Tarnishing the Jewel of Africa

A 15-year long bloody, violent and vicious civil war ended on 18 April 1980 in a city called Salisbury, capital of the Southern African nation Rhodesia. Britain’s Prince Charles stood to attention as the Union Jack, representing the country’s colonial power, slowly descended the flagpole. Loud cheers greet the ascent of the brightly coloured flag symbolising the birth of a new African nation called Zimbabwe.

The country’s first democratically elected leader, Robert Gabriel Mugabe, stood next to Prince Charles, a look of pride etched on his solemn face. Even more than the new flag Mugabe was a symbol of hope for millions of people. The new country of Zimbabwe rose from the ashes of Rhodesia, inheriting its predecessor’s strong infrastructure, determined people and an agricultural and mining industry that was the envy of many African countries. In solidarity with the new Zimbabwe many African leaders attended the independence celebrations, among them Tanzania’s President Julius Nyerere. After the ceremony he took Robert Mugabe aside, and offered him some advice.

“You have inherited a jewel in Africa”, the respected elder statesman told the new Zimbabwean leader. “Don’t tarnish it.”

Julius Nyerere died in 1999, a couple of years after Robert Mugabe began to lose interest in his jewel. Were Julius Nyerere alive today he would probably be ashamed and appalled by the man he supported during Zimbabwe’s bloody liberation struggle. How would he view the tarnished jewel now representative of the blood diamonds fuelling most of Africa’s conflicts? What would he think of the country once hailed as “the breadbasket of Africa” now commonly called “Africa’s basket case”?

Zimbabwe’s 27-year descent into what has been described as “Hell on Earth” is the responsibility of the man into whose hands it was delivered. Robert Mugabe has presided over the ruin of a nation whose currency was, at its birth, stronger than the United States dollar or the British pound. He has single-handedly destroyed a fine agricultural infrastructure once able to feed both itself and many African nations. As I write the Zimbabwe dollar fell in value over a period of eight hours from Z$305,000 to Z$405,000 for one British pound – despite Mugabe removing three zeros from the beleaguered currency in August 2006, ten months previously. After Mugabe’s destruction of the agricultural sector Zimbabwe now finds herself a beggar nation, reliant upon food aid programmes.

Born in 1924 in a rural village in the then Southern Rhodesia Mugabe was educated by the Jesuits. His father abandoned the family when he was very young. His uncle described him as a lonely child with few friends and an aversion towards playing games with the other village children. He qualified as a teacher, and taught at various colleges all over Africa. He married a Ghanaian teacher, Sally Hayfron in 1959. On his return to Rhodesia a year later he became involved in the black nationalist movement, joining first ZAPU (Zimbabwe African Peoples’ Union) and then the newly formed ZANU (Zimbabwe African National Union). The party comprised members of both the Shona and Matabele, the main tribes in Zimbabwe. There is a fierce traditional rivalry between the two groups, but the founders of ZANU acknowledged the need to work together to ensure the success of attaining majority rule in Rhodesia.

In 1964 Mugabe was arrested and jailed for ten years for what the Rhodesian government termed “subversive speech”. While in prison he studied for and attained three British university degrees by correspondence course. In 1966 his three year old son died in Ghana of cerebral malaria. Mugabe asked for permission to attend the funeral, but was refused by the government. Death is an important cultural tradition in Africa and it is thought this refusal fuelled Mugabe’s hatred of the white race. Such is the power of Mugabe that during his imprisonment he was able to orchestrate a coup against the leaders of the ZANU party. On his release he relocated to Zimbabwe’s eastern neighbour Mozambique, where he assumed control of the party.

In September 1979 Britain arranged a meeting with the Rhodesian government and the Zimbabwe liberation leaders at Lancaster House in London. The outcome of this meeting was an agreement that ushered in the new country Zimbabwe. Today it is believed the elections were rigged by the international community who believed Mugabe was the most moderate of the Zimbabwe liberation movement leaders. Ballot boxes stuffed with votes were found abandoned on the side of the road and international observers reported massive voter intimidation.

But Mugabe was leaving nothing to chance. Popular lieutenant Josiah Tongogara was considered a threat to Mugabe’s leadership. On 26 December 1979, six days after the Lancaster House agreement was signed Tongogara was dead, killed in an automobile accident. The passenger he was with survived the crash with no injuries, and has never spoken of what happened. She has been a minister in Mugabe’s government since independence. Both the CIA and the KGB insist Tongogara’s death was an inside job, and agents who have seen photographs of his body describe gunshot wounds to the chest.

Winning 57 of 80 parliamentary seats Mugabe became Zimbabwe first Prime Minister. Although he had achieved his dream he was disappointed that the rival Matabele faction, led by Joshua Nkomo’s Patriotic Front party, had gained the remaining seats, and furious that one of the conditions of Lancaster House was the 20 seats reserved for white politicians. However Robert Mugabe was used to biding his time, and he didn’t have to wait long.

Integration of the Shona and Matabele into the army proved difficult and in 1982 Mugabe was advised by the head of the army Perence Shiri that the Matabele were threatening to revolt against his rule. He sent the so-called Fifth Brigade into Matabeleland, an elite military force trained by North Korea. Over the next five years up to 30,000 Matabele men, women and children were murdered in what is now known as Gukurahundi – a Shona word meaning “the early rain which washes away the chaff before the rains”. Even more people were tortured, raped and beaten. Incredibly, Shiri was given a place at the presitigious Royal College of Defence Studies in London in 1986, and in 1996 Mugabe received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth. Today British diplomats serving in Zimbabwe during the years of Gukurahundi admit they knew what was happening, but claim they had orders not to take Mugabe to task for the genocide. Britain’s High Commissioner at the time, Sir Martin Ewans said instructions from London were to "steer clear of it. I think this Matabeleland is a side issue, the real issues were much bigger. We were extremely interested that Zimbabwe should be a success story, and we were doing our best to help Mugabe and his people bring that about."

Gukurahundi ended with the signing of a unity agreement between Nkomo and Mugabe, and the two political factions became ZANU-PF. This effectively ended any challenge from the Matabele minority. Mugabe has never apologised to the Matabele for the genocide he visited upon them, choosing to call it “a moment of madness”. The white population in Zimbabwe at 1980 was 300,000; by 1990 70,000 remained. Subsequent elections were reportedly rigged, and by 1990 Zimbabwe was effectively a one party state. In 1987 Mugabe had abolished the post of prime minister and he was now Executive President of the Republic of Zimbabwe. As his party held almost every single seat in the government there was no opposition to any legislature he wanted amended. Under Zimbabwe’s constitution prepared at Lancaster House Mugabe received the power to personally allocate an additional 30 seats to the government, ensuring his personal friends, relatives and allies were included in his government.

One of the main issues at Lancaster House was land redistribution. 75 percent of the best land in the country was in the hands of 4,800 white men. Mugabe claimed most of these people were descendents of the British colonial settlers who had taken the land without compensating the black owners. At Lancaster House Britain undertook to fund the land redistribution programme, agreeing to make funds available to compensate white farmers prepared to sell their land to the Zimbabwe government, who would then resettle landless black people on prime agricultural land. By 1997 over ₤50 million had been handed over, but the agreement was withdrawn after it emerged the funds has been used to buy farms for Mugabe’s relatives and allies rather than for resettlement of landless peasants.

The brilliant stone was losing her lustre.

Sally Mugabe died of kidney failure in 1992. Sally was popular in Zimbabwe, establishing a major children’s charity and working tirelessly for women’s rights. There was great sympathy for her grieving husband, until details emerged of a relationship with his secretary Grace Marufu – 40 years his junior. The liaison had started several years before Sally’s death, and had already produced two children. The editor who broke the story was arrested, tortured and charged with defamation. He never fully recovered from his ordeal and died several years later from complications resulting from his torture. In 1996 Mugabe married Grace at a lavish Catholic ceremony attended by many important African leaders, including Nelson Mandela. Both children attended the ceremony, and the following year Grace gave birth to their third child. Grace is an extremely unpopular woman in Zimbabwe, renowned all over the world for her expensive tastes and penchant for shopping at stores such as Harrods.

In 1998 Mugabe sent the army to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to support Laurent Kabila’s government in a bloody war involving eight African countries and costing over 3,5 million lives. That war ended in 2003, yet many of Zimbabwe’s soldiers remain there today. According to the United Nations (UN) they are handling diamond mines and forestry concessions owned by Mugabe’s top henchmen as payment for the country’s role in the war. One of the men hoping to succeed Mugabe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has been named by the UN as heading a cartel dealing in illicit diamond mined from the DRC.

Zimbabweans were shocked when Mugabe described homosexuals as “worse than dogs and pigs” at the 1995 Zimbabwe International Book Fair. After all, here was a man who had promised equal rights for all at independence; a man whose tolerance was feted all over the world. Later that year a bill passed outlawing homosexuality in Zimbabwe. Ironically, one of the first victims of this law was Zimbabwe’s first president, Canaan Banana - he was convicted and jailed for 11 counts of sodomy and indecent assault.

By 2000 the Gukurahundi atrocities were becoming public knowledge. The Catholic Commission for Peace and Justice published “Breaking the Silence”, a harrowing and distressing account of witnesses’ and survivor’s recollections of Gukurahundi. Stories surfaced of mass executions committed after the victims were forced to dig their own graves, of women being forced to dance and sing on their husbands’ graves; of children being raped and pregnant women being murdered before their foetuses were removed and bayoneted. To deal with this issue Mugabe decided to amend the constitution to give himself another two terms in office and exempting both himself and his military officials from prosecution while in office. A referendum was held on 13 February, 2000 with Mugabe confident of victory.

Against all odds he lost. For the first time since independence the people voted against Mugabe, with 55 percent of voters rejecting the proposed new constitution. Mugabe appeared on state television, acknowledging defeat and promising to abide by the wishes of the people. I watched that broadcast; his face was a controlled, expressionless mask but the anger in his eyes was fearful to see. It took him two weeks to exact his revenge.

