HARARE – As the situation in Zimbabwe goes from bad to worse, Zimbabweans will in three weeks time decide whether to give a fresh mandate to the only leader they have known since independence in 1980, Robert Mugabe.
The veteran ruler rose from poverty to become a schoolteacher, a Marxist leader in Zimbabwe’s struggle against white minority government, and eventually his country’s ruler.
Almost three decades after he took over an independent Zimbabwe, many of those who once praised Mugabe’s statesmanship say he is destroying his country in a desperate bid to remain president.
He’s shown himself for what he is. He’s a violent man determined to hang onto power at whatever cost, said Diana Mitchell, a Zimbabwean historian and supporter of the black liberation struggle.
For the past eight years, Mugabe has encouraged militias of the ruling party in a campaign of violence against supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, the strongest threat to his rule since independence in 1980, together with new independent presidential candidate Simba Makoni.
Mugabe has described Makoni as a prostitute, a frog, charlatan, a witch; and Morgan Tsvangirai, his other main challenger in March 29 presidential elections, as a servant of European governments and local whites. And he has painted the elections as another liberation struggle.
This is the official start of our march to another electoral victory, he told his supporters at the launch of his Zanu (PF) election manifesto last week. This is war. You who are here with us, I hope I trust you, all of you. Some politicians are sell outs, political prostitutes, political charlatans and two-headed political creatures.
Mugabe, who turned 84 last month, did not always speak this way.
When the Ian Smith regime finally yielded power in the former British colony called Rhodesia, Mugabe was elected as the first black prime minister.
Many feared he would exacerbate racial divisions and move the capitalist economy onto Marxist lines. Instead, he spoke of democracy, and invited the white minority to join him in building a stronger Zimbabwe.
Under his stewardship, the economy grew stronger and Zimbabwe’s health and education systems were envied by many African countries.
Mugabe was hailed abroad as a statesman. But at home, critics charge, corruption was growing and Mugabe was working to muzzle all dissent.
In 1982, Mugabe’s North Korean-trained 5 Brigade troops began a lengthy campaign of terror against the minority Ndebeles.
Mugabe claimed his main political rival, Joshua Nkomo, was leading the Ndebeles in an armed rebellion. At least 20,000 people, most civilians, were killed, according to human rights groups.
When Mugabe’s former ally in the liberation war, Edgar Tekere, formed an opposition party in the 1980s to protest corruption and misrule, the government reacted violently. An opposition parliamentary candidate was shot and crippled by authorities.
Mugabe is very afraid of competition. That is why he will do anything, Tekere told The Zimbabwean last Sunday at the launch of Makoni’s presidential campaign in Harare.
In 1987, Mugabe effectively turned Zimbabwe into a one-party state, with himself as president.
Robert Gabriel Mugabe was born into a poor family at Kutama mission, west of Harare. His father abandoned the family when Mugabe was a child, but a priest took him under his wing and encouraged him to become a teacher.
Shy and bookish, Mugabe grew up to earn a string of degrees, many of them by correspondence while imprisoned by the country’s white rulers.
He was a very brilliant scholar, said his sister Sabina, who recently indicated she was no longer standing as a parliamentarian in the forthcoming poll.
Mugabe helped found ZANU to fight the white regime and eventually was jailed for a decade.
Those close to Mugabe say he was crushed when his young son died in Ghana and the government refused to free him to attend the funeral.
And he never forgave the country’s whites, even as he spoke of reconciliation, the late James Chikerema, a cousin who grew up with Mugabe, said in an exclusive interview with this newspaper two years ago.
Underneath, I believe, the sores of imprisonment were still there, he said then.
Today Zimbabwe’s once-robust economy, has nearly collapsed in the chaos caused by the land grab, political violence and controversial policies by Mugabe.
Unemployment is at 85 percent, inflation 100,000 percent and the breadbasket of southern Africa has to import food.
Mugabe blames Europe and Zimbabwe’s whites. He has told those whites that he is withdrawing the offer of reconciliation he made 28 years ago.
Zimbabwe is for black people, not white people, Mugabe said.
He has reintroduced socialist-style price controls for staple foods and promised to nationalize many businesses. Prices skyrocket daily amid mounting poverty and malnourishment.
Critics say he is solely responsible for destroying the jewel he inherited at independence. As support for his controversial policies has waned, he has become ever more defiant, threatening to nationalise the entire economy, from land to mines and foreign-owned businesses.
There is nothing left to nationalize, said opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa. He is nationalizing poverty.
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