|
Robert Gabriel Mugabe
1924 -
Personal Information
Born February 21, 1924, in Kutama, Zimbabwe; son of Gabriel and
Bona Mugabe; married Sally Heyfron, February 21, 1961; two
children.
Education: Attended Kutama Mission School; University of Fort
Hare, South Africa, B.A., 1951; received L.L.B. from University
of London.
Career
Taught at various mission schools in Zimbabwe, 1951-55; taught
at Chalimbana Training College, Zambia, 1955-58, and St. Mary's
Training College, Takoradi, Ghana, 1958-60; National Democratic
Party, publicity secretary, 1960-61; Zimbabwe African People's
Union (ZAPU), publicity secretary, 1961-62; Zimbabwe African
National Union (ZANU), founder and leader, 1963-76, president,
1976-80; arrested in 1963 and jailed 1964-74; Republic of
Zimbabwe, prime minister, 1980-87, minister of defense, 1985;
president, 1987--.
Life's Work
Robert Gabriel Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president, is a man who
focused on his life's work early. While in his twenties he
decided to help less courageous black countrymen achieve
independence from British colonial rule. He fulfilled his
personal goal in 1980, after 11 years in prison and a bloody
seven-year guerrilla war. Today Mugabe presides over a land
whose economy is plagued by problems, and he is regarded by some
as one of the worst dictators in the world.
Robert Gabriel Mugabe was born in 1924, four months after
Southern Rhodesia became a British crown colony. In a land ruled
by a theoretically multiracial Legislative Assembly that was
actually overwhelmingly white, life was not easy for the Shona
people of Mugabe's native Kutama village. Their freedom was
curtailed by pass laws, their job opportunities were regulated
by industry's need for unskilled labor, and their education, in
most cases, was limited to the grammar-school level.
Robert Mugabe was one of the few who escaped this fate. His
education was supervised by the director of the nearby Jesuit
mission, an unshakably moral and defiantly liberal man. An
unabashed iconoclast, Father O'Hea held the philosophy that all
people are equal and should be treated that way and that
students should be educated as far as their capabilities can
take them. He imbued the intelligent young Robert with both of
these maxims and encouraged him to pass them on to others by
becoming a teacher.
In 1945 Mugabe left O'Hea's guidance behind for a wider Southern
Rhodesia, where new settlers were pouring into country at the
rate of 10,000 each year. Prime Minister Godfrey Huggins, intent
upon providing security for them, was firmly in favor of racial
separation, a method of administration that had been buttressed
by the Land Apportionment Act. Implemented in 1930, the act
decreed that much of the nation's unincorporated land should be
divided evenly between blacks and whites despite a huge
demographic imbalance of only 50,000 whites and 650,000 blacks.
At first the division was merely inconvenient, but the growing
population and the increasing industrialization of the country
forced more and more blacks to move. By the time Robert Mugabe
came home to start his teaching career in 1946, about 300,000
black families had been displaced from their homes and packed
into already overcrowded areas. It was a situation destined to
fester into open warfare.
Southern Rhodesia was still seething in 1949, when Mugabe won a
scholarship to Fort Hare University in South Africa. Because
South Africa was also part of the British Commonwealth he found
little change in the external society, though life was different
inside the all-black university. For the first time since he had
left the mission, he saw active protest against segregation and
an eagerness to explore different political philosophies. One
which he found attractive was Marxism.
Mugabe's interest in communism grew into admiration after 1957,
when he was invited by Kwame Nkrumah to come and teach in Ghana.
Recently independent, proudly Marxist, the government was intent
on bringing universal education and opportunity to those
formerly at the lowest levels of society. Mugabe noted that most
Ghanaians gladly seized the chance to better themselves.
Enjoying the cheerful public spirit, he plunged eagerly into
teaching and working with the country's youth groups, and took a
deep interest in all aspects of Ghanaian politics.
In 1960 he visited his homeland in order to introduce his mother
to his Ghanaian fiancée, Sally Heyfron. The country was no
longer the Southern Rhodesia he remembered. The white population
had grown to 223,000, a formidable number of whom supported the
federation that had been established between Northern and
Southern Rhodesia and Malawi. But no such enthusiasm existed
among the country's 450,000-strong black voting force. The
federation's government did plan to institute majority rule, so
politically aware blacks were adamantly opposed to it. Mugabe
was astounded by their bold new vehemence and the protest groups
they had formed to express it.
