Former Zimbabwen Leader Robert Mugabe Dies. (A Liberator or Tyrant?)

A Liberator or Tyrant?

It\’s been reported that Robert Mugabe, the former president of Zimbabwe has died. He was 95 and had been ill for some time. He led Zimbabwe as prime minister and president for 37 years after the country was created from the white-minority ruled Rhodesia in 1980. Mr Mugabe\’s early years were praised for broadening access to health and education. But his later years were marked by rights abuses and corruption. BBC Newsday\’s Shaimaa Khalil spoke to Zimbabwe\’s Deputy Minister of Information, Energy Mutodi.

Mr Mugabe had been receiving treatment in a hospital in Singapore since April. He was ousted in a military coup in 2017 after 37 years in power.

The former president was praised for broadening access to health and education for the black majority.

But later years were marked by violent repression of his political opponents and Zimbabwe\’s economic ruin.

The country he finally led to independence was one of the continent\’s most promising, and for years Zimbabwe more or less flourished. But when the economy faltered, Mr Mugabe lost his nerve. He implemented a catastrophic land reform programme. Zimbabwe quickly slid into hyperinflation, isolation, and political chaos.

The security forces kept Mr Mugabe and his party, Zanu-PF, in power – mostly through terror. But eventually even the army turned against him, and pushed him out.

Few nations have ever been so bound, so shackled, to one man. For decades, Mugabe was Zimbabwe: a ruthless, bitter, sometimes charming man – who helped ruin the land he loved.

In 2000, he seized land from white owners, and in 2008, used violent militias to silence his political opponents during an election.

He famously declared that only God could remove him from office.

He was forced into sharing power in 2009 amid economic collapse, installing rival Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister.

But in 2017, amid concerns that he was grooming his wife Grace as his successor, the army – his long-time ally – turned against the president and forced him to step down.

Who was Robert Mugabe?

He was born on 21 February 1924 in what was then Rhodesia – a British colony, run by its white minority.

After criticising the government of Rhodesia in 1964 he was imprisoned for more than a decade without trial.

In 1973, while still in prison, he was chosen as president of the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu), of which he was a founding member.

1924: Born. Later trains as a teacher

1964: Imprisoned by Rhodesian government

1980: Wins post-independence elections

1996: Marries Grace Marufu

2000: Loses referendum, pro-Mugabe militias invade white-owned farms and attack opposition supporters

2008: Comes second in first round of elections to Tsvangirai who pulls out of run-off amid nationwide attacks on his supporters

2009: Amid economic collapse, swears in Tsvangirai as prime minister, who serves in uneasy government of national unity for four years

2017: Sacks long-time ally Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, paving the way for his wife Grace to succeed him

November 2017: Army intervenes and forces him to step down.

RIP – MUGABE

Sources: BBC

LIB Geez