The late Zimbabwean former president, Robert Mugabe

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s first post-independence leader, has died at the age of 95.

The BBC quotes his family as saying that he died after battling ill health.

“It is with the utmost sadness that I announce the passing on of Zimbabwe’s founding father and former President, Cde Robert Mugabe,” his successor Emmerson Mnagangwa also tweeted about his passing.

“Cde 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. May his soul rest in eternal peace.”

Mr Mugabe was ousted from power in a military coup in November 2017, ending his three-decade reign.

Zimbabwe’s education secretary Fadzayi Mahere tweeted: “Rest In Peace, Robert Mugabe.”

Life and Legacy

Hailed by many Africans as a “hero of the fight against colonial rule,” viewed both friend and foe with a scepticism.

Robert Gabriel Mugabe was born in what was then Rhodesia on 21 February 1924, the son of a carpenter and one of the majority Shona-speaking people. Educated at Roman Catholic mission schools, he qualified as a teacher.

Winning a scholarship to Fort Hare University in South Africa, he took the first of his seven academic degrees before teaching in Ghana, where he was greatly influenced by the pan-Africanist ideas of Ghana’s post-independence leader Kwame Nkrumah. His first wife Sally was Ghanaian.

In 1960, Mugabe returned to Rhodesia. At first he worked for the African nationalist cause with Joshua Nkomo, before breaking away to become a founder member of the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu).

In 1964, after making a speech in which he called Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith and his government “cowboys”, Mugabe was arrested and detained without trial for a decade.

His baby son died while he was still in prison and he was refused permission to attend the funeral.

In 1973, while still in detention, he was chosen as president of Zanu. After his release, he went to Mozambique and directed guerrilla raids into Rhodesia. His Zanu organisation formed a loose alliance with Nkomo’s Zimbabwe African People’s Union (Zapu).

During the tortuous negotiations on independence for Rhodesia, he was seen as the most militant of the black leaders, and the most uncompromising in his demands.

On a 1976 visit to London, he declared that the only solution to the Rhodesian problem would come out of the barrel of a gun.

But his negotiating skills earned him the respect of many of his former critics. The press hailed him as “the thinking man’s guerrilla”.

The Lancaster House agreement of 1979 set up a constitution for the new Republic of Zimbabwe, as Rhodesia was to be called, and set February 1980 for the first elections to the new government.

Fighting the election on a separate platform from Nkomo, Mugabe scored an overwhelming and, to most outside observers, unexpected victory. Zanu secured a comfortable majority, although the polls were marred by accusations of vote-rigging and intimidation from both sides

A self-confessed Marxist, Mugabe’s victory initially had many white people packing their bags ready to leave Rhodesia, while his supporters danced in the streets.

However, the moderate, conciliatory tone of his early statements reassured many of his opponents. He promised a broad-based government, with no victimisation and no nationalisation of private property. His theme, he told them, would be reconciliation.

Later that year he outlined his economic policy, which mixed private enterprise with public investment.

With the prime minister frequently advocating one-party rule, the rift between Mugabe and Nkomo widened.

After the discovery of a huge cache of arms at Zapu-owned properties, Nkomo, recently demoted in a cabinet reshuffle, was dismissed from government.

While paying lip service to democracy, Mugabe gradually stifled political opposition. The mid-1980s saw the massacre of thousands of ethnic Ndebeles seen as Nkomo’s supporters in his home region of Matabeleland.

After abolishing the office of prime minister, Mugabe became president in 1987 and was elected for a third term in 1996.

The same year, he married Grace Marufu, after his first wife had died from cancer. Mugabe already had two children with Grace, 40 years his junior. A third was born when the president was 73.

He did have some success in building a non-racial society, but in 1992 introduced the Land Acquisition Act, permitting the confiscation of land without appeal.

The plan was to redistribute land at the expense of more than 4,500 white farmers, who still owned the bulk of the country’s best land.

Zimbabwe moved rapidly from being one of Africa’s biggest food producers to having to rely on foreign aid to feed its population.

In early 2000, with his presidency under serious threat from the newly formed Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by former trade union leader Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe lashed out against the farmers, seen as MDC backers.

In March 2008, Mugabe lost the first round of the presidential elections but won the run-off in June after Mr Tsvangirai pulled out.

It was an election that saw Robert Mugabe, at the age of 89, confirm his position as the undisputed power in the country.

His advancing years, and increasing health problems, saw much speculation as to who might replace him.

With speculation that his wife, Grace, was poised to take control in the event of his death in office, Mugabe announced in 2015 that he fully intended to fight the 2018 elections, by which time he would be 94.

And, to allay any doubt remaining among possible successors, he announced in February 2016 that he would remain in power “until God says ‘come'”.

But on 15 November 2017 he was placed under house arrest and, four days later, replaced as the leader of Zanu-PF by his former vice-president, Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Defiant to the end Mugabe refused to resign, But, on 21 November, as a motion to impeach him was being debated in the Zimbabwean parliament, the speaker of the House of Assembly announced that Robert Mugabe had finally resigned.

Mugabe negotiated a deal which protected him and his family from the risk of future prosecution and enabled him to retain his various business interests. He was also granted a house, servants, vehicles and full diplomatic status.

He died on Friday September 6, 2019.