In July of 1960 black fury exploded into a March of 7,000 people
who gathered at the town hall of Salisbury's Harare Township to
protest the arrest of their leaders. Mugabe was persuaded to
address the gathering. He told his seething audience about the
egalitarian new Ghanaian society and its rise from colonialism,
and found that he had generated public interest that outlasted
the day of the protest. He ignored the threatening, almost
unlimited police power of the Law and Order Act that was enacted
after the march and began to give many speeches about the
Ghanaian pride in its Marxist independence. He also decided to
stay and help to achieve the same status for Southern Rhodesia.
Within weeks of the March of 7,000 he was elected publicity
secretary of the National Democratic Party. Seeing his first
task as introducing the uninitiated to the possibility of black
independence, he organized a semi-militant youth league like
those he had worked with in Ghana. Just as he had done in Accra,
he attracted Rhodesian teenagers with political discussions and
the cultural dancing and music that would give them pride in
their heritage. His efforts soon paid off. Although the party
itself was banned by the government on December 9, 1961, it left
behind enough supporters to regroup immediately into the
Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU). Southern Rhodesia's
first effective black political movement, it functioned for nine
months before it was banned the following September.
The tumultuous events in Southern Rhodesia had not escaped the
notice of the British Foreign Office, which in 1959 ordered a
comprehensive enquiry under Lord Monckton. The following year
the Monckton Commission disclosed its conclusion that there was
too much black opposition to the federation for it to continue
to exist in its present form. If the federation were to survive,
Monckton concluded, a new constitution providing majority rule
would have to be enacted. Britain agreed, relinquishing control
of Southern Rhodesia's domestic affairs and drawing up a new
constitution allowing majority rule.
But the new constitution did not appease black Rhodesians. It
lacked a definite target date for adopting majority rule and it
proposed a two-tier electoral system whose upper level was
accessible only to voters with a secondary education. Since this
effectively excluded most of the black population, blacks
received only half the voting power of the better-educated
whites, who were also eligible to vote on the lower roll. As a
result, the country's far-smaller white population could elect
50 of the Legislative Assembly's 65 members. The vociferous
opposition of 450,000 blacks spurred ZAPU leader Joshua Nkomo to
visit the United Nations, which in turn called upon Britain to
suspend the new constitution and initiate discussions about true
majority rule.
Nkomo's negotiations with the British stalled. Nkomo was
perceived by many, including Mugabe, as accepting Britain's
vague promises of eventual majority rule rather than insisting
on a definite timetable. Along with other ZAPU supporters,
Mugabe was so furious about these equivocations that he openly
began to advocate a guerrilla war. In April of 1961, noted
Mugabe's biographers David Smith and Colin Simpson, Mugabe even
snapped at a policeman at Salisbury Airport who stopped a Party
supporter suspected of carrying a weapon: "We are taking over
this country, and we will not put up with this nonsense."
Mugabe's defiant attitude made him the target of constant police
surveillance, especially after he split from Nkomo's party in
1963. In August of that year he and several other ex-Nkomo
supporters formed the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) in
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Rhodesian police, aware of these
activities, waited for their opportunity to arrest him. Their
chance came in December, when Mugabe returned to his homeland.
He was jailed for 11 years. In prison Mugabe was not as isolated
as the police hoped. Secret communications networks between him
and his supporters brought him the news that the former
Nyasaland was now Malawi, that the former Northern Rhodesia was
now Zambia, and that the independence of both countries had
caused the collapse of the Federation. He also knew that an
attack on a white Rhodesian farmstead in 1964 had signaled the
start of guerrilla operations to liberate Southern Rhodesia.
Mugabe had been in prison for about two years when ex-Royal Air
Force Pilot Ian Smith became Rhodesia's prime minister. An
experienced politician, Smith assured white Southern Rhodesians
that majority rule would not come to pass during his tenure. He
went to London for the constitutional talks, but his stance did
not impress the new Labor government. Nevertheless he stuck
obstinately to his agenda, going so far as to issue a unilateral
declaration of independence on November 11, 1965, though still
professing allegiance to the British crown. In response, the
United Nations imposed sanctions that quickly damaged the
Rhodesian economy. Chrome, copper, asbestos, tobacco and sugar
previously bound for export never left the country, while
shipments of badly needed oil were kept out.
However, sanctions were just one of Smith's problems. Far worse
was the 1975 independence of Mozambique, a staunch former ally
in its days as a Portuguese colony. Mozambique was now a Marxist
state, with long, sparsely patrolled borders that were ideal
bases of operations for Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National
Liberation Army (ZANLA), and the Chinese allies eager to help
them with training and arms. Neighboring South Africa, Smith's
last remaining ally, was now also teetering insecurely.
