allegedly died in a car crash, although the car was rumoured to
have been riddled with bullet holes at the scene of the accident). Additionally, an opposing newspaper's printing press was bombed and its journalists tortured. Persuasion from B.J. Vorster, himself under pressure from Henry Kissinger, forced Ian Smith,
the sitting prime minister at the time, to accept in principle that
white minority rule could not continue indefinitely. On 3 March 1978
Bishop Abel Muzorewa, Ndabaningi Sithole and other moderate leaders signed an agreement at the Governor's Lodge in
Salisbury, which paved the way for an interim power sharing government,
in preparation for elections. The elections were won by the United African National Council under Bishop Abel Muzorewa, but international recognition did not follow and sanctions were not lifted. The two 'Patriotic Front' groups under Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo refused to participate and continued the war. The incoming government did accept an invitation to talks at Lancaster House in
September 1979. A ceasefire was negotiated for the talks, which were
attended by Smith, Mugabe, Nkomo, Zvobgo and others. Eventually the
parties to the talks agreed on a new constitution for a new Republic of
Zimbabwe with elections in February 1980. The Lancaster Agreement saw
Mugabe make two important and contentious concessions. First, he
allowed 20 seats to be reserved for whites in the new Parliament, and
second, he agreed to a ten year moratorium on constitutional
amendments. His return to Zimbabwe in December 1979, following the
completion of the Lancaster House Agreement, was greeted with enormous
supportive crowds. After
a campaign marked by intimidation from all sides, mistrust from
security forces and reports of full ballot boxes found on the road, the Shona majority
was decisive in electing Mugabe to head the first government as prime
minister on 4 March 1980. ZANU won 57 out of 80 Common Roll seats in
the new parliament, with the 20 white seats all going to the Rhodesian Front. Mugabe, whose political support came from his Shona-speaking homeland
in the north, attempted to build Zimbabwe on a basis of an uneasy coalition with his ZAPU rivals, whose support came from the Ndebele-speaking
south, and with the white minority. Mugabe sought to incorporate ZAPU
into his ZANU led government and ZAPU's military wing into the army.
ZAPU's leader, Joshua Nkomo, was given a series of cabinet positions in
Mugabe's government. However, Mugabe was torn between this objective
and pressures to meet the expectations of his own ZANU followers for a
faster pace of social change. In 1983, Mugabe fired Nkomo from his cabinet, triggering bitter fighting between ZAPU supporters in the Ndebele-speaking region of the country and the ruling ZANU. Mugabe accused the Ndebele tribe of plotting to overthrow him after sacking Nkomo. Between 1982 and 1985, the military crushed armed resistance from Ndebele groups in the provinces of Matabeleland and the Midlands, leaving Mugabe's rule secure. Mugabe has been accused by the BBC's Panorama programme
of committing mass murder during this period of his rule, after the
show investigated claims made by political activist Gary Jones that Mugabe had been instrumental in removing him and his family from his farmland. A peace accord was negotiated in 1987. ZAPU merged into the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) on 22 December 1988. Mugabe brought Nkomo into the government once again as a vice-president. In
1987, the position of Prime Minister was abolished and Mugabe assumed
the new office of executive President of Zimbabwe gaining additional
powers in the process. He was re-elected in 1990 and 1996, and in 2002
amid claims of widespread vote-rigging and intimidation. Mugabe's term
of office expired at the end of March 2008, but he was re-elected later
in 2008 in another election marred by allegations of election fraud and
intimidation. Mugabe has been the Chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe since Parliament passed the University of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill in November 1990. There
were major outbreaks of violence between ZIPRA and ZANLA awaiting
integration into the National Army. ZAPU was believed to have been
planning an armed revolt to make up for ZAPU's poor showing in the 1980
elections. Major
arms caches were discovered in early 1982, and this caused a final rift
between ZANU and ZAPU. Some believe that this was engineered by South
African agents. South Africa's policy of destabilising Zimbabwe by
military means, while blaming ZAPU for the actions of South African
agents, helped to escalate the breakdown between ZAPU and ZANU in the
early 1980s. This in turn led Zimbabwe to retain a state of emergency
throughout the 1980s. According to a report by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe's Fifth Brigade killed about 20,000 people. During
the 1980s Mugabe's policies were largely socialist in orientation. In
1980 and 1981 the Zimbabwean economy showed strong growth due to the
end of the Bush War and the lifting of international sanctions.
