On the eve of the July election, the first without him, he told reporters he would vote for the opposition, something unthinkable only a few months before. Born on Feb. Returning to then-Rhodesia in , he entered politics but was jailed for a decade four years later for opposing white rule. Initially, Mugabe offered forgiveness and reconciliation to old foreign and domestic adversaries, including Smith, who remained on his farm and continued to receive a government pension.
In his early years, he presided over a booming economy, spending money on roads and dams and expanding schooling for black Zimbabweans as part of a wholesale dismantling of the racial discrimination of colonial days. With black and white tension easing, by the mids many whites who had fled to Britain or South Africa, then still under the yoke of apartheid, were trying to come home. But it was not long before Mugabe began to suppress challengers, including liberation war rival Joshua Nkomo.
Faced with a revolt in the mids in the western province of Matabeleland that he blamed on Nkomo, Mugabe sent in North Korean-trained army units, provoking an international outcry over alleged atrocities against civilians. White settlers, like those in South Africa and Rhodesia, and the Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique, were seen as champions against pro-Soviet rebels. Black liberation without a communist takeover. For almost 20 years he was the darling of the West, and was showered with honors, including dozens of honorary degrees.
So when Mugabe started arresting prominent opponents in and killing their supporters in , the reaction abroad was muted. Many of the bodies were dumped in disused mine shafts. Mugabe became president in , and Zimbabwe effectively became a one-party state. Every election in independent Zimbabwe has been compromised by intimidation, fraud, corruption and lack of media freedom. Independence and freedom did nothing to improve the lot of most Zimbabweans, and in search of a scapegoat, in early , Mugabe gave the green light to an aggressive campaign to seize white-owned farms.
Land was supposed to be distributed to veterans, but much eventually got snapped up by Mugabe's cronies. Agriculture was the backbone of the economy, but the upheavals crippled farm production. Food shortages became endemic. International criticism also grew, with the UK leading a campaign of sanctions against Mugabe and his ruling clique. Had it not been for the intimidation in rural areas, Zanu-PF may well have lost its majority. Lovemore Madhuku, one of the leaders of the "No" campaign in , described Mr Mugabe as an "an excellent political calculator", who adapted his tactics to the situation.
He said Mr Mugabe might not have realised the damage the seizure of white-owned land would do to Zimbabwe's economy but in any case, he would not have cared, as long as he remained president. Mr Chan agreed that, "in terms of Mr Mugabe's value-set, the ownership of the land is more important than the smooth running of the economy". After 28 years of Mr Mugabe's rule, the resourceful, largely self-sufficient country lay in ruins.
The inflation rate had reached an unfathomable million per cent and young Zimbabweans were voting with their feet, fleeing the country he had fought to liberate. And yet, from this low point, he once more managed to outmanoeuvre his rivals and remain in power for another nine years. The key to understanding Robert Mugabe is the fight against white-minority rule.
In the Rhodesia where he grew up, power was reserved for some , white people at the expense of about six millions Africans. A host of other laws discriminated against the black majority, largely subsistence farmers. They were forced to leave their ancestral land and pushed into the country's peripheral regions, with dry soil and low rainfall, while the most fertile areas were reserved for white farmers. Reclaiming the land was one of the main drivers behind the s war which brought Mr Mugabe to power.
The son of a carpenter who abandoned his family, as a child Mr Mugabe was said to have been a loner, who spent much of his time reading. Ms Hollande wrote that after his elder brother died of poisoning when Mr Mugabe was just 10, his mother became depressed and the young Mugabe would do everything he could for her, to the extent he was teased as a "mummy's boy" at school.
He eventually qualified as a teacher and in went to work in Ghana, which had just become the first African country south of the Sahara to end colonial rule. Encouraged by his Ghanaian wife, Sally, and the pan-Africanist speeches of Ghana's leader Kwame Nkrumah, Mr Mugabe became determined to achieve the same back home. On his return in , he started to campaign for an end to discrimination and was jailed for a decade after being convicted of sedition.
