When embattled Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe assumed office as
the country’s Prime Minister in April 1980, one of the first things he
did was to create a government of national unity.
With this single action, Zimbabwe became the beneficiary of much aid
from generous Western countries, whose governments believed that he was
going to position the country to help to facilitate the then Apartheid
South Africa’s transition from minority rule to a proper democracy.
At the outset, Mugabe’s government operated within a capitalist
framework and focused on wooing foreign investors. The result is that
between 1980 and 1990, the Zimbabwean economy grew by an average of 2.7
per cent a year. This was considered a welcome development by those who
genuinely looked forward to the advancement of the country.
Unfortunately, an unprecedented growth in the population of the
country and a corresponding rise in the unemployment rate, as well as a
persistent declaration of a budget deficit by the government, soon made
nonsense of any form of economic growth.
Still, during Mugabe’s tenure as Prime Minister, Zimbaweans witnessed
significant increases in government spending on education and
healthcare. Between 1980 and 2000, for example, the number of secondary
schools in the country rose from 177 to 1,548. During that period, the
adult literacy rate rose from 62 per cent to 82 per cent.
In spite of these heartwarming strides, Mugabe was unable to deal
with the worsening relationship between his government and the minority
white population, which repeatedly accused him of racial discrimination.
Ugly human rights record
Also, for the greater part of his tenure, Mugabe’s government was
accused of having one of the worst human rights records in Africa. And
there seems to be ample evidence to justify this.
There were allegations that Mugabe ordered the country’s military,
especially the dreaded Fifth Brigade, an elite force trained by North
Koreans, to crack down on dissidents in Matabeleland with such great
force that shocked the global community in the 1980s.
The Fifth Brigade, according to independent reports, were deployed in
the region in 1983 with a mandate to arrest, torture and execute those
accused of being sympathetic to the dissidents. The Brigade was also
authorised to destroy valuable property belonging to the accused and to
carry out extra-judicial killings.
The scale of the violence recorded during the Zimbabwean military’s
genocidal campaign in Matabeleland was described as greater than what
the country witnessed in the Rhodesian War. Indeed, over the course of
four years, about10,000 civilians had lost their lives to these
butchers. Genocide Watch later estimated that more than 20,000 were
killed.
There were also widespread reports of journalists being arrested and tortured by the military.
During the 2013 election campaign, reports had it that members of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change were often harassed by the
police and Army. In some cases, it was alleged, they were killed. The
Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum documented about 27 murders, 27 rapes, 2,466
assaults and 617 abductions, with 10,000 people displaced by violence.
It was also alleged that most of these actions were carried out by
supporters of Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front.
When in February 2000 armed gangs attacked and occupied white-owned
farms, Mugabe’s government claimed that the attacks were a spontaneous
uprising against white land owners, although it was an open secret that
the same government had paid Z$20 million to Chenjerai Hunzvi’s War
Veterans Association to lead the land invasion campaign. Eye witness
accounts had insisted that ZANU-PF officials, the police and army
facilitated the attacks.
Absolute power
In 1987, the Zimbabwean parliament amended the country’s
constitution and declared Mugabe as executive President. This position
gave him the power to dissolve parliament, declare martial law and run
for an unlimited number of terms. The constitutional amendments,
additional reports claimed, also abolished the 20 parliamentary seats
reserved for white representatives and left parliament less relevant and
independent.
Progressive economic decline
Zimbabwe’s economy gradually deteriorated in the 1990s. By 2000, the
standard of living had seriously declined. Life expectancy was very low
and unemployment had trebled. By 1998, unemployment was almost at 50 per
cent. As of 2009, between to 3 and 4 million Zimbabweans had left the
country in search of jobs.
Election rigging
In the 2013 general elections, Mugabe’s ZANU-PF won a landslide
victory, with 61 per cent of the presidential vote and over two-thirds
of the parliamentary seats going to the party. But the elections were
not considered free and fair by global monitoring agencies. There were
widespread allegations of rigging.
While he sat at the helm of the country’s affairs, Mugabe was
regarded and almost worshipped as a demi-god within the ZANU-PF. Many
feared him and not one person dared challenge him. It was believed that
he derived his support mostly from the Shona-dominated regions of
Mashonaland, Manicaland and Masvingo, while he remained far less popular
in the non-Shona areas of Matabeleland and Bulawayo and among
Zimbabweans in the Diaspora.