However, from 1982 - 1989 economic growth averaged just 2.7%. This
compared unfavourably with the 6.7% average growth rate that the white
minority government maintained from 1966 - 1972 despite economic
sanctions.
The economy continued to stagnate into the 1990s and attempts at market
reform were unsuccessful. Since 2000, GDP has declined by roughly 40%
in part due to land reform and hyperinflation. According to a 1995 World Bank report,
after independence, "Zimbabwe gave priority to human resource
investments and support for smallholder agriculture," and as a result,
"smallholder agriculture expanded rapidly during the first half of the
1980s and social indicators improved quickly." From 1980 to 1990 infant mortality decreased
from 86 to 49 per 1000 live births, under five mortality was reduced
from 128 to 58 per 1000 live births, and immunisation increased from
25% to 80% of the population. Also, "child malnutrition fell from 22%
to 12% and life expectancy increased from 56 to 64. By 1990, Zimbabwe
had a lower infant mortality rate, higher adult literacy and higher
school enrolment rate than average for developing countries". In 1991, the government of Zimbabwe, short on hard currency and under international pressure, embarked on an austerity program.
The World Bank's 1995 report explained that such reforms were required
because Zimbabwe was unable to absorb into its labour market the many
graduates from its impressive education system and that it needed to
attract additional foreign investments. The reforms, however,
undermined the livelihoods of Zimbabwe's poor majority; the report
noted "large segments of the population, including most smallholder
farmers and small scale enterprises, find themselves in a vulnerable
position with limited capacity to respond to evolving market
opportunities. This is due to their limited access to natural,
technical and financial resources, to the contraction of many public
services for smallholder agriculture, and to their still nascent links
with larger scale enterprises." Moreover,
these people were forced to live on marginal lands as Zimbabwe's best
lands were reserved for mainly white landlords growing cash crops for
export, a sector of the economy favoured by the IMF's plan. For the
poor on the communal lands, "existing levels of production in these
areas are now threatened by the environmental fragility of the natural
resource base and the unsustainability of existing farming practices". The International Monetary Fund later suspended aid, saying reforms were "not on track." According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), life expectancy at birth for Zimbabwean men has since become 37 years
and is 34 years for women, the lowest such figures for any nation. The
World Bank's 1995 report predicted this decline in life expectancy from
its 1990 height of 64 years when, commenting on health care system cuts
mandated by the IMF structural adjustment programme, it stated that
"The decline in resources is creating strains and threatening the
sustainability of health sector achievements". While
Zimbabwe has suffered in many other measures under Mugabe, as a former
schoolteacher he has been well-known for his commitment to education. As of 2008, Zimbabwe had a literacy rate of 90%, the highest in Africa. However, Catholic Archbishop of Zimbabwe Pius Ncube decried
the educational situation in the country, saying, among other scathing
indictments of Mugabe, "We had the best education in Africa and now our
schools are closing". Prior to its suspension in 2009, the Zimbabwe dollar had suffered from the second highest hyperinflation rate of any currency in modern times.
Mugabe has been uncompromising in his opposition to homosexuality. In September 1995, Zimbabwe's parliament introduced legislation banning homosexual acts. In 1997, a court found Canaan Banana, Mugabe's predecessor and the first President of Zimbabwe, guilty of 11 counts of sodomy and indecent assault. Mugabe was blamed for Zimbabwe's participation in the Second Congo War in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At a time when the Zimbabwean economy was struggling, Zimbabwe responded to a call by the Southern African Development Community to help the struggling regime in Kinshasa. The Democratic Republic of the Congo had been invaded by Rwanda and Uganda,
both of which claimed that their civilians, and regional stability,
were under constant threat of attack by Rwandan Hutu militiamen based
in the Congo. However, the Congolese government, as well as international commentators,
charged that the motive for the invasion was to grab the rich mineral
resources of eastern Congo. The
war raised accusations of corruption, with officials alleged to be
plundering the Congo's mineral reserves. Mugabe's defence minister Moven Mahachi said,
"Instead of our army in the DRC burdening the treasury for more
resources, which are not available, it embarks on viable projects for
the sake of generating the necessary revenue". When Zimbabwe gained independence, 46.5% of the country's arable land was owned by around 6,000 commercial farmers. Mugabe
accepted a "willing buyer, willing seller" plan as part of the
Lancaster House Agreement of 1979, among other concessions to the white
minority. As part of this agreement, land redistribution was blocked for a period of 10 years. In 1997, the new British government led by Tony Blair unilaterally stopped funding the "willing buyer, willing seller" land reform programme on the basis that the initial £44 million allocated under the Thatcher government
was used to purchase land for members of the ruling elite rather than
landless peasants. Furthermore, Britain's ruling Labour Party felt no
obligation to continue paying white farmers compensation, or in minister Clare Short's
words, "I should make it clear that we do not accept that Britain has a
special responsibility to meet the costs of land purchase in Zimbabwe.
