Zimbabwe Ex-President Robert Mugabe Dies Aged 95

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Sep 06 2019 - Zimbabwe Ex-President Robert Mugabe Dies Aged 95

Former Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has died at the age of 95, President Emmerson Mnangagwa stated.

"It is with the utmost sadness that I announce the passing on of Zimbabwe's founding father and former President, Cde Robert Mugabe," Mnangagwa posted on Twitter early on Friday, Al-Jazeera reported.
"
Mugabe was an icon of liberation, a pan-Africanist who dedicated his life to the emancipation and empowerment of his people. His contribution to the history of our nation and continent will never be forgotten," he said, adding, "May his soul rest in eternal peace."

He was hospitalized in Singapore for months for an undisclosed ailment, Mnangagwa had confirmed earlier this year.

Officials often announced he was being treated for a cataract, denying frequent private media reports that he had prostate cancer. No further details were immediately available about the circumstances of his death or where he died.

Factbox: Key political figures in post-independence Zimbabwe

Robert Mugabe, the former guerrilla leader who led Zimbabwe for more than three decades, died aged 95 on Friday. Here are some of the key political figures that have played prominent roles in Zimbabwean politics since independence from Britain in 1980.

Factbox: Reaction to the death of former Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe
Robert Mugabe, the guerrilla leader who led Zimbabwe to independence in 1980, died aged 95 on Friday, two years after the army brought an ignominious end to almost four decades of his iron-fisted rule.

Timeline: A look at the life of Zimbabwe's late president Robert Mugabe

Following are key milestones in the life of Zimbabwe's former leader Robert Mugabe.

 

[Ant22]

I found some interesting articles on Sputnik about Mugabe and his legacy. The first one describes a freedom fighter who turned into a power hungry dictator.

I came across the description of Mugabe's two wives previously and I wondered whether what impact the influence of those two women had on his change.

Sally Mugabe was a well-loved figure and from what I've read about her, she was a genuine freedom fighter and supported her husband's cause. Resources about her are scarce, but pretty much all of them talk about her as a positive figure:

Exclusive: The love that made Robert Mugabe a monster - Africa, World - The Independent

web.archive.org

Without his first wife there to caution him against his extreme politics, Mugabe began to emerge as a tyrant. But that has not stopped Sally Hayfron from still being remembered affectionately, as the founding mother of the nation of Zimbabwe.

Sally Mugabe - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

She is remembered fondly with love and affection, as she is still considered the founding mother of the nation of Zimbabwe.

While he was still married to Sally, Robert Mugabe established a long-term affair with an employee of his office, Grace, who gave birth to his two children out of wedlock. When Sally found out, she never addressed the issue publicly. According to her niece, she said: "Talk to your pillow if you have problems in your marriage. Never, ever, humiliate your husband."

Robert Mugabe married Grace shortly after his first wife died and Grace Mugabe was an entirely different figure. She lived a lavish lifestyle which earned her nicknames of "Gucci Grace" or "Dis-Grace". After the land seizures from Zimbabwe's white farmers began, Grace gained ownership of the most lucrative ones, which made her the the largest landowner in the country. Multiple scandals and abuses of power have been linked to Grace's name: diamond trade, ivory smuggling, shopping sprees and extravagant lifestyle when many starved, PhD after only 2 months of studying, real estate scandals and more.

Apparently at some point people who wanted to make an appointment with the president had to do it through the First Lady's office! Yet it was her hunger for power that is blamed on Mugabe's eventual fall. Grace pushed to be Mugabe's successor and Emmerson Mnangagwa was fired from his job of vice-president but the coup that followed installed him in the office as president two weeks later.

The below article describes the change in Mugabe's rule and it also points out the difference between the stabilising influence of his first wife and the hunger for power of the second one:

How Mugabe Overstayed His Welcome and Went From a Black Revolutionary Hero to an Outcast

Robert Mugabe - who has died aged 95 - became President of the former British colony of Rhodesia in 1980, which he immediately renamed Zimbabwe. Sputnik looks at how he went from being a heroic guerrilla leader to a corrupt despot who...

sputniknews.com

Robert Mugabe - who has died aged 95 - became President of the former British colony of Rhodesia in 1980, which he immediately renamed Zimbabwe. Sputnik looks at how he went from being a heroic guerrilla leader to a corrupt despot who overstayed his welcome by at least a decade.

The name Robert Mugabe was synonymous with the black African’s heroic struggle against overlordship by the white man in the 1970s but ask anyone under the age of 30 today and they will say he was just a corrupt dictator.