Grace Mugabe
After the death of his first wife, Sally Hayfron in 1992, Robert
Mugabe married his secretary, Grace Marufu, who was 41 years younger, in
1996, and earlier married to Stanley Goreraza, with whom she had a son,
Russell Goreraza. As
secretary to the Mugabe then, she became his mistress while still
married to Goreraza and together with Mugabe they had two children,
Bona, named after Mugabe’s mother, and Robert Peter, Jr. “The couple
were married in an extravagant Catholic Mass, titled the ‘Wedding of the
Century,” the Zimbabwe press had said.
In 1997, Grace Mugabe gave birth to the couple’s third child, Chatunga Mugab.
As the First Lady of Zimbabwe, Grace gained a reputation for
indulging her love of luxury, with a particular interest in shopping,
clothes and jewellery. These lavish shopping sprees earned her the
nickname, ‘Gucci Grace’.
Among other controversies, there was an outcry when Grace Mugabe was
given a doctoral degree in sociology in September 2014 from the
University of Zimbabwe, two months after entering the programme. She was
awarded the degree by her husband and University Chancellor Robert
Mugabe. Her doctoral thesis is not available in the university archive
and she has faced calls to return her PhD. This caused backlash in the
Zimbabwean academic community, with some commenting that this could harm
the reputation of the university
Even before Tuesday night’s dramatic events, which could yet mark the
end of her rags-to-riches story, 2017 had not been a great year for
her. Zimbabweans and their neighbours in South Africa have not forgotten
the extraordinary incident in which she allegedly assaulted a young
model in Johannesburg and needed diplomatic immunity to avoid an
embarrassing court case.
Also, they are not likely to forget that Grace had a bitter feud with
Vice President Emerson Mangagwa, which resulted in her denying that
she plotted to poison him. Then there was the decline in both the
Zimbabwean economy and her own personal popularity ratings. The two may
be connected, given that her detractors like to refer to her as the
“First Shopper”.
Grace Mugabe’s political ambition may have been as much about
self-preservation as an instinct to lead. She has two sons and a
daughter with the 93-year-old President.
On Wednesday morning, it was reported that Mrs. Mugabe, who is
believed to have developed a reputation for corruption, was in Namibia
on business as her husband remained detained at home in Harare.
Mugabe’s luxury-loving children
Mugabe’s son, Robert Mugabe Junior, and his younger brother,
Bellarmine, are known for posting their lavish lifestyle on social
media, which has drawn accusations from critics on social media that
they are wasting Zimbabwean taxpayers’ money.
Another of Mugabe’s children who often stirred up controversy is
Bona. Her educational adventures in Hong Kong, for instance, raised
dust, especially when some people demanded her return to Zimbabwe, to
experience the same educational system that others were experiencing.
An online account quoted The Times as reporting that on January 18, 2009, “while
on a shopping trip in Hong Kong, where her daughter Bona Mugabe was a
university student, Mugabe ordered her bodyguard to assault a Sunday
Times photographer Richard Jones outside her luxury hotel. She then
joined in the attack, punching Jones repeatedly in the face while
wearing diamond-encrusted rings, causing him cuts and abrasions. She was
subsequently granted immunity from prosecution ‘under Chinese
diplomatic rules’ because of her status as Mugabe’s wife.”
Mugabe’s famous quotes
“I’ve just concluded — since President Obama endorses same-sex
marriage, advocates homosexual people, and enjoys an attractive
countenance — thus if it becomes necessary, I shall travel to
Washington, DC, get down on my knee, and ask his hand.” — ZDC radio interview, 2015
On homosexuality
“We ask, was he born out of homosexuality? We need continuity in
our race, and that comes from the woman, and no to homosexuality. John
and John, no; Maria and Maria, no. They are worse than dogs and pigs. I
keep pigs and the male pig knows the female one.” — ZDC radio interview, 2015
“We equally reject attempts to prescribe ‘new rights’ that are
contrary to our values, norms, traditions, and beliefs. We are not gays!” — UNGA, 2015
On Hitler
“I am still the Hitler of the time. 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 Hitler tenfold. Ten
times, that is what we stand for.” — State funeral of a Cabinet minister, 2003
On grooming a successor
“Grooming a successor, is it an inheritance? In a democratic
party, you don’t want leaders appointed that way. They have to be
appointed properly by the people.” – TV interview, 2016
On the economy
“Our economy is a hundred times better, than the average African
economy. Outside South Africa, what country is [as good as] Zimbabwe? …
What is lacking now are goods on the shelves – that is all.” — Interview, 2007
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
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