We are a new Government from diverse backgrounds without links to
former colonial interests. My own origins are Irish and as you know we
were colonised not colonisers". Some commentators, such as Matthew Sweet in The Independent, hold Cecil Rhodes ultimately responsible: ...
It was Cecil Rhodes who originated the racist 'land grabs' to which
Zimbabwe's current miseries can ultimately be traced. It was Rhodes who
in 1887 told the House Of Assembly in Cape Town, South Africa that 'the
native is to be treated as a child and denied the franchise. We must
adopt a system of despotism in our relations with the barbarians of
Southern Africa'. According to Sweet, "In less oratorical moments, he put it even more bluntly: 'I prefer land to niggers.'" From 12 to 13 February 2000, a referendum on constitutional amendments
was held. The proposed amendments would have limited future presidents
to two terms, but as it was not retroactive, Mugabe could have stood
for another two terms. It also would have made his government and
military officials immune from prosecution for any illegal acts
committed while in office. In addition, it allowed the government to
confiscate white-owned land for redistribution to black farmers without
compensation. The motion failed with 55% of participants against the
referendum. The referendum had a 20% turnout fuelled by an effective SMS campaign. Mugabe declared that he would "abide by the will of the people". The vote was a surprise to ZANU-PF, and an embarrassment before parliamentary elections due in mid April. Almost immediately, self-styled "war veterans", led by Chenjerai 'Hitler' Hunzvi,
began invading white-owned farms. Those who did not leave voluntarily
were often tortured and sometimes killed. One was forced to drink
diesel fuel as a form of torture. On
6 April 2000, Parliament pushed through an amendment, taken word for
word from the draft constitution that was rejected by voters, allowing
the seizure of white-owned farmlands without due reimbursement or
payment. Since
these actions, agricultural production has plummeted and the economy is
crippled. Once the "bread basket" of southern Africa and a major
agricultural exporter, Zimbabwe now depends on food programs and
support from outside to feed its population. A third of the population depends on food supplies from the World Food Programme to avoid starvation. On 8 December 2003, in protest against a further 18 months of suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations (thereby cutting foreign aid to Zimbabwe), Mugabe withdrew his country from the Commonwealth. Mugabe informed the leaders of Jamaica, Nigeria and
South Africa of his decision when they telephoned him to discuss the
situation. Zimbabwe's government said the President did not accept the
Commonwealth's position, and was leaving the group. The
United Nations provoked anger when its Food and Agriculture
Organisation invited Mugabe to speak at a celebration of its 60th
anniversary in Rome. Critics of the move argued that since Mugabe could
not feed his own people without the UN's support, he was an
inappropriate speaker for the group, which has a mission statement of
"helping to build a world without hunger". In
2005, Mugabe ordered a raid conducted on what the government termed
"illegal shelters" in Harare, resulting in 10,000 urban poor being left
homeless from "Operation Murambatsvina (English:
Operation Drive Out the Rubbish)." The authorities themselves had moved
the poor inhabitants to the area in 1992, telling them not to build
permanent homes and that their new homes were temporary, leading the
inhabitants to build their own temporary shelters out of cardboard and
wood. Since
the inhabitants of the shantytowns overwhelmingly supported the
Movement for Democratic Change opposition party in the previous
election, many alleged that the mass bulldozing was politically
motivated. The UK's Daily Telegraph noted that Mugabe's "latest palace," in the style of a pagoda, was located a mile from the destroyed shelters. The
UN released a report stating that the actions of Mugabe resulted in the
loss of home or livelihood for more than 700,000 Zimbabweans and
negatively affected 2.4 million more. As of September 2006, Mugabe's family owns three farms: Highfield Estate in Norton, 45 km west of Harare, Iron Mask Estate in Mazowe, about 40 km from Harare, and Foyle Farm in Mazowe, formerly owned by Ian Webster and adjacent to Iron Mask Farm, renamed to Gushungo Farm after Mugabe's own clan name. These farms were seized forcibly from their previous owners. Mugabe blames the food shortages on drought and the cumulative effect of sanctions imposed against the country. In
April 1979, 64% of the black citizens of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) lined
up at the polls to vote in the first democratic election in the history
of that southern African nation. Two-thirds of them supported Abel
