President of Zimbabwe

Robert Gabriel Mugabe (born February 21, 1924) has been the head of government in Zimbabwe, first as Prime Minister and later as first executive President, since 1980.

Early life

Mugabe's father is believed to have been from Malawi. Mugabe was raised at Kutama Mission, Zvimba District, north-west of Harare (then called Salisbury), in then Southern Rhodesia. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and was educated in Jesuit schools. He qualified as a teacher at age 17, but left to study for a B.A. in English and history at Fort Hare University in South Africa, an illustrious university at the time, graduating in 1951 while meeting contemporaries like Julius Nyerere, Herbert Chitepo, Robert Sobukwe and Kenneth Kaunda. He then studied at Drifontein in 1952, Salisbury (1953), Gwelo (1954), in Tanzania (1955 - 1957). He obtained a diploma and a bachelor's degree in education from the University of South Africa and another bachelor's degree in economics from the University of London, all by correspondence. Subsequently, Mugabe taught in a teacher-training school in Accra, Ghana (1958-1960) where he met Sally Hayfron, his first wife.

Anti-Colonial Struggle

See also: History of Zimbabwe

Returning to Southern Rhodesia in 1960 as a committed Marxist, Mugabe joined Joshua Nkomo and the National Democratic Party (NDP), which later became the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU), both immediately banned by Ian Smith government. He left ZAPU in 1963 to form the rival Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) with Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole and lawyer Herbert Chitepo. A split would be easy along tribal lines between the Ndebele and his Shona, but cross-tribal representation was maintained by his partners. ZANU leader Sitole nominated Mugabe as his Secretary General.

He was detained with other nationalist leaders Joshua Nkomo and Edson Zvobgo in 1964 and remained in prison for ten years, where he studied law. On his release he left Rhodesia for Mozambique in 1974 and led the Chinese-financed military arm of ZANU, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA), in the war against the Ian Smith government.

On 18 March 1975, lawyer and ZANU leader Herbert Chitepo, who had avoided detention, was assassinated by a bomb placed in his car while in Zambia and Mugabe, in Mozambique at the time, unilaterally assumed control of ZANU. Later that year, after squabbling with Ndabaningi Sithole, he became leader of a militant ZANU faction, leaving Sithole to lead the moderate Zanu (Ndonga) party, which renounced violent struggle.

Prime Minister, then Executive President

Persuasion from B.J. Vorster, himself under pressure from Henry Kissinger, forced Smith to accept in principle that white minority rule could not continue indefinitely. On March 3 1978 Bishop Abel Muzorewa, Ndabaningi Sithole and other moderate leaders signed an agreement at Governors Lodge, Salisbury, which paved the way for the interim government, under Lord Soames, a British governor, in preparation for elections.

Elections were held for a new national parliament as Zimbabwe Rhodesia, which was won by the only black party that had renounced violence and was allowed to contest - the UANC, led by Bishop Abel Muzorewa and Canaan Banana. Sanctions, however, were not lifted, because Britain and the USA said there was not proper representation in the elections - meaning Nkomo and Mugabe. Britain called all parties to Lancaster House in September 1979, which were attended by Smith, Mugabe, Nkomo, Chenjerai Hunzvi, Edson Zvobgo and others, where Muzorewa was persuaded to accept new elections, which were held late February, 1980.

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 March 4, 1980. ZANU won 57 out of 80 contested seats in the new parliament, with 20 other seats reserved for Whites.

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 Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) rivals, whose support came from Ndebele-speaking south, and with whites. Mugabe sought to incorporate ZAPU into his Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) led government and ZAPU's military wing into the army; and ZAPU's leader, Joshua Nkomo, was given a series of cabinet positions in Mugabe's government. However, the new president was torn between this objective and pressures to meet the expectations of his own ZANU followers for a faster pace of social change.

An abortive ZAPU rebellion and discontent in Matabeleland spelled the end to this uneasy coalition. In 1983 Mugabe dismissed Nkomo from his cabinet, which triggered bitter fighting between ZAPU supporters in the Ndebele-speaking region of the country and the ruling ZANU. Between 1982 and 1985 the military brutally crushed armed resistance in Ndebeleland and Mugabe's rule was left secure. A peace accord was negotiated in 1987, resulting in ZAPU's merger (1988) into the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). 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, controversially, in 2002.

Mugabe's marriages

His well-respected Ghanaian first wife, Sally (born 1933, nee Hayfron), died childless in 1992, from a chronic kidney ailment. About two years before, Mugabe had married his former secretary, Grace Marufu, 40 years his junior and with whom he already had two children, in a tribal ceremony. Mugabe justified the marriage under a traditional African law which allows him to take a junior wife.

On August 17, 1996, in his first brush with Christianity for more than two decades, Mugabe and Marufu were married in a Catholic wedding Mass. A spokesman for Catholic Archbishop Patrick Chakaipa, who presided over the ceremony, said the diocese saw "no impediment" to the nuptials.