Encouraged by South African leaders, Smith allowed Mugabe out of
prison to attend a 1974 conference in Lusaka. Mugabe seized this
opportunity and escaped across the border into Mozambique,
stopping on the way to recruit young Rhodesians for guerrilla
training.
By the end of the 1970s a savage and stealthy war and a
devastated economy had convinced Smith that majority rule was
inevitable. Unsuccessfully he tried to reach a mutually suitable
transition schedule with Mugabe, but there was no progress until
1979, when Britain convened a conference at Lancaster House in
London. Topics discussed at the conference were the
British-monitored transition to black majority rule, assurance
of white minority representation for a specific period after
independence, and a new constitution. With all these matters
settled, on December 16 the United Nations lifted the sanctions.
On April 18, 1980, British rule ended in Southern Rhodesia and
the nation was renamed the Republic of Zimbabwe. Elected over
candidates from ten competing parties, including Nkomo, the
Zimbabwe African National Union took power, with Robert Gabriel
Mugabe as prime minister. Despite his Marxist leanings, he tried
his best not to frighten the technologically advanced whites by
immediately scrapping the capitalist economy. Instead, he tried
to persuade them to stay and share their skills by announcing
that the change to socialism would proceed in gradual phases.
But white Rhodesians were not convinced that they could find
security in a country run by a recently murderous enemy. In 1980
alone, 17,240 of them emigrated.
Mugabe ignored their departure and turned his attention to badly
needed reforms. By New Year's Day 1981, the country boasted free
primary school education for all students as well as guaranteed
admission to secondary school for all who qualified. Free
medical care was provided for those with low income levels, and
a new housing law granted freehold ownership to home-renters of
30 years' standing. In other innovations, Mugabe had city
boundaries reshaped to ensure multiracial political
representation and replaced whites with educated blacks in key
positions relating to educational institutions.
But problems remained. Fighting broke out in February 1981
between Mugabe's forces and Joshua Nkomo's Zambia-based faction.
Most troublesome was Nkomo himself, who was fired from the
government in 1982 after his intention to launch an
anti-government coup was revealed. This action touched off a
flurry of robberies and caused the murder of several tourists.
It also brought retaliation from Mugabe's forces in the form of
rapes and murders in Nkomo's stronghold area of Matabeleland.
An atmosphere of resentment smoldered on through the national
elections of 1985, when Mugabe triumphed a second time over
Nkomo. Friction between ZANU and Nkomo's ZAPU supporters
continued until November of 1987, when 15 Matabeleland
missionaries were murdered with axes by Mugabe supporters. This
tragedy caused Nkomo and Mugabe to settle their differences. On
December 22, 1987, ZANU and ZAPU merged in a unity agreement
designed to begin healing the country, which was now split along
tribal lines. One week later Mugabe was installed as the
country's new president, while Nkomo was named one of three
supervising senior ministers.
The friction eased, allowing President Mugabe to concentrate on
bettering an economy starved for foreign currency as a result of
prolonged drought, a worldwide recession, and the lingering
effects of sanctions against the Smith government. Despite his
efforts, imported spare parts for the mining and manufacturing
industries became very scarce, and levies on tobacco and alcohol
had to be instituted to offset the soaring unemployment rate.
By 1989 the economy required major restructuring. The
International Monetary Fund and the World B ank helped to create
a five-year adjustment program that restructured the government,
relaxed price controls, and gave farmers the right to set their
own prices. Still, shortages of staples like brake fluid and
cooking oil, the drought-induced rises in the cost of maize,
wheat, and dairy products, and a new policy of charging for
education and medical care overshadowed most of the adjustment
programs' benefits and darkened the national mood. By 1994,
however, the structural adjustment had produced some
improvements, with slight growth beginning in agriculture,
manufacturing, and mining. Mugabe's vision of security under
majority rule in Zimbabwe had begun to move forward.
In 1996 Mugabe took the controversial stance of supporting the
seizure of white-owned land without compensation in order to
reverse the economic imbalances that disadvantaged the majority
blacks. He also refused to revise the constitution that is
tailored to a one party state, or release his hold on the media.
In September 1998, Mugabe's government held an international
conference to raise money for land distribution. But potential
donor countries refused to give Mugabe any money until he came
up with a plan for reducing rural poverty. Since no plan was
proposed, no money came in.
Then in April 2000, Zimbabwe passed a constitutional amendment
that held Britain, as an ex-colonial power, responsible for
paying for land stolen from Africans during colonial rule.