Muzorewa, a bishop in the United Methodist Church. He was the first
black prime minister of a country only 4% white. Muzorewa's victory put
an end to the 14-year political odyssey of outgoing prime minister Ian
Smith, who had infamously announced in 1976, "I do not believe in black
majority rule — not in a thousand years." Less
than a year after Muzorewa's victory, however, in February 1980,
another election was held in Zimbabwe. This time, Robert Mugabe, the
Marxist who had fought a seven-year guerilla war against Rhodesia's
white-led government, won 64% of the vote, after a campaign marked by
widespread intimidation, outright violence, and Mugabe's threat to
continue the civil war if he lost. Mugabe became prime minister and was
toasted by the international community and media as a new sort of
African leader. Mugabe
has continued to win elections, although frequently these have been
criticised by outsiders for violating various electoral procedures. Mugabe faced Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in presidential elections in March 2002. Mugabe
defeated Tsvangirai by 56.2% to 41.9% amid violence and the prevention
of large numbers of citizens in urban areas from voting. The conduct of
the elections was widely viewed internationally as having been
manipulated. Many
groups, such as the United Kingdom, the European Union, the United
States, and Tsvangirai's party, assert that the result was rigged. Mugabe's ZANU-PF party won the 2005 parliamentary elections with
an increased majority. The elections were said by (again) South African
observers to "reflect the free will of the people of Zimbabwe", despite
accusations of widespread fraud from the MDC. On 6 February 2007, Mugabe orchestrated a cabinet reshuffle, ousting ministers including five-year veteran finance minister Herbert Murerwa. On 11 March 2007, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was
arrested and beaten following a prayer meeting in the Harare suburb of
Highfields. Another member of the Movement for Democratic Change was
killed while other protesters were injured. Mugabe
claimed that "Tsvangirai deserved his beating-up by police because he
was not allowed to attend a banned rally" on 30 March 2007. Mugabe launched his election campaign on his birthday in Beitbridge, a small town on the border with South Africa on 23 February 2008 by denouncing both the opposition MDC and Simba Makoni's candidacy. He was quoted in the state media as saying: "Dr Makoni lacked majority support while Mr Tsvangirai was in the presidential race simply to please his Western backers in exchange for money". These are the charges he has used in the past to describe the leader of the opposition. In the week Dr. Makoni launched his campaign for the presidency, he accused Mugabe of buying votes from the electorate. This was a few hours after Dumiso Dabengwa had come out and endorsed Dr. Makoni's candidature. The
presidential elections were conducted on 29 March 2008, together with
the parliamentary elections. On 2 April 2008, the Zimbabwe Election
Commission confirmed that Mugabe and his party, known as ZANU-PF, had
lost control of Parliament to the main opposition party, the Movement
for Democratic Change. This was confirmed when the results were
released. Both the opposition and his party challenged the results in some constituencies. According to unofficial polling, Zanu-PF took 94 seats, and the main opposition party MDC took 96 seats. On
3 April 2008 Zimbabwean government forces began cracking down on the
main opposition party and arrested at least two foreign journalists,
who were covering the disputed presidential election, including a
correspondent for the New York Times. On
30 March 2008, Mugabe convened a meeting with his top security
officials to discuss his defeat in the elections. According to the Washington Post,
he was prepared to concede, but was advised by Zimbabwe's military
chief Gen. Constantine Chiwenga to remain in the race, with the senior
military officers "supervising a military-style campaign against the
opposition". The
first phase of the plan started a week later, involving the building of
2,000 party compounds across Zimbabwe, to serve as bases for the party
militias. On an 8 April 2008 meeting, the military plan was given the code name of "CIBD", which stood for: "Coercion. Intimidation. Beating. Displacement." The official results for the presidential elections would be delayed for five weeks. When British Prime Minister Gordon Brown attempted to intervene into the election controversy, Mugabe dismissed him as "a little tiny dot on this planet". When
the official results for the presidential elections were finally
published by the Zimbabwe election commission on 2 May 2008, they
showed that Mr. Mugabe had lost in the first round, getting 1,079,730
votes (43.2%) against 1,195,562 (47.9%) collected by Mr. Tsvangirai.
