Section:GDN 1J PaGe:10 Edition Date:190907 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 6/9/2019 18:07 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
His father
deserted the
family when Robert
was 10, leaving his
mother to bring up the
boy and fi ve siblingsThe singer
Chrissie Hynde
has a new album
out, Valve Bone
Woe, a collection
of jazz-facing
covers of classic
tracks. Hynde is
68 today- The Guardian Saturday 7 September 2019
10 Obituaries
the economy, did
bring stability
to Zimbabwean
fi nancial transactions. They
allowed the consolidation of a
Zimbabwean middle class that
had been threatened by rampant
hyperinfl ation. But, despite
appeals to surrounding presidents,
Tsvangirai could not demilitarise
Mugabe’s hold on the election
machinery, and the shadow of
military power on society as a
whole. The electorate, anxious to
hold on to fi nancial stability, was
drawn again to Mugabe’s party in
the 2013 elections, fearing chaos
and struggle if it was defeated.
Tsvangirai, although impressive
as an opposition leader, never
inspired as a prime minister.
Although the 2013 elections were
rigged to an extent, it was also
clear that large numbers voted
for Mugabe willingly, and that
Tsvangirai had not done enough
to break his iron grip on the
institutions of Zimbabwe. He died
in 2018.
The presidency from 2013
onwards became an economic
disaster. Mugabe concentrated on
party matters rather than national
government. Obsessed with the
possibility of plots against him, he
purged the party of even his most
prized lieutenants. Joice Mujuru,
his vice-president, a war heroine
and the widow of Solomon Mujuru- who had died in mysterious
circumstances in 2011 – was
expelled in December 2014.
The economy began to plummet
as Mugabe’s plans to extend
nationalisation from land to
industry abruptly halted most
foreign direct investment. The
stabilisation of the economy during
the coalition years under Tsvangirai
and Biti had depended on the
substitution of the Zimbabwean
currency by US dollars. Now,
without investment, and
increasingly without productivity –
aided and abetted by an increase in
corruption by Mugabe’s militarised
oligarchy – the dollars dried up.
In the midst of this meltdown,
citizen protest increased. Demands
for salaries to be paid on time began
to be transformed into a critique
of corruption and, increasingly,
of an old man in his 90s with no
new ideas and a constant need for
medical rejuvenation in a variety
of foreign clinics. In the face of
widening unrest and the loss of
support from his war-veteran allies,
Mugabe vowed to stay in power,
insisting he would stand again for
the presidency in 2018.
It was not to be. Preoccupied
with holding party factions
in check both for the sake of a
balance of power within Z anu-PF
and increasingly to position his
wife, Grace , for the succession,
Mugabe failed to give attention
to the economy and began
sabotaging his fi nance minister,
Patrick Chinamasa, by reinstating
public servants whom Chinamasa
had wanted to dismiss as part
was anchored in a stages-of-history
view of the world, with black
liberation constituting a critical
stage. Many shared this view and
a good number of Zimbabwean
intellectuals stood by him for years.
Mugabe’s domestic life was
marked by tragedy and controversy.
He met Sally Hayfron while teaching
in Ghana and they married in 1961.
Their only son, Michael, died aged
three while Mugabe was in jail. He
was denied compassionate release
for the funeral and it is said this
embittered his view of the white
population. Sally died in 1992. He
then married his secretary, Grace
Marufu, who had borne him two
children, Bona and Robert Jr, while
he was still married to Sally. A third
child, Chatunga, came once they
were wed. Grace was an extravagant
fi gure, nicknamed both “Dis Grace”
and “Amazing Grace”, but she was
loyal to her husband.
However, when it became clear
that Tsvangirai had won in 2008, but
before the decision to rig the result
was taken, she pleaded with Mugabe
to stand down for the sake of their
children, who were being taunted
at school because their father “had
ruined the country”.
After the 2013 elections she
became more and more preoccupied
with maintaining her husband in
power, then became involved in the
struggle for the succession – which
she sought for herself.
Mugabe was a leader who had
moments of greatness. He had a far
more intellectual sense of African
destiny than his critics would
acknowledge. He would, in some
ways, have made a better professor
than a president but, as a president,
he clung to power far too long.
He is survived by Grace, and
their children, Bona, Robert and
Chatunga.