Mugabe threatened to seize land without compensation if Britain
did not pay. Some critics, however, pointed out to no effect
that when the British arrived in Africa at the end of the
nineteenth century, they were only helping themselves to land
that was not being used by anyone else.
In the March 2002 presidential election, Mugabe officially won
re-election by 430,00 votes. But there were widespread
allegations that Mugabe had stuffed the ballot box with enough
votes to give him his margin of victory. The allegations had
sufficient credibility to cause the U.S., the European Union and
many other developed countries to imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe,
including an arms embargo. In 2003, a hearing was held by the
High Court of Zimbabwe into the matter, though no decision was
immediately made and Mugabe and his party retained power.
By October 2002, Zimbabwe's commercial agriculture, which had
formerly sustained the economy, had ground to a halt. With
widespread hunger (half the population was said to be
experiencing famine), food donations were pouring into the
country. There were reports that Mugabe's government had been
distributing donated food on the basis of the recipient's
political affiliation. Other reports stated that the government
also would only buy farmers' products if they supported Mugabe,
also contributing to the food problem.
But food shortages were only the tip of the iceberg for Mugabe.
Since early 2000, the economy had gone in steep decline. The GDP
had fallen 24 percent, inflation had reached 135 percent, the
value of the country's currency had fallen 96 percent, and the
arrears on the foreign debt of $3.4 billion had reached 30
percent. Earnings from tourism had fallen 80 percent, gold
production was down by half, and 300,000 of the county's 1.3
million workers were unemployed. And 35 percent of all adults
had AIDS. Many people left the country, whose population
declined by nearly 2.5 million between 1992 and 2002.
Though Zimbabwe's economic, social, and cultural situations were
growing more desperate, Mugabe tightened his grip on the
country. In September 2003, a government commission essentially
banned Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper from future
publication. The paper regularly criticized Mugabe. Though
Mugabe was in control, he did face some uncertainty before the
2005 parliamentary elections. In addition to factional
infighting in his political party and controversy over who would
be Mugabe's successor when he decides to leave office, several
important people in Mugabe's government, including Zimbabwe's
ambassador to Mozambique, were charged with selling state
secrets to foreign agents.
During his campaign, Mugabe said he believed the mining industry
would take Zimbabwe out its economic doldrums. In 2005, the
first big diamond mine in Zimbabwe was expected to open. The
government also invested funds to encourage more platinum
mining. Mugabe also spoke out against the violence expected to
accompany the elections. Despite being named one of the world's
ten worst dictators by Amnesty International in 2004, Mugabe was
expected to win the election and stay in power until at least
2008, when he said he would retire.
His retirement did not come soon enough, however, as Mugabes
party did indeed retain power in the April 2005 parliamentary
elections. By that time, unfortunately, the country had further
descended into a shocking state of chaos and economic ruin. The
collapse had begun in 2000, with the enactment of the threatened
forcible appropriation of thousands of white-owned farms. The
ensuing destruction of the agricultural base (output fell by
%80) resulted in an approximate decline of 50% in the GNP, an
annual inflation rate of %400, and a dizzying drop in tourist
revenues. The problems were further worsened by Operation
Murambatsvina (variously translated as Clean Up Filth, Drive Out
Trash, and Restore Order), which was started in May of 2005.
Described by the government as a civic beautification program,
the initiative displaced an estimated 700,000 people and
affected nearly 2 million more, thousands of whom were rendered
homeless, within months. Mugabe denied any such situation and
refused UN assistance for its alleged victims. Nonetheless, by
November of 2005, the average life expectancy had halved in a
decade, 4 million people faced famine, and the unemployment rate
hovered around 70%. The once-prosperous Zimbabwe had declined
into a beleaguered country fit, perhaps, only for its president.
~~~<"((((((><~~~<"((((((><~~~<"((((((><~~~<"((((((><~~~<"((((((><~~~
Robert Mugabe was born on February 21, 1924, at Kutama Mission
in Zvimba, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) four months after it
became a British Crown colony. Mugabe was the son of a peasant
farmer and carpenter. He began his education at a nearby Jesuit
mission and soon proved an able student under the guidance of
Father O'Hea. For nine years he taught in various schools while
also continuing to study privately for his matriculation
certificate before going on to the University of Fort Hare in
South Africa, where he received a bachelor of arts in English
and history in 1951. He returned to teach in Southern Rhodesia,
obtaining his bachelor of education by correspondence in 1953.