So what went wrong?

In the mid 1970s southern Africa was a totally different place from today.

Portugal was refusing to give up its colonies in Angola and Mozambique - they would only withdraw after the Carnation Revolution in Lisbon in 1975 - South Africa was under the grip of a brutal apartheid regime and white settlers under Ian Smith had made a unilateral declaration of independence in Rhodesia and were ruling the former British colony without any regard for the black majority.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1169918586493837312

Rhodesia - which would later be renamed Zimbabwe after an ancient African kingdom which ruled the region - was wracked by civil war in the 1970s.

Smith’s government, backed by South Africa, had a well-equipped army of tanks and helicopters which maintained rule against an insurgency by black guerrillas.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1169883864312893442

Zimbabwe is composed of two main tribes - the majority Shona and the minority Ndebele - and there were two rival guerrilla armies.

Mugabe led ZANLA, which drew its strength from the Shona people, while his great rival Joshua Nkomo led the mainly Ndebele ZIPRA.

They maintained an uneasy alliance against Smith’s government in the capital, Salisbury (now Harare), but their Patriotic Front rarely threatened to take over militarily.

But in 1979 Margaret Thatcher’s new government decided to broker talks between the two sides and eventually they hammered out the Lancaster House Agreement.

A year later Smith handed over power and Mugabe became the first Prime Minister in 1980 after ZANU, the political wing of ZANLA, defeated Nkomo’s party ZAPU.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1169908639554887680

For a few years Mugabe was a moderate leader, learning the ropes and gradually gathering state power.

He said: “It could never be a correct justification that because the whites oppressed us yesterday when they had power, the blacks must oppress them today.”

But in 1983 he initiated the Gukurahundi massacres, which would last for four years and involved a brutal crackdown on the Ndebele and particularly former ZIPRA fighters.

Nkomo went into exile and in 1987 became President and turned the country into a one-party state.

In the 1990s, with the economy starting to stagnate, he decided to make the white minority the scapegoats and seized hundreds of farms, which he handed over to ZANLA war veterans.

Mugabe told the white farmers: "You are now our enemies because you really have behaved as enemies of Zimbabwe. We are full of anger. Our entire community is angry and that is why we now have the war veterans seizing land."

https://twitter.com/x/status/1169893218151845888

As white farmers fled the country the agriculture-based economy started to tank in the late 1990s but Mugabe would not admit he was wrong and instead cracked down on dissidents.

In 2004 Mugabe turned 80 but he refused to step down and hand over to a younger leader who might have fresh ideas and instead lashed out at the British and other critics, claiming Zimbabwe was the victim of an imperialist plot.

Mugabe said in 2008: "Only God who appointed me will remove me - not the (opposition) MDC, not the British."

https://twitter.com/x/status/1169901055712231424

He also described the British as “violent people, liars, scoundrels and crooks.”

One of his strangest quotes, in 2003, was: "I am still the Hitler of the time. This Hitler has only one objective, justice for his own people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people. If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold."

Mugabe’s first wife Sally had died in 1992. She was seen as a stabilising influence.

Four years after her death he remarried but his second wife, Grace, was only interested in power and wealth.

She was notorious for flying to Paris or London in private jets and shopping extravagantly while back home ordinary Zimbabweans starved in poverty.

https://twitter.com/thequentinletts/status/1169850394375098368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1169850394375098368&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsputniknews.com%2Fafrica%2F201909061076737263-how-mugabe-overstayed-his-welcome-and-went-from-a-black-revolutionary-hero-to-an-outcast%2F

Mugabe hated homosexuals and in 2013 said: "(President Barack) Obama came to Africa saying Africa must allow gay marriages... God destroyed the Earth because of these sins. Weddings are for a man and a woman."

He was out of kilter with the 21st century but he soldiered on, despite frequent challenges by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai - who died last year - and then made a fatal mistake.

He tried to install his wife as his successor.

This enraged Emmerson "The Crocodile" Mnangagwa, the military strongman and leader of the Lacoste faction, who led a military coup against Mugabe in 2017.

Mugabe was forced to step down as President, aged 93, as Mnangagwa took over and ZANU (PF) stayed in power.

Few will mourn Mugabe in Zimbabwe, a country he turned into a banana republic and one of the poorest countries in the world.

In 2012, commenting on false reports that he had died, Mugabe said: "I have died many times. That's where I have beaten Christ. Christ died once and resurrected once. I have died and resurrected and I don't know how many times I will die and resurrect."

