Robert Mugabe, a former Zimbabwean leader has died aged 95, the country’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on his official Twitter account on Friday, September 6, 2019.
Mugabe died in Singapore, where he has often received medical treatment in recent years, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
“It is with the utmost sadness that I announce the passing on of Zimbabwe’s founding father and former President, Cde Robert Mugabe,” a post on Mnangagwa’s official presidential Twitter account said.
In November, Mnangagwa said Mugabe was no longer able to walk when he had been admitted to a hospital in Singapore, without saying what treatment Mugabe had been undergoing.
Officials often said he was being treated for a cataract, denying frequent private media reports that he had prostate cancer.
Mugabe, who ruled the southern African nation for nearly four decades since independence from Britain in 1980, was forced to resign in November 2017 after an army coup.
He was feted as an African liberation hero and champion of racial reconciliation when he first came to power in a nation divided by nearly a century of white colonial rule.
The former political prisoner-turned-guerrilla leader swept to power in the 1980 elections after a growing rebellion and economic sanctions forced the white minority colonial government to the negotiating table.
Born on February 21, 1924, into a Catholic family at Kutama Mission northwest of Harare, Mugabe was described as a loner and a studious child, known to carry a book even while tending cattle in the bush.
After his carpenter father left the family when he was 10, the young Mugabe concentrated on his studies, qualifying as a schoolteacher at the age of 17.
Education for blacks
Al Jazeera’s correspondent Haru Mutasa, reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa, said many credit Mugabe with the country’s high literacy rate.
“As a former teacher, he really tried to make sure as many blacks as possible got education when he came to power. He is credited for one of the highest literacy rates on the continent,” Mutasa said.
“Meanwhile, many others blame him for the things that have gone wrong in Zimbabwe. Many blame him for ruining what was ones a prosperous economy,” she added.
Earnest Mudzengi, political analyst based in Harare, says the former leader leaves behind a mix legacy.
“Young Zimbabweans will remember him as a tryant who squandered their futures and destroyed their countries,” Mudzengi told Al Jazeera.
“Many older Zimbabweans will look back in history and will remember him as a revolutionary fighter. They will also remember him for the early years of independence the massive social programs like expansion in the education sector and the building of clinics in rural areas,” he added.
An intellectual who initially embraced Marxism, he enrolled at Fort Hare University in South Africa, meeting many of Southern Africa’s future black nationalist leaders.
After teaching in Ghana, where he was influenced by its founder, President Kwame Nkrumah, Mugabe returned to what was then Rhodesia, where he was imprisoned for his nationalist activities in 1964 and spent the next 10 years in prison camps or jail.
During his incarceration, he gained three degrees through correspondence, but the years in prison were wrenching.
Mugabe’s four-year-old son by his first wife, Ghanaian-born Sally Francesca Hayfron, died while he was behind bars. Rhodesian leader Ian Smith denied him leave to attend the funeral.
He once famously said that he’d rule his country until he turned 100, and many expected him to die in office.
But growing discontent about the southern African country’s fractured leadership and other problems prompted a military intervention, impeachment proceedings by the parliament and large street demonstrations for his removal.
Mugabe’s decline
The announcement of Mugabe’s November 21, 2017 resignation after he initially ignored escalating calls to quit triggered wild celebrations in the streets of the capital, Harare.
Mugabe’s decline in his last years as president was partly linked to the political ambitions of his wife, Grace, a brash, divisive figure whose ruling party faction eventually lost out in a power struggle with supporters of Mnangagwa, who was close to the military.
Despite Zimbabwe’s decline during his rule, Mugabe remained defiant, railing against the West for what he called its neo-colonialist attitude and urging Africans to take control of their resources, a populist message that was often a hit even as many nations on the continent shed the strongman model and moved towards democracy.
Mugabe enjoyed acceptance among peers in Africa who chose not to judge him in the same way as the United Kingdom, the United States and other Western detractors.
Towards the end of his rule, he served as rotating chairman of the 54-nation African Union and the 15-nation Southern African Development Community; his criticism of the International Criminal Court was welcomed by regional leaders who also thought it was being unfairly used to target African leaders.
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Zimbabwe’s general election pits 75-year-old president Emmerson Mnangagwa, a long-time Mugabe ally, against 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa. | Reuters
Robert Mugabe, former president of Zimbabwe, pictured with Wife, Grace, celebrates 94th birthday without fanfare. February 21, 2018. | African News
Robert Mugabe, former president of Zimbabwe, pictured with Wife, Grace, celebrates 94th birthday without fanfare. February 21, 2018. | African News
Robert Mugabe delivers a speech during a graduation ceremony at the Zimbabwe Open University in Harare on Friday, Nov 17, 2017 his first public appearance since the military takeover
The world’s oldest leader Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe delivers a speech during the celebration of his 93th birthday at his office ‘Munhumutapa Building’ the capital Harare, Zimbabwe on February 21, 2017. (Photo by Tafadzwa Ufumeli /Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Protesters calling for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to step down take to the streets in Harare, Zimbabwe November 18, 2017. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo
Demonstrators hold anti-Mugabe placards and shout slogans during a protest march demanding the resignation of Zimbabwe’s president on Nov. 18. | AFP via Getty Images
People hold an anti-Grace Mugabe placard during a demonstration demanding the resignation of Zimbabwe’s president on November 18, 2017 in Harare. | AFP PHOTO / ZINYANGE AUNTONYZINYANGE AUNTONY/AFP/Getty Images
Protesters calling for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to step down take to the streets in Harare, Zimbabwe, November 18, 2017. | REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo
Robert Mugabe, former president of Zimbabwe kisses his wife, Grace at his 89th birthday party
Robert Mugabe (2R) with Gen Constantino Chiwenga (R) and South African envoys at State House in Harare. | ZBC/AFP/Getty Images
President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace Mugabe attend a rally of his ruling ZANU-PF party
President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace Mugabe attend a rally of his ruling ZANU-PF party in Harare, Zimbabwe, November 8, 2017. | REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo
Former Zimbabwe’s First Lady Grace Mugabe addresses her maiden political rally in Chinhoyi October 2, 2014, after she was nominated to head the Zanu PF ruling party women’s league two months ago. | REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo
Robert Mugabe, the recently ousted president of Zimbabwe in an undated photo
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and his deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa when the two were in power together
President Robert Mugabe and his wife, Grace, arrived at the headquarters of the governing ZANU-PF party last week during a rally to back Mrs. Mugabe as the next vice president. | Jekesai Njikizana/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe
Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe
Robert Mugabe, the former president of Zimbabwe
Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe, attends the 12th African Union Summit Feb. 2, 2009 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. | U.S. Navy Photo /Jesse B. Awalt
Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe, attends the 12th African Union Summit Feb. 2, 2009 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. | U.S. Navy Photo /Jesse B. Awalt
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe (L) and China’s Premier Li Keqiang shake hands during their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing 26 August, 2014. | REUTERS/Diego Azubel/Pool
Robert Mugabe | Getty
President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe | Getty Images
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe addresses on February 28, 2009 his guests during his birthday party held in Chinhoyi 115 km from Harare, Zimbabwe. President Mugabe turned 85 on the 21st of February. (Photo Credit: AFP PHOTO/Desmond Kwande)
Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe
Controversial: Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe also joined the crowds at the viewing
In 1996, Robert Mugabe married Grace Marufu at the Kutama Catholic Mission. [File: AP Photo]
When Mugabe took power, Zimbabwe began to recover from conflict. But a land reform policy that saw black farmers take over white-owned farms sparked domestic outrage. | AP Photo
FILE – This Sunday Dec. 13, 1998 file photo shows former South African president Nelson Mandela, left, with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in Harare. Mandela, now in a hospital, quit after a single term as South African president. Robert Mugabe, Africa’s oldest head of state, is still in charge of Zimbabwe after disputed elections last week. These two larger-than-life figures, who chose different paths once in power, represent a rivalry over style and ideas that resonates beyond southern Africa. (AP Photo/Rob Cooper, File)
During his time in power, Mugabe met Cuba’s President Fidel Castro several times. He praised his government for having trained thousands of Zimbabwean doctors and teachers. [File:Jose Goitia/AP Photo]
MEET THE PRESS — Pictured: (l-r) Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe on August 24, 1980 — (Photo by: NBC News/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
FILE — In this Nov. 2017 file photo Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe delivers a televised speech at State House in Harare just days before his resignation. Mugabe won’t be on the ballot when elections are held on July 30, but the military-backed system that kept him in power for decades, and then pushed him out, is still in control. (AP Photo, File)
After the land reform was passed, Western nations slapped sanctions on the country. Mugabe blamed those sanctions for the economic collapse that followed. [File: AP Photo]
Zimbabwean Prime Minister Robert Mugabe, right, stands next to Chairman of the PLU Yasser Arafat after he arrived at Harare Airport in Zimbabwe, on Tuesday, April 14, 1987, to attend a meeting of the Non-aligned Movement’s Committee on Palestine. (AP Photo/Peter Winterbach)
Mugabe was born on February 21 in what was then British-ruled Southern Rhodesia. He was the son of Bona and Gabriel, a carpenter. [File: AP Photo]
![Mugabe embraced socialism. He spent 11 years in jail, waging a rebellion from behind bars. After Zimbabwe's Independence, Mugabe was elected prime minister. After two terms, he abolished the position and became president in 1987, a post he held for 30 years. [File: AP Photo]](https://www.thetrentonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/0216121f61b94c60924d253ae001dfc6_8.jpg "Mugabe")
Zimbabwe Prime Minister Robert Mugabe is seen, 1984. Location unknown. (AP Photo)
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