On 4 March 1980, Robert Mugabe became Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. Richard Dowden explains how this intelligent and charismatic man became addicted to brutality
Next week marks 30 years since Robert Mugabe was elected Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.
Last month was 20 years since Nelson Mandela left jail. The two men have much in common. Both are nationalist leaders who fought white rule in southern Africa. Both served long periods in prison, Mandela 27 years, Mugabe 11. Both emerged and won elections and then offered their white oppressors the hand of forgiveness and friendship. Both created governments of national unity to deal with rival movements: in South Africa Mandela faced the Zulu Inkatha movement. In Zimbabwe Mugabe brought into his Cabinet the largely Ndebele Zimbabwe African Patriotic Union (Zapu).
Most observers had predicted a bloodbath in both countries. That had seemed the most logical of all the scenarios. No one had any doubt about which man had the more difficult task. Apartheid in South Africa was a far more brutal system than white rule in Zimbabwe. ghd hair straighteners Whites were a bigger proportion of South Africa's population than the whites of Rhodesia - as Zimbabwe was called before independence. And Afrikaners in South Africa had lived there far longer and had no links to any other homeland. White Rhodesians were relatively recent arrivals, many with opportunities to go elsewhere.
Initially both men brought peace and eschewed revenge. Overcoming the immediate threats, they returned their countries to economic growth. With the end of apartheid the scene was set for the economic take-off of southern Africa, perhaps the whole of subSaharan Africa. Mandela and Mugabe could have stood together, turning their countries away from the painful past and launching Africa into an era of peace and prosperity.
But while Mandela emerged as one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century, Mugabe's reputation is in ruins; a power-crazed dictator who destroyed his country and the lives of millions so he could stay in power.
Many writers have tried to prove that Mugabe was always evil, bent on revenge or trying, like Pol Pot, to bring his country to a Year Zero, from which he could create a perfect communist state. These days he is most commonly seen as a crazed old man, sitting on the wreckage of Zimbabwe, protecting violent, corrupt cronies.
It was not always like that. In 1980 Mugabe came to power with 57 of the 100 seats in parliament. His nearest rival, Joshua Nkomo, had 20. Ten seats were reserved for the countries' 230,000 whites but an estimated 45,000 emigrated at independence. Mugabe formed a government of national unity with three white ministers and made Nkomo minister of home affairs. He entered parliament for the first time alongside Ian Smith, the former prime minister, and re-employed his intelligence chief. 'Let us put a line through the past, ' he said.
The Zimbabwean economy, boosted by good rains, rocketed by 15.4 per cent in 1980 and 12.9 per cent in 1981. War had caused average income per capita to fall from $175.5 in 1974 to $134 in 1979 but it bounced back to $170 in 1981. And Zimbabweans realised that the future lay in education. As soon as the war ended, Mugabe's government pumped money into schools and the number of schoolchildren shot up from 893,000 in 1979 to 1.8 million two years later.
Franck Muller Watch ReplicaThose first years were marked by optimism while a veneer of socialist rhetoric masked pragmatic conservative policies. Where, many asked, was Mugabe's communism?
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