 

[Ant22]

I also came across this article addressing the West's hand in Zimbabwe's economic disaster through sanctions that ruined the country:

Western Media Hangs Zimbabwe’s Decline on Late Mugabe, Ignores US-Led Ostracism

Former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, 95, passed away at Singapore’s Gleneagles Hospital on Friday. Though Mugabe was removed from office in November 2017, his death has reignited conversations about his legacy and once again thrust...

sputniknews.com

Former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, 95, passed away at Singapore’s Gleneagles Hospital on Friday. Though Mugabe was removed from office in November 2017, his death has reignited conversations about his legacy and once again thrust Zimbabwe’s future into the global spotlight.

Friday morning, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa took to Twitter to announce the death of “founding father and former President, Cde Robert Mugabe.”

https://twitter.com/x/status/1169839311430115329

Rather than provide a full look into Mugabe, Zimbabwe, and how other world powers contributed to the decline of the African nation, Western outlets such as the New York Times chose to run watered-down, one-sided views of Mugabe and referred to the leader as a “strongman.”

“Until 2017, he was the only leader his country had known since independence in 1980. He presided over its long decline,” read the NYT’s Friday piece on Mugabe.

Dr. Gerald Horne, a professor of history at the University of Houston and author of “White Supremacy Confronted: U.S. Imperialism and Anti-Communism vs. the Liberation of Southern Africa from Rhodes to Mandela,” joined Radio Sputnik’s Loud and Clear on Friday to discuss how he views Mugabe’s legacy and where Zimbabwe is headed.

“Robert Mugabe led a movement, the Zimbabwe African National Union [ZANU] which, in the Cold War context, was seen as an ally of the People’s Republic of China at a time of rising Sino-Soviet tensions. As a result, he was viewed rather benignly in Washington for a good deal of his post-1980 independence tenure,” Horne told hosts Brian Becker and John Kiriakou.

Mugabe then “crossed a red line” and “sent out a worrying signal to other settler colonial states” when he moved to take back the land from the country’s European minority with the Fast-Track Land Reform Program in 2001.

Horne went on to explain that of those “settler colonial states,” the US specifically proceeded to impose “draconian sanctions” on Zimbabwe through the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, which he said both burdened the country’s economy and plummeted the value of its currency.

According to the professor, it was this and the country’s “counter-reaction” that triggered the coup that deposed Mugabe in 2017.

“There was a succession crisis in the upper levels of ZANU-PF, the ruling party. The ruling party was and still is heavily factionalized, and so therefore, rather than having a showdown between various factions, which it was thought would lead to bloodletting, there was an attempt to keep a Mugabe in power to keep the various factions from each other’s throats,” Horne said.

However, this is no longer the case, as Mugabe has passed, and his wife Grace, who has been called “Gucci Grace” for her expenditures, is no longer in the political realm of Zimbabwe.

But “there are some hopeful signs,” Horne admitted. One encouraging event was the recent meeting between Mnangagwa and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the seventh Tokyo International Conference for African Development.

Horne also pointed out that throughout the years, Zimbabwe has remained a close ally of China, and Beijing has even called on other nations to end sanctions against the African country.

Another promising event set to take place in the near future is the October 25 day of solidarity. According to Zimbabwean outlet The Patriot, all 16 members of the Southern African Development Community will come together on that day to oppose the “illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the United States of America, the European Union and their Western Allies.”

Clearly sanctions have been the West's go-to economic murder tool for a longer while. In March Trump extended sanctions against Zimbabwe for a year:

Trump extends Zimbabwe sanctions by one year

Meanwhile Russia has been investing in resources-rich Africa:

Clean & honest broker lacking colonial baggage: Russia investing in Africa's huge energy potential

According to this article from August this year Russia called for lifting the sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe:

Russia calls for lifting sanctions against Zimbabwe

During a meeting of Russia-Zimbabwe Intergovernmental Commission for Economic, Trading, Scientific and Technical Cooperation, Russian Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dmitry Kobylkin said that Russia believes that Western sanctions against Zimbabwe hamper the socio-economic...

uawire.org

In the same month, this piece claiming that the West was seeking a pretext to maintain the sanctions was published:

Western Governments Seek Pretext to Maintain Zimbabwe Sanctions - Global Research

A number of imperialist states have issued a statement criticizing the Zimbabwe security forces for a decision, backed up by the judiciary, to restrict the activities of an opposition party which has a history of violent protest. The Southern African nation has been ruled by the Zimbabwe African...

www.globalresearch.ca

 

[angelburst29]

Zimbabweans on Saturday mourned the death of their founding father Robert Mugabe, but there was confusion over when his body would be returned from abroad for burial, two years after he was toppled in a coup.