Therefore no candidate secured the final win in the first round, and a
presidential run-off will be needed. The opposition called the results
"scandalous daylight robbery", claiming an outright victory in the
first round with 50.3% of the votes. Mugabe's run-off campaign was managed by Emerson Mnangagwa, a former security chief of the conflict of Gukurahundi. The Washington Post asserts
that the campaign of violence was bringing results to the ruling party,
by crushing the opposition party MDC and coercion of its supporters. By
20 June 2008, the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights had
"recorded 85 deaths in political violence since the first round of
voting". News organizations report that, by the date of the second-round election,
more than 80 opposition supporters had been killed, hundreds more were
missing, in addition to thousands injured, and hundreds of thousands
driven from their homes. Zimbabwean
officials alleged that activists of the MDC, disguised as ZANU-PF
members, had perpetrated violence against the population, mimicking the
tactics of the Selous Scouts during the liberation struggle. They alleged that there was a "predominance" of Selous Scouts in the MDC. The Sunday Mail published
an article which claimed that former Selous Scouts were training MDC
youth activists in violent tactics, at locations near Tswane (Pretoria) and Pietermaritzburg in South Africa. In addition, at least 100 officials and polling officers of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission were arrested after the first round election. Tsvangirai initially agreed to a presidential run-off with Robert Mugabe, but
later withdrew (on 22 June 2008), citing violence targeted at his
campaign. He complained that the elections were pointless, as the
outcome would be determined by Mugabe himself. The
run-off election was held on 27 June 2008, and Zimbabwe’s Electoral
Commission released the results two days later. The official results
showed that Mugabe had managed to double his votes since the first
round, to 2,150,269 votes (85.5%), while his opponent Tsvangirai
obtained only 233,000 (9.3%). However
Tsvangirai had pulled out previously because of widespread violence
from the ZANU-PF's forces. The violence includes beating, rape and
others. Many voted because if they didn't they could face violence
against them. Although witnesses and election monitors had reported a
low turnout in many areas of the country, the official tally showed that the total vote had increased, from 2,497,265 votes in the first round to 2,514,750 votes in the second round. Two legal opinions commissioned by the Southern African Litigation Centre (SALC) declared
the run-off election illegal because it occurred outside the 21 day
period within which it had to take place under Zimbabwean law. Under
item 3(1)(b) of the Second Schedule of the Electoral Act, if no second
election is held within 21 days of the first election, the candidate
with the highest number of votes in the first election has been duly
elected as President and must be declared as such. According to the
figures released by Zimbabwe’s Electoral Commission, that would mean
that Morgan Tsvangirai is the de jure President. Mugabe's
inauguration to his sixth presidential term of office was a hastily
arranged ceremony, convened barely an hour after the electoral commission declared his victory on 29 June 2008. None
of his fellow African heads of state were present at his inauguration;
there were only family members, ministers, and security chiefs in the
guests' tent. The
Zimbabwean military, and not President Robert Mugabe, is now running
the troubled country, in the opinion of a South Africa-based NGO called
the Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum (ZSF) - 10 Jul 2008. The
United Kingdom announced a policy of seizing foreign assets belonging
to Mugabe. Mugabe replied that he has no foreign assets to seize. HSBC proceeded
to seize the bank account of Sam Mugabe, a 23-year old British subject
of Zimbabwean origin, no relation to Robert Mugabe. The HSBC bank which
carried out the seizure of her account subsequently apologised. On 20 December, despite increased criticism and pressure to resign, Mugabe averred during ZANU-PF's tenth annual conference in Bindura, some eighty kilometres north of Harare, that he would brook no such thing. Since
1998 Mugabe's policies have increasingly elicited domestic and
international denunciation. They have been denounced as racist against Zimbabwe's white minority. Mugabe has described his critics as "born again colonialists", and both he and his supporters claim that Zimbabwe's problems are the legacy of imperialism, aggravated by Western economic meddling. According to The Herald, a Zimbabwean newspaper owned by the government, the U.K. is pursuing a policy of regime change. Mugabe's critics accuse him of conducting a "reign of terror" and being an "extremely poor role model" for the continent, whose "transgressions are unpardonable". In solidarity with the April 2007 general strike called by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), British Trades Union Congress General Secretary Brendan Barber said
of Mugabe's regime: 'Zimbabwe's people are suffering from Mugabe's
appalling economic mismanagement, corruption, and brutal repression.
They are standing up for their rights, and we must stand with them."