Social programmes

Mugabe improved health and education for the black majority after elections agreed to after the Lancaster House Agreement in 1979.

In 1991, amid international pressure and short on hard currency, Zimbabwe embarked on a neoliberal austerity regime, but the International Monetary Fund suspended aid, claiming that the reforms were "not on track".

At the same time he pursued a "moral campaign" against homosexuality, making what he deemed "unnatural sex acts" illegal with a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. This included the arrest of his predecessor as President of Zimbabwe, Canaan Banana, who was convicted of gay sex offences.

Mugabe was criticized for his intervention in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo at a time when the Zimbabwean economy was struggling. The war raised accusations of corruption, with officials alleged to be plundering the Congo's mineral reserves.

Land reforms

Main article: Land reform in Zimbabwe

When Mugabe became prime minister, approximately 70% of the country's arable land was owned by approximately 4,000 descendants of white settlers. However, he reassured white landowners that they had nothing to fear from black majority rule. Mugabe favoured a "willing buyer, willing seller" plan for gradual redistribution of land but little was done in his early years in power.

However, the sudden appearance of an opposition during the 2000 referendum galvanised the government into action, resulting in a hastily executed program with far-reaching consequences for the largely agriculture-based economy.

2000 referendum

On February 11 2000, a referendum was held on a new constitution. The proposed change would have limited future presidents to two terms, but as it was not retroactive, Mugabe could have stood for another two terms. It would also have made his government and military officials immune from prosecution for any illegal acts committed while in office. Also, it allowed the government to confiscate white-owned land for redistribution to black farmers without compensation. It was defeated, after a low 20% turnout, by a strong urban vote, 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, start invading white-owned farms. On April 6, 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 farmland.

Controversial 2002 election victory

Mugabe faced Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in presidential elections in March 2002. Amid accusations of violence and claims that large numbers of citizens in anti-Mugabe strongholds were prevented from voting, Mugabe defeated Tsvangirai by 56% to 42%. Mugabe was helped by an unprecedented turnout of 90% in his rural stronghold of Mashonaland (55% of the population voted overall), although there are credible claims that the turnout may have been rigged.

On July 3rd, 2004, a report [1] adopted by the African Union executive council, which comprises foreign ministers of the 53 member states, criticised the government for the arrests and torture of opposition members of parliament and human rights lawyers, the arrests of journalists, the stifling of freedom of expression and clampdowns on other civil liberties.

It was compiled by the AU's African Commission on Human and People's Rights, which sent a mission to Zimbabwe from June 24th to 28th 2002, shortly after the presidential elections.

The report was apparently not submitted to the AU's 2003 summit because it had not been translated into French.

Opposition to Mugabe

In recent years Mugabe has emerged as one of Africa's most controversial leaders. His critics accuse him of being a corrupt dictator, and a poor role model for the continent at a time when Africa should be trying to embrace greater democratic reforms. Mugabe's supporters tend to dismiss much of the criticism as being racially motivated, and characterize it as being little more than the bitter remarks of whites who have been disadvantaged by his policies.

Since Mugabe began to redistribute white-owned landholdings, he has faced harsh attacks, externally from mostly white former colonial powers and white former settler-colonies such as Australia, and internally from trade-unions and urban Zimbabwean, who overwhelmingly support the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. In addition, some African figures have condemned Mugabe, such as South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who called Mugabe a "caricature of an African dictator", Zambia's long-time leader Kenneth Kaunda, who asked Mugabe to "bury the hatchet and get on with economic development instead of fighting 'colonialist ghosts'", while Botswana President Festus Mogae distanced himself from the SADC statement opposing the Commonwealth suspension. Mugabe has been condemned by Western non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International, charging that he has committed human rights abuses against minority Ndebeles, the opposition MDC, white landowners, and homosexuals. Mugabe and a list of members of his government are now banned from entering the European Union.

However, Zimbabwe's economy is currently tied to the land, and thus economic development cannot boost the living standards of black Zimbabweans without tackling the extreme problems of land distribution. Many of the victims of the current upheaval are farm workers, with no replacements while the land is standing idle.

The land distribution scheme, as well as the political turmoil, have gravely affected Zimbabwe's economy (see: Economy of Zimbabwe). The former exporter of cereals is nowadays forced to import grain or to rely on humanitarian aid. Mugabe is also accused of favoring his political allies and members of his ethnic group during the redistribution of white farmers' land.

On March 9 2003, US President George W. Bush approved measures for economic sanctions to be leveled against Mugabe and numerous 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 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" and was deemed "racist" by Mugabe.

On December 8, 2003, in protest against a further 18 months of suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations (thereby cutting foreign aide to Zimbabwe), Mugabe withdrew his country from the Commonwealth. According to reports, Robert 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.

Many African nations, led by South Africa, want Zimbabwe to be brought back into the fold to encourage dialogue between Mugabe and domestic foes, while members of what many Africans charge is the "white Commonwealth" - the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand - led the hard-line stance on the suspension of Zimbabwe.