Zimbabweans mourn founder Mugabe but confused over burial

A man wearing late former Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe's regalia in seen in Glen View, Harare, Zimbabwe, September 7, 2019. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo

Mugabe died on Friday aged 95 in Singapore, where he had long received medical treatment.

He was one of the most polarizing figures in African history, a giant of national liberation movements whose 37-year rule ended in ignominy when he was overthrown by his own army in November 2017.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who worked closely with Mugabe for decades before helping oust him, granted him the status of national hero on Friday, while tributes poured in from leaders across the continent.

Mugabe’s body was initially expected to arrive in South Africa early on Saturday before flying on to Zimbabwe. But there was still no word on Saturday afternoon that the body had left Singapore.

There were no major public events to mark Mugabe’s passing in the capital Harare. Residents expressed a mix of sadness at the former president’s death and frustration that their daily hardships had not relented since he left power.

It was also unclear whether Mugabe would be buried at Heroes Acre, a monument for national heroes built with the help of North Korean architects.

If Mugabe’s family were to choose to bury the former leader at his rural home in Zvimba instead of Heroes Acre, it would be a major snub to Mnangagwa and ZANU-PF, the ruling party that Mnangagwa now heads but which Mugabe led for four decades.

Slideshow (12 Images)
Zimbabweans mourn founder Mugabe but confused over burial

 

[angelburst29]

Mugabe's body brought home but Zimbabweans unsure of his burial place

The body of Zimbabwe's founder Robert Mugabe arrived home at the country's main airport on Wednesday, but it was still unclear where he would be buried amid a dispute between some family members and the government.

Zimbabwe's Mugabe to be buried in 'around 30 days': family spokesman

Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe will be buried at the National Heroes Acre monument in Harare in "around 30 days", Mugabe family spokesman Leo Mugabe said on Friday, after earlier saying the burial will be on Sunday.

Mugabe to be buried at Zimbabwe national shrine in about 30 days, nephew says

Robert Mugabe will be buried at a Zimbabwean national shrine in Harare in about 30 days, his nephew said on Friday, contradicting comments earlier in the day that the burial will be on Sunday.

 

[angelburst29]

Zimbabwe's Mugabe died from cancer, president says

Former Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe died from cancer after chemotherapy treatment was stopped because it was no longer effective, a state-owned newspaper quoted President Emmerson Mnangagwa as saying, the first time the government has given the cause of his death.

Mugabe, who led Zimbabwe to independence and crushed his foes during nearly four decades of rule that impoverished his country, died on Sept 6. aged 95 in Singapore.

Mnangagwa told ruling party supporters in New York where he is attending this week’s United Nations General Assembly that Mugabe had cancer, but he did not disclose the type.

Mugabe is still to be buried because the government is building a mausoleum at Zimbabwe’s national shrine reserved for liberation war fighters in the capital. His body is being kept at his Blue Roof residence in Harare.

“Treatment had stopped, doctors had stopped treatment, chemotherapy, one, because of age and also because the cancer had spread and it was not helping anymore,” Mnangagwa said in comments carried by The Herald newspaper on Monday.

In 2011, WikiLeaks released U.S. diplomatic cable that said Mugabe had prostate cancer that had spread to other organs, which government officials denied.

During his time in power, and before he was forced to resign after a coup in November 2017, Mugabe frequently traveled to Singapore to seek treatment.

 

[angelburst29]

Mugabe's family wins tussle with government over burial site
Zimbabwe's longtime ruler Robert Mugabe will be buried in his home district, not at a national shrine, the government said on Thursday, relenting to the family's wish for a private burial three weeks after his death.

Zimbabwe's Mugabe buried in home village, ending an era

September 28, 2019 - Zimbabwe's founding leader Robert Mugabe was buried on Saturday in his home village of Kutama, ending a dispute between his family and the government of his successor President Emmerson Mnangagwa over his final resting place.

His burial marks the end of an era for one of Africa’s last “Big Men”.

After Mass by a Roman Catholic priest and speeches by family members, Mugabe was buried in the courtyard of his rural homestead without the pomp and fun fare usually reserved for national heroes.

His wife Grace, children and close relatives, government officials and the media witnessed the burial ceremony.

As Mugabe’s casket was lowered into the ground, Grace, who covered her face with a black veil, was flanked by her sister and children and was seen sobbing and wiping tears with a white handkerchief.

Slideshow (12 Images)
Zimbabwe's Mugabe buried in home village, ending an era