Zimbabwe would never be the same again.

With his blessing Mugabe’s supporters invaded white-owned farms. Claiming to be war veterans who wanted to seize their birthright they moved onto the fertile farmland, bringing Mugabe’s anger with them. They built mud huts in the fields and stopped all work on the farm’s lands. They sliced meat from the farm animals, snared wild animals on conservancies and attacked the farming families’ pets, setting fire to living dogs, cats and horses. Black farm workers were beaten, tortured, raped and murdered. Farmers were abducted and taken away from their homes, tortured and beaten then abandoned in the bush far from their homes or medical help. 16 farmers were murdered, the gruesome details of their deaths travelling like wildfire all over the country and filtering out to the world. The police stood by, instructed by Mugabe not to interfere. Mugabe’s chilling response to the farm invasions finally revealed the true character underneath the carefully cultured veneer: “The only white man you can trust is a dead white man”.

While there was certainly a need to address the land imbalances the land invasions have failed to give land to the people. Today just 200 white farmers remain on their land, while the remaining farm lie idle, filled with weeds. Farmhouses are derelict, stripped of doors and windows. Most of the farms have been taken by Mugabe’s government officials. Mugabe allocated himself two farms, and his wife took one for herself. The vice President, Joyce Mujuru and her husband Soloman took three farms, none of which are productive. The few farms that have been resettled lie abandoned, the farm implements taken from the original owners sold and never replaced. There is no money to support any farming activities. Approximately 2 million people were displaced by the farm invasions.

Shortly after the farm invasions the next general election took place. This time Mugabe faced an opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). It had been formed the previous year, and was instrumental in ensuring the “no” vote at the referendum. The MDC was founded by Morgan Tsvangirai, a former trade unionist 24 years Mugabe’s junior. Tsvangirai was the son of a builder and the oldest of nine children. He didn’t take part in the liberation war, but became head of Zimbabwe’s trade union movement, having left school at a young age to go out and work to support his family. Mugabe made much of Tsvangirai’s lack of university education, mocking him as an “illiterate peasant”. This didn’t seem to deter the voters – Tsvangirai’s fledging party won 57 of the 120 available seats. It is likely they actually won far more seats, because these elections were – like Zimbabwe’s previous elections – marred by vote rigging and intimidation.

After the elections Tsvangirai was arrested and charged with treason. The government alleged he discussed assassinating Mugabe and staging a coup to overthrow the government with one Ari Ben-Menashe, a Canadian-based Iraqi Jew. When it emerged that Mugabe’s party paid Ben-Menashe US$100,000 to frame Tsvangirai the case was dropped. During the 27 years Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe he claims to have been the “victim” of at least ten attempted coups, enabling him to destroy the lives of anyone perceived to be a threat.

After the massively rigged 2005 elections Mugabe decided to punish the urban voters – all but one of the urban constituencies voted for the opposition. He embarked upon “Operation Murambatsvina”, meaning “Operation Drive Out Trash”. The UN estimates 2,4 million people lost their homes when the government bulldozed thousands of squatter camps and old, derelict houses in the urban areas. The government had failed to provide adequate housing for the poorer members of Zimbabwe’s population, which resulted in the development of so-called shanty towns. To date none of the people rendered homeless by the government’s bulldozers has been offered alternate accommodation.

On his arrival at a national prayer meeting this year, Tsvangirai learned of the arrest of hundreds of people by the Zimbabwe police. He went to the police station where the people were being held, and was immediately arrested. Over the next 48 hours he and at least 60 of his party’s officials were tortured. When the detainees were finally brought to court on charges of “inciting violence” by attending a prayer meeting the world recoiled in horror at the images of the bruised and bleeding people struggling to walk to the court room. Injuries included broken limbs, internal bleeding and massive bruising. Tsvangirai’s skull was fractured. Mugabe response: “They deserved it.”

At independence the life expectancy for a Zimbabwean was 65 years. Today that figure is 37 years for men and 34 for women – the lowest in the world. 80 percent of the country is unemployed. More people die every month in Zimbabwe than in Iraq or Afghanistan. The country has the world’s highest inflation – official 4,530 percent but realistically 15,000 percent. International journalists are banned from Zimbabwe. A law has been passed allowing monitoring of citizens’ email, telephone calls and postal mail under the guise of preventing terrorism. 25 percent of the country’s population lives outside the country, sending vital foreign currency back to the country for relatives to sell on the thriving black market. Because Zimbabwe is unable to pay US$15 million owed to neighbouring countries power has been so severely reduced Zimbabwean businesses and homes are restricted to just four hours of electricity every day.

Mugabe wants to stay in power at all costs. He is afraid of being called to account for the human rights abuses he has inflicted upon his people. The infighting within his own party between those wishing to succeed him simply strengthens his own position. He has allowed corruption among his officials to reign unchecked, ensuring it is in their interests to keep him in power. It’s no coincidence the richest people in Zimbabwe are Mugabe and his closest confidants.

Winston Churchill once said: “He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.” Those words perfectly describe the character of Robert Gabriel Mugabe.

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