While in prison, his supporters wrested control of Zanu, the biggest party fighting white rule, and installed him as leader. On his release, he was supposed to remain in the country but with the help of a white nun, he was smuggled over the border into Mozambique and the Zanu guerrilla camps. After Mr Mugabe won the elections which led to independence, he pursued a policy of reconciliation with the white community despite the bitterness built up during the war.
In a national address after becoming prime minister, he declared: "If you were my enemy, you are now my friend. If you hated me, you cannot avoid the love that binds me to you and you to me. At that stage, he was not too sure of himself.
There were very strong people in Zanu who were not afraid to oppose him. He would never take a decision on his own" - Dumiso Dabengwa.
He wanted education for all. He wanted health for all. He would let me have my way or we would reach a compromise" - Dumiso Dabengwa. He brought in people who he could influence. Several people were compromised - he held something over them" - Dumiso Dabengwa. He is not the person I knew. He changed the moment Sally died [in ], when he married a young gold-digger [Grace Mugabe]" - Wilf Mbanga. He allowed Ian Smith, the Rhodesian prime minister who had once declared that black people would not rule the country for 1, years and who reportedly personally refused to let Mr Mugabe leave prison for the funeral of his then only son, to remain both an MP and on his farm.
At this point, according to Mr Madhuku, Mr Mugabe's hold on power was relatively weak, so he realised he had to reach out to his former enemies. Former home affairs minister Mr Dabengwa said Mr Mugabe was even less self-confident earlier on in his political career. He would never take a decision on his own but would always check with them first. But slowly, he consolidated control - first over the party which led the war against white-minority rule and later the country as a whole - until the point where his was the only voice that counted.
Throughout his time as president, his closest allies were always those with whom he had endured the hardships of life during the guerrilla war of independence. When they felt their grip on power, and its trappings, were threatened, they reverted wholeheartedly to the conflict mentality. The British have decided to take us on through the MDC," he told a election rally.
This meant opposition supporters were denounced as traitors - a label which could mean an immediate death sentence. Mr Chimutengwende argued that the scale of the violence was exaggerated and in any case sought to distance it from Mr Mugabe: "It is not the leader who throws a stone, or asks his followers to throw a stone.
But Mr Dabengwa, the minister in charge of the police in , said Mr Mugabe's Zanu party had been using such methods since the election. He said that fighters from Zanu's armed wing had been sent out into rural areas to ensure villagers voted the "right" way, partly through all-night indoctrination sessions, known as "pungwes".
Although he won those elections in , and formed a coalition government with Zapu, the underlying tensions burst into open violence just two years later. Zapu leader Joshua Nkomo was accused of plotting a coup and the army's North Korea-trained Fifth Brigade was sent to his home region of Matabeleland. More than 20, people were killed in Operation Gukurahundi, which means "the early rain which washes away the chaff".
At the time, South African double-agent Kevin Woods was making daily reports in person to then Prime Minister Mugabe for the internal security force, the Central Intelligence Organisation. In the end, a subdued Mr Nkomo once more agreed to share power with his enemy in order to end the violence in his home region - a forerunner of what later happened to the MDC.
Before he was finally ousted, his political low point was in , when MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat him in a presidential election, although not by enough for outright victory, according to the official results. There were numerous reports Mr Mugabe was on the verge of resigning, although Mr Madhuku said he did not believe them, as the president subsequently demonstrated his determination to remain in power.
Again, a setback led to a sustained campaign of violence against his "enemies". The army and Zanu-PF militias attacked MDC supporters around the country, killing more than and forcing thousands from their homes. It became obvious that Zanu-PF would not relinquish its grip on power and Mr Tsvangirai withdrew from the second round, saying it was the only way to save lives. Zimbabwe's economy continued its freefall, reaching its nadir when people were dying from cholera in Harare because the country did not have the foreign currency to import the necessary chemicals to treat the water.
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