Lela Kogbara, Chair of ACTSA (Action for Southern Africa) similarly has
said: "As with every oppressive regime women and workers are left
bearing the brunt. Please join us as we stand in solidarity with the
people of Zimbabwe in their struggle for peace, justice and freedom". Robert Guest, the Africa editor for The Economist for
seven years, argues that Mugabe is to blame for Zimbabwe's economic
freefall. "In 1980, the average annual income in Zimbabwe was US$950,
and a Zimbabwean dollar was worth more than an American one. By 2003,
the average income was less than US$400, and the Zimbabwean economy was
in freefall. "Mugabe
has ruled Zimbabwe for nearly three decades and has led it, in that
time, from impressive success to the most dramatic peacetime collapse
of any country since Weimar Germany". In The Daily Telegraph, Mugabe was criticised for comparing himself to Hitler.
Mugabe was quoted as saying "This Hitler has only one objective:
justice for his people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the
independence of his people and their rights over their resources. If
that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold". In recent years, Western governments have condemned Mugabe's government. On 9 March 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush approved measures for economic sanctions to
be levelled against Mugabe and other high-ranking Zimbabwe politicians,
freezing their assets and barring Americans from engaging in any
transactions or dealings with them. Justifying the move, Bush's
spokesman stated that the President and Congress believe that "the
situation in Zimbabwe endangers the southern African region and
threatens to undermine efforts to foster good governance and respect
for the rule of law throughout the continent." The bill was known as the Zimbabwe Democracy Act. In
reaction to human rights violations in Zimbabwe, students at
universities from which Mugabe has honorary doctorates have sought to
get the degrees revoked. So far, the University of Edinburgh and University of Massachusetts have stripped Mugabe of his honorary degree after two years of campaigning from Edinburgh University Students' Association. In addition, the student body at Michigan State University (ASMSU) unanimously passed a resolution calling for this. The issue is now being considered by the university. Mugabe's office forbade the screening of the 2005 movie The Interpreter, claiming that it was propaganda by the CIA and fearing that it could incite hostility towards him. In 2007, Parade magazine ranked Mugabe the 7th worst dictator in the world. The same magazine ranked him worst dictator of the year 2009 two years later. An official from Chatham House suggested that Mugabe was unlikely to leave Zimbabwe, but that if he were to leave, he might go to Malaysia, where some believe that he has "stashed much of his wealth". In response to Mugabe's critics, former Zambian leader Kenneth Kaunda was quoted blaming not Mugabe for Zimbabwe's troubles, but successive British governments. He
wrote in June 2007 that "leaders in the West say Robert Mugabe is a
demon, that he has destroyed Zimbabwe and he must be got rid of – but
this demonising is made by people who may not understand what Robert
Gabriel Mugabe and his fellow freedom fighters went through". Similarly, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, responded to his critics by saying that Zimbabwe's problems are the legacy of colonialism. Mugabe's
supporters characterise him as a true Pan-Africanist and a dedicated
anti-imperialist who stands strong against forces of imperialism in
Africa. According to Mugabe's supporters, the Western media are not
objectively reporting on Zimbabwe, but are peddling falsehoods.
Mugabe's supporters accuse certain western governments of trying to
eradicate pan-Africanism in order to deny real independence to African countries by imposing client regimes. The Times charged
that on 12 June 2008, Mugabe's Militia murdered Dadirai Chipiro, the
wife of Mugabe's political opponent, Patson Chipiro, by burning her
alive with a petrol bomb after severing her hands and feet. After observers from the European Union were barred from examining Zimbabwe's 2002 elections, the EU imposed sanctions on
Mugabe and 94 members of his government, banning them from travelling
to participating countries and freezing any assets held there. The
United States instituted similar restrictions. The EU's ban has a few
loopholes, resulting in Mugabe taking a few trips into Europe despite
the ban. Mugabe is allowed to travel to UN events within European and
American borders. On 8 April 2005, Mugabe attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II, a move which could be seen as defiance of a European Union travel ban that does not, however, apply to Vatican City. He was granted a transit visa by the Italian authorities, as they are obliged to under the Concordat. However, the Catholic hierarchy in Zimbabwe have been very vocal against his rule and the senior Catholic cleric, Archbishop Pius Ncube is a major critic, even calling for Western governments to help in his overthrow. Mugabe surprised Prince Charles by