Stephen ChanRobert Gabriel Mugabe, politician,
born 21 February 1924; died 6
September 2019of a programme to curtail public
expenditure. There were no plans
to increase productivity or search
for new markets. A bottle of cooking
oil became cheaper to import from
South Africa than to produce in
Zimbabwe. The shortage of US
dollars, introduced in 2009, meant
the printing of bond notes that
heralded the beginnings of new
hyper infl ation. When the generals
moved against Mugabe , it was a
move against mismanagement, the
prospect of more of the same from
his wife, and Mugabe’s willingness
to sacrifi ce a noted war veteran,
Mnangagwa, to placate Grace and
smooth the path for her ambitions. It
was an ignominious downfall.B
orn and raised at
Kutama Mission,
in Zvimba district,
west of Harare (then
Salisbury), Mugabe
was a bookish
child. His father,
Gabriel, deserted
the family when Robert was 10,
leaving his mother, Bona, to bring up
the boy and his fi ve siblings. He was
educated by Jesuits, who imbued
in him a deep faith, before in 1949
he won a scholarship to Fort Hare
University in Eastern Cape, South
Africa – a private institution that
accepted black students – following
closely behind Nelson Mandela.
A generation of future African
leaders passed through its doors and
emerged with a taste for learning
and for resistance.
It was not until the 70s and his
time in Mozambique that Mugabe
became a crypto-Marxist. His beliefMugabe and his wife, Grace, at a youth rally in 2017 PHOTOGRAPH: APBirthdays Letter Paul Barker
Today’s birthdays:
Sir David Cannadine , historian, 69 ;
Gerald Corbett , chair, Marylebone
Cricket Club, 68 ; Jennifer Egan ,
author, 57; Gloria Gaynor , singer,
70 ; Angela Gheorghiu , soprano,
54; Peter Gill , director and
playwright, 80 ; Lady (Dianne)
Hayter of Kentish Town , former
chair, Labour party, and shadow
deputy leader of the House of
Lords, 70 ; Chrissie Hynde , singer,
songwriter and musician, 68 ;
Leslie Jones , comedian and actor,
52 ; Toby Jones , actor, 53 ; Julie
Kavner , actor, 69 ; Commodore
Inga Kennedy , head of the Royal
Naval Medical Service, 57; Martin
Kettle , journalist, 70 ; Sir Curtis
Price , musicologist, former warden,
New College, Oxford, 74 ; Lord
(Robert) Reed , deputy president
of the supreme court, 63 ; Sonny
Rollins , jazz saxophonist, 89; Alok
Sharma , MP, secretary of state
for international development,
52; Lord (Andrew) Stone of
Blackheath , former joint managing
director, Marks & Spencer, 77;
Jean-Yves Thibaudet , pianist, 58;
Diane Warren , songwriter, 63;
Evan Rachel Wood , actor, 32; Chris
Wright , co-founder, Chrysalis
Group, 75 ; Vera Zvonareva , tennis
player, 35.Under the editorship of Paul Barker
(obituary, 20 August) there was a
lot of intellectual excitement to
be found in the magazine New
Society. But it also displayed an
extraordinary graphic range, built
up by the designer, Richard Hollis.
In addition there was the bedrock of
social policy and social work, with
ads that kept the magazine in being.
In the late 1990s, when I arrived
at the London School of Economics
to do a PhD 25 years after being New
Society’s education correspondent,
senior professors asked if I was “the”
Anne Corbett. But those professors
were among the magazine’s fi rst
champions: as the students reading
the regular contributions of those of
us writing the social policy notes and
doing the reportage, and themselves
contributing their fi rst articles.
Anne CorbettTomorrow’s birthdays:
David Arquette , actor and wrestler,
48 ; Ann Beattie , novelist, 72;
Linda Bennett , fashion designer,
57 ; Asha Bhosle , playback singer,
86; Anne Diamond , broadcaster
and columnist, 65; Lord (Bernard)
Donoughue , writer and political
commentator, 85 ; Michael Frayn ,
author and playwright, 86; Martin
Freeman , actor, 48 ; Judith Hann ,
broadcaster, 77; Prof Edward Hinds ,
physicist, 70; Dame Margaret
Hodge , Labour MP, former
government minister, 75; Fred
Jarvis , former general secretary,
NUT, 95 ; Stefan Johansson , racing
driver, 63; Aimee Mann , musician,
59; John McDonnell , MP and
shadow chancellor of the exchequer,
68; Geoff Miller, cricket er, 67; Pink ,
singer and songwriter, 40; Judy
Murray , tennis coach, 60; Chris
Powell , footballer and manager,
50; Joan Ryan , independent MP,
64; Bernie Sanders , American
senator, 78 ; Bruce Sansom , ballet
dancer, 56 ; Karin Smyth , Labour
MP, 55; Joe Sugg , vlogger and social
media star, 28; Victor Ubogu , rugby
player, 55 ; Christoph von Dohnányi ,
conductor, 90.Announcements
RELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws