Robert Mugabe: Liberator of Zimbabwe, who became its oppressor

When he came to power nearly four decades ago, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe was feted as an African liberation hero in a nation that had endured close to a century of white colonial rule.

Over time, however, he would come to be regarded by many as an autocrat, willing to unleash death squads, rig elections and trash the economy in the relentless pursuit of power.

The 93-year-old resigned as president on Tuesday, ending 37 years of rule. He had clung on for a week after an army takeover and expulsion from his Zanu-PF party, but quit after parliament began an impeachment process against him.

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Robert Mugabe follows the proceedings of the Day of The African Child at the City Sports Centre in Harare on June 17th last. Photograph: Aaron Ufumeli/EPA

Educated and urbane, Mugabe took power after seven years of a liberation bush war and is the only leader Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, has known since independence from Britain in 1980.

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The army seized power last week after Mugabe sacked Zanu-PF's favourite to succeed him, vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa, to smooth a path to the presidency for his wife Grace (52), known to her critics as "Gucci Grace" for her reputed fondness for luxury shopping.

"It's the end of a very painful and sad chapter in the history of a young nation, in which a dictator, as he became old, surrendered his court to a gang of thieves around his wife," said Chris Mutsvangwa, leader of Zimbabwe's influential liberation war veterans.

‘Thinking man’s guerilla’

Born on a Catholic mission near Harare, Mugabe was educated by Jesuit priests and worked as a primary school teacher before going to South Africa's University of Fort Hare, then a breeding ground for African nationalism.

Returning to Rhodesia in 1960, he entered politics but was jailed for a decade four years later for opposing white rule.

After his release, he rose to the top of the powerful Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army, known as the "thinking man's guerrilla" on account of his seven degrees, three of them earned behind bars.

Later, as he crushed his political enemies, he boasted of another qualification - “a degree in violence”.

After the long bush war ended, Mugabe was elected as the nation’s first black prime minister. Initially, he offered reconciliation to old adversaries as he presided over a booming economy.

But it was not long before Mugabe began to suppress challengers such as liberation war rival Joshua Nkomo.

Faced with a revolt in the mid-1980s in the western province of Matabeleland, which he blamed on Nkomo, Mugabe sent in North Korean-trained army units, provoking an international outcry over alleged atrocities against civilians.

Human rights groups say 20,000 people died, most from Nkomo’s Ndebele tribe. The discovery of mass graves prompted accusations of genocide against Mugabe.

After two terms as prime minister, Mugabe changed the constitution and was elected president in 1990, shortly before the death of his first wife, Sally, seen by many as the only person capable of restraining him.

When, at the end of the century, he lost a constitutional referendum followed by a groundswell of black anger at the slow pace of land reform, his response was uncompromising.

Farm seizures

As gangs of black people calling themselves war veterans invaded white-owned farms, Mugabe said it was a correction of colonial injustices.

“Perhaps we made a mistake by not finishing the war in the trenches,” he said in 2000. “If the settlers had been defeated through the barrel of a gun, perhaps we would not be having the same problems.”

The farm seizures helped ruin one of Africa’s most dynamic economies, with a collapse in agricultural foreign exchange earnings unleashing hyperinflation.

The economy shrank by more than a third from 2000 to 2008, sending unemployment above 80 per cent. Several million Zimbabweans fled, mostly to South Africa.

An unapologetic Mugabe portrayed himself as a radical African nationalist competing against racist and imperialist forces in Washington and London.

Britain once likened him to Adolf Hitler but Mugabe did not mind, saying the Nazi leader had wanted justice, sovereignty and independence for his people: "If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler ten-fold."

The country hit rock bottom in 2008, when 500 billion per cent inflation drove people to support the challenge to Mugabe's rule of Western-backed former union leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Facing defeat in a presidential run-off, Mugabe resorted to violence, forcing Tsvangirai to withdraw after scores of his supporters were killed by Zanu-PF thugs.

Tea and scones

An increasingly worried South Africa squeezed the pair into a fractious unity coalition but the compromise did little to hide Mugabe's de facto grip on power through his continued control of the army, police and secret service.

As old age crept in his animosity towards Tsvangirai eased, with the two men enjoying weekly meetings over tea and scones, a quirky nod to Mugabe’s affection for British tradition, if not authority.

On the eve of the 2013 election, Mugabe dismissed cries of autocracy and likened dealing with Tsvangirai to sparring in the ring. “Although we boxed each other, it’s not as hostile as before,” he said. “It’s all over now. We can shake hands.”

At the same time, Mugabe’s agents were finalising plans to engineer an election victory through manipulation of the voters’ roll, the Tsvangirai camp said.

The subsequent landslide was typical of a man who could always out-fight and out-think opponents. In a cable released by Wikileaks, former US ambassador Christopher Dell once wrote: "To give the devil his due, he is a brilliant tactician." – Reuters