The Guardian - 07.09.2019

Section:GDN 1N PaGe:37 Edition Date:190907 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 6/9/2019 18:54 cYanmaGentaYellowbl

Saturday 7 September 2019 The Guardian •

37

Mugabe’s legacy

Icon, inspiration, dictator

Comrade Mugabe was

an icon of liberation,

a pan-Africanist who

dedicated his life to

the emancipation and

empowerment of his

people. His contribution ...

will never be forgotten

Emmerson Mnangagwa

Zimbabwe’s president

Even though I and our

party, the MDC, and the

Zimbabwean people had

great political diff erences

with [him] we recognise

his contribution made

during his lifetime as

a nation’s founding

president

Nelson Chamisa , leader of the

Movement for Democratic Change

He failed to make the

transformation from

a liberation leader to

a national leader. He

tortured me, and killed

thousands and thousands

of people, but I am not

bitter. He was a product

of his era

Tendai Biti , opposition politician

He will be remembered

for ending white minority

rule [and] expanding ...

quality education ... [but]

One cannot just ignore

the evil which occurred

during his rule. The

negative aspects of his

legacy ... will live on

MDC politician David Coltart

This is a tragic case study

of someone who began

as a widely admired free-

dom fi ghter, bringing his

country from repressive

racist white minority

rule ... But then he went

from that into an evil,

repressive, corrupt

dictator, which was tragic

for his country and tragic

for his own reputation

Peter Hain, former UK ministe r

▲ A man watches news coverage

of the former president’s death on

televisions in a shop in Nairobi, Kenya

Death of

divisive ruler

Mugabe at 95

is end of era

for Zimbabwe

emancipatio n and empowerment of
his people”. He said Zimbabwe would
be in offi cial mourning until the for-
mer leader’s remains had been brought
back from Singapore and buried.
Tendai Biti, a prominent opposi-
tion politician, said that though he had
himself been tortured on the orders
of Mugabe, he was not bitter. “He
brought massive destruction to Zim-
babwe but was a product of his era. He
did not know how to make the trans-
formation from liberation leader to
national leader,” Biti told the Guardian.
No plans for a funeral have been
announced, though it is expected to
take place in Harare, the capital, or
Mugabe’s home town of Zvimba.
The ruling African National Con-
gress party in South Africa described
Mugabe as a “friend, statesman and
revolutionary comrade”. In a state-
ment, the ANC acknowledged that
it had sometimes “diff ered vocifer-
ously” with him, but remembered “an
ardent and vocal advocate of African
unity and self-reliance” whose strug-
gle had been an inspiration. Flags in
Kenya were fl own at half mast.
But in the UK, Downing Street said
that while “we of course express our
condolences to those who mourn”, the
former leader represented “a barrier to
a better future”. “Under his rule the
people of Zimbabwe suff ered greatly
as he impoverished their country and
sanctioned the use of violence against
them,” a spokesman for the prime min-
ister, Boris Johnson, said.
Mugabe had made frequent visits
to Singapore for medical care in recent
months as his health deteriorated. In
November 2018, Mnangagwa told
members of the ruling Zanu-PF party
that Mugabe could no longer walk.
Though once widely celebrated for
his role in fi ghting the white suprema-
cist regime in his homeland, Mugabe
had long become a deeply divisive
fi gure. His fi nal years in power were
characterised by fi nancial collapse,
surges of violent intimidation and a
vicious internal power struggle pit-
ting his second wife Grace, 41 years
younger than him, against Mnan-
gagwa, his former righthand man.
The rivalry was resolved when
Mnangagwa, a Zanu-PF stalwart,
took power after Mugabe reluc-
tantly resigned following a military
takeover. The news of his decision
prompted widespread rejoicing. Yes-
terday Mnangagwa thanked “former
First Lady Grace Mugabe for standing
by her husband until the end”.
Grace Mugabe, who became known
for her lavish lifestyle , joined the
Zanu-PF politburo by virtue of her
leadership of the party’s Women’s
League in 2014. She became a polit-
ical liability for the ageing autocrat,
however, and her criticism of Mnan-
gagwa was one of the triggers for the
takeover that ousted her husband.

 Continued from page 1

‘He did not know

how to make the

transformation from

liberation leader to

national leader’

Tendai Biti

Zimbabwean opposition politician

 Zimbabweans

living in South

Africa welcome

Mugabe’s death

during protests

against the

current regime

at a n event in

Cape Town

PHOTOGRAPH:

NIC BOTHMA/EPA

Mugabe remained devoted to his

wife , calling her “my Grace” in his

last press conference and demanding

better treatment for his spouse from

Zimbabwe’s new rulers.

After his fall, Mugabe was granted

the status of a respected father of the

nation and a generous pension by the

new government. The move angered

his opponents. But Mugabe’s own frus-

tration and sense of humiliation over

his ousting were clear , and voiced with

typical rhetorical force at an extraordi-

nary press conference in the grounds

of his residence in Harare, days before

elections in July 2018.

Mugabe suggested he would vote

for the opposition Movement for Dem-

ocratic Change (MDC) , a party he had

brutally suppressed before co-opting it

in 2008 to form a supposed unity gov-

ernment that he still dominated.

Educated at Catholic missionary

schools, Mugabe became a teacher in

Ghana then returned to Rhodesia in

1960 to fi ght white minority rule.

Eventually freedom was won and

Mugabe promised to embrace the

country’s white population. He led the

country through a period of economic

growth and educational develop-

ment that was the envy of Africa. The

international community turned a

blind eye, however, to human rights

abuses, most notably the 1980s ethnic

cleansing of at least 20,000 people in

Matabeleland province.

Opposition rose in 1999 as the

economy fl oundered. Mugabe rigged

elections and began land “reforms”,

forcibly evicting white farmers to

make way for Zanu-PF party cronies

or black Zimbabweans who lacked the

skills and capital to farm. Hyperinfl a-

tion ran riot and super market shelves

were empty. The school and health

systems began to crumble.

The political environment became

increasingly hostile, with activists and

journalists persecuted, jailed or mur-

dered. More than 200 people died in

political violence around the 2008

election, which Mugabe was widely

seen as having stolen from the MDC’s

Morgan Tsvangirai.

The late John Makumbe , a politics

professor at the University of Zimba-

bwe , said: “He’ll be remembered as a

villain. His legacy was destroyed by

his staying, his violence, his impos-

ing his own political allies and rivals.

“The chameleon has its own col-

our: when it’s frightened, it takes on

its original colour, and it’s ugly. He

showed his true colours. His true col-

our is a killer. He killed his enemies.”

Journal Obituary Page 8 

▲ Zimbabwe’s

president,

Emmerson

Mnangagwa,

addressing the

nation yesterday

from State House

in Harare

PHOTOGRAPH:

TSVANGIRAYI

MUKWAZHI/AP

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