shaking his hand during the service. Afterwards, the Prince's office
released a statement saying, "The Prince of Wales was caught by
surprise and not in a position to avoid shaking Mr. Mugabe’s hand. The
Prince finds the current Zimbabwean regime abhorrent. He has supported
the Zimbabwe Defence and Aid Fund which works with those being
oppressed by the regime. The Prince also recently met Pius Ncube, the Archbishop of Bulawayo, an outspoken critic of the government". Before the ban, one of Mugabe's favorite pastimes was to travel to London. He
would take the train from London, Paddington Station, to Wrexham
central and walk over the mountains of the Vale Of Clwyd, towards the
coastal town of Rhyl. Mugabe has always loved the Welsh countryside,
and he walked along this route a number of times between 1984 - 1992. On
his final trip, he was presented with a Countryside Awareness Award,
for the money he donated to preserving the paths across the Clwydian
Range. Robert
Mugabe and senior members of the Harare government are not allowed to
travel to the United States because it is the position of the US
government that he has worked to undermine democracy in Zimbabwe and has restricted freedom of the press. Despite
strained political relations, the United States remains a leading
provider of humanitarian assistance to Zimbabwe, providing roughly
US$900 million in humanitarian assistance from 2002 – 2008, mostly food
aid. Because United Nations events are exempt from the travel bans, Mugabe attended the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
summit in Rome. African leaders threatened to boycott the event if
Mugabe were blacklisted; when he was not, the United Kingdom refused to
send a representative. British and Australian officials denounced the
presence of Mugabe. Because Mugabe is one of Africa's longest-lasting leaders, speculation has built over the years related to his succession. In
June 2005, a report that Mugabe had entered a hospital for tests on his
heart fuelled rumours that he had died of a heart attack. These reports were later dismissed by a Mugabe spokesman. Joyce Mujuru, recently elevated to vice-president of ZANU-PF during the December 2004 party congress and considerably younger than Joseph Msika,
the other vice-president, has been touted as a likely successor to
Mugabe. Mujuru's candidacy for the presidency is strengthened by the
backing of her husband, Solomon Mujuru, who is the former head of the Zimbabwean army. In
October 2006, a report prepared by Zimbabwe's Ministry of Economic
Development acknowledged the lack of coordination among critical
government departments in Zimbabwe and the overall lack of commitment
to end the crisis. The report implied that the infighting in Zanu-PF
over Mugabe's successor was also hurting policy formulation and
consistency in implementation. In late 2006, a plan was presented to postpone the next presidential election until
2010, at the same time as the next parliamentary election, thereby
extending Mugabe's term by two years. It was said that holding the two
elections together would be a cost saving measure, but the plan was not approved: there were reportedly objections from some in ZANU-PF to the idea. In
March 2007, Mugabe said that he thought that the feeling was in favour
of holding the two elections together in 2008 instead of 2010. He also
said that he would be willing to run for re-election again if the party
wanted him to do so. Other
leaders in southern Africa were rumoured to be less warm on the idea of
extending his term to 2010. On
30 March 2007, it was announced that the ZANU-PF central committee had
chosen Mugabe as the party's candidate for another term in 2008, that
presidential terms would be shortened to five years, and that the
parliamentary election would also be held in 2008. Mugabe
was chosen by acclamation as the party's presidential candidate for
2008 by ZANU-PF delegates at a party conference on 13 December 2007. At Zanu-PF's tenth annual conference in Bindura in December 2008, Mugabe spoke of his determination not to follow US president George W. Bush to his "political death" and
urged the party to ready itself for new polls. He also took the
opportunity once more to cite Britain as the source of Zimbabwe's woes. Recently, at independence celebrations in Ghana,
South African President Thabo Mbeki was rumoured to have met with
Mugabe in private and told him that "he was determined that South
Africa's hosting of the Football World Cup in 2010 should not be
disrupted by controversial presidential elections in Zimbabwe". On 11 September 2008, at the end of the fourth day of negotiations, South African President and mediator to Zimbabwe, Thabo Mbeki, announced in Harare that Robert Mugabe of Zanu-PF, Professor Arthur Mutambara and Morgan Tsvangirai (both of MDC) finally signed the power sharing agreement - "memorandum of understanding." Mbeki
stated: "An agreement has been reached on all items on the agenda ...
all of them [ Mugabe, Tsvangirai, Mutambara] endorsed the document
tonight, and signed it. The formal signing will be done on Monday 10am.
The document will be released then. The ceremony will be attended by SADC and
other African regional and continental leaders. The leaders will spend
the next few days constituting the inclusive government to be announced
on Monday. The leaders will work very hard to mobilise support for the
people to recover. We hope the world will assist so that this political
agreement succeeds." In the signed historic power deal, Mugabe, on 11
September 2008 agreed to surrender day-to-day control of the government
and the deal is also expected to result in a de facto amnesty for
the military and Zanu-PF party leaders. Opposition sources said
"Tsvangirai will become prime minister at the head of a council of
ministers, the principal organ of government, drawn from his Movement
for Democratic Change and the president's Zanu-PF party; and Mugabe
will remain president and continue to chair a cabinet that will be a
largely consultative body, and the real power will lie with Tsvangirai. South Africa’s Business Day reported, however, that Mugabe was refusing to sign a deal which would curtail his presidential powers. New York Times said
Nelson Chamisa, a spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change, announced: “This is an inclusive government. The executive
power would be shared by the president, the prime minister and the
cabinet. Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara have still not decided
how to divide the ministries. But Jendayi E. Frazer,
the American assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said:
“We don’t know what’s on the table, and it’s hard to rally for an
agreement when no one knows the details or even the broad outlines”. On 15 September 2008, the leaders of the 14-member SADC witnessed
the signing of the power sharing agreement, brokered by South African
leader Thabo Mbeki. With symbolic handshake and warm smiles at the
Rainbow Towers hotel in Harare, Mugabe, Mutambara and Tsvangirai signed
the deal to end violent political crisis provides. As provided, Robert
Mugabe will be recognised as president, Morgan Tsvangirai will become
prime minister, the MDC will control the police, Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) will command the Army, and Arthur Mutambara becomes deputy prime minister. Violence,
however, did not entirely subside with the power-sharing agreement. As
the New Your Times reports, Mugabe's top lieutenants started "trying to
force the political opposition into granting them amnesty for their
past crimes by abducting, detaining and torturing opposition officials
and activists." Dozens of members of the opposition and human rights
activists have been abducted and tortured in the months since October
2008, including Roy Bennett, the opposition’s third-highest ranking
official and Tsvangirai’s nominee for deputy agriculture minister
(arrested just two days after Tsvangirai was sworn in as prime minister
in 11 February 2009) and Chris Dhlamini, the opposition’s director of
security. In 1994 Mugabe was appointed an honorary Knight Grand Cross in the Order of the Bath by Queen Elizabeth II. This entitled him to use the postnominal letters GCB, but not to use the title "Sir." In the United Kingdom, the House of Commons Foreign
Affairs Select Committee called for the removal of this honour in 2003,
and on 25 June 2008, Queen Elizabeth II cancelled and annulled the
honorary knighthood after advice from the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom.
"This action has been taken as a mark of revulsion at the abuse of
human rights and abject disregard for the democratic process in
Zimbabwe over which President Mugabe has presided". Mugabe holds several honorary degrees and
doctorates from international universities, awarded to him in the
1980s; at least three of these have since been revoked. In June 2007,
he became the first international figure ever to be stripped of an
honorary degree by a British university, when the University of Edinburgh withdrew the degree awarded to him in 1984. On 12 June 2008, the University of Massachusetts Board
of Trustees voted to revoke the law degree awarded to Mugabe in 1986;
this is the first time one of its honorary degrees has been revoked. Similarly, on 12 September 2008, Michigan State University revoked an honorary law degree that it awarded Mugabe in 1990. His first wife, Sally Hayfron, died in 1992 from a chronic kidney ailment. Their
only son, Michael Nhamodzenyika Mugabe, born 27 September 1963, died on
26 December 1966 from cerebral malaria in Ghana where Sally was working
while Mugabe was in prison. Sally Mugabe was a trained teacher who
asserted her position as an independent political activist and
campaigner who
was seen as Mugabe's closest friend and advisor, and some critics
suggest that Mugabe began to misrule Zimbabwe after her death. On 17 August 1996, Mugabe married his former secretary, Grace Marufu,
41 years his junior, with whom he already had two children; she first
became pregnant by Mugabe while he was still married to his first wife,
Sally, and while Grace was married to another man, Stanley Goreraza, now a diplomat in China. Mugabe and Marufu were married in a Roman Catholic wedding Mass at Kutama College, a Catholic mission school he previously attended. Nelson Mandela and
Mugabe's two children by Grace were among the guests. The Mugabes have
three children: Bona, Robert Peter Jr. (although Robert Mugabe's middle
name is Gabriel) and Bellarmine Chatunga. As
First Lady, Grace has been the subject of criticism for her lifestyle.
When she was included in the 2002 EU travel sanctions on her husband,
one EU parliamentarian was quoted as saying that the ban "will stop
Grace Mugabe going on her shopping trips in the face of catastrophic
poverty blighting the people of Zimbabwe." |