Two years later he moved to Chalimbana Training College in
Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), where he taught for nearly four
years while also studying for a bachelor of science in economics
by correspondence from the University of London. In 1958 he
completed that degree in Ghana, where he taught at St. Mary's
Teacher Training College and also met his future wife, Sarah
"Sally" Heyfron. In Ghana he found a society that was recently
independent and proudly Marxist, with a government intent on
bringing universal education and opportunity to even those
formerly on the lowest levels of society. The Ghanaians cheerful
public spirit and their wholehearted way of seizing the chance
to better themselves made a profound impression on Mugabe.
In 1960 Mugabe returned to Zimbabwe on home leave and became
caught up in the African nationalist struggle against Great
Britain and the settler regime. He resigned his job in Ghana,
remained in Zimbabwe, and joined the National Democratic party (NDP)
as secretary for publicity. Mugabe proved a capable organizer,
and he quickly built the youth wing of the party into a powerful
force. His determination to achieve racial and social justice in
Zimbabwe soon made him a respected and important voice in the
party. He was one of the principal opponents of the 1961
constitutional compromise offering black Africans token
representation in a still white-dominated government. This
document offered no specific target date for adopting majority
rule and it proposed a two tier electoral system whose upper
level was available only to voters who had completed secondary
school, thereby eliminating a majority of the black African
population, giving blacks only half the voting power of whites.
Such was the vociferous opposition of the 450,000 blacks that
the United Nations called upon Britain to suspend the new
constitution and begin discussions about true majority rule.
That same year the government banned NDP, but Mugabe retained
his position in the successor party, the Zimbabwe African
People's Union (ZAPU). When ZAPU was banned in 1962, Mugabe was
restricted for three months, but he eluded imprisonment and fled
to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which had become the party's
operational headquarters in exile. He organized regular
broadcasts to Zimbabwe from Radio Tanzania.
Dissension over tactics split the ZAPU leadership, and Mugabe
and other ZAPU dissidents returned home to form a new
nationalist party, the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU),
in August 1963. This party opposed another group led by Joshua
Nkomo, who was preoccupied with gaining external support against
the Rhodesian government. The ZANU called for a firmer policy of
confrontation with the settlers. Ndabaningi Sithole became
president and Mugabe the secretary-general. In response, ZAPU
established the People's Caretaker Council (PCC) to act for the
banned ZAPU.
Clashes between the two parties weakened the movement, and white
conservative settlers gained power through the election of the
Rhodesian Front's Ian Smith in 1964. Smith quickly banned the
two parties and a year later declared unilateral independence
from Britain. The United Nations imposed sanctions that severely
damaged the economy and left Smith to struggle without support
of his long-time ally Mozambique. The former Portuguese colony
had become a Marxist state, and as such, no longer a staunch
friend to Rhodesia.
Meanwhile, Mugabe, Nkomo, and other nationalist leaders spent
the next ten years in prison, during which time various
lieutenants directed the still weak armed struggle. Mugabe used
his imprisonment to further his studies, obtaining a bachelor of
law and a bachelor of administration from the University of
London. He also tutored fellow inmates, and at the time of his
escape he was studying for a master of law degree. In 1974 Smith
allowed Mugabe out of prison to attend a conference in Lusaka.
Mugabe seized this opportunity to escape across the border to
Mozambique, gathering young troops of guerrillas along the way.
The guerrilla war intensified during this period as ZANU's
military wing, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA),
gained experience in the field and training abroad (especially
in China). On April 28, 1968, ZANLA guerrillas clashed with
Rhodesian forces - since commemorated as Chimurenga Day, the
start of the armed struggle. The war expanded dramatically in
1972 when the Mozambique border became available as a base for
guerrilla forces.
In response to the escalating guerrilla war, the Rhodesian
government began extending its military call-up, while also
searching for an acceptable compromise with moderate African
leaders. Following long talks with representatives from Zambia,
South Africa, and elsewhere, a detente scenario was drafted in
Lusaka in October 1974. Smith released detained nationalist
leaders for preliminary talks. Several of these leaders signed a
declaration of unity in Lusaka, and Smith declared a ceasefire.
Mugabe and ZANU refused to sign and ignored the ceasefire, which
consequently failed to take place.
Mugabe and Nkomo left Zimbabwe in order to direct their
respective military forces. ZANU leaders had become disenchanted
with Sithole's willingness to compromise with Smith and in 1975
appointed Mugabe the leader of ZANU. That same year a ZANU
leader, Herbert Chitepo, was assassinated in the Zambian capital
of Lusaka and the Zambian government arrested most of the
Zambian-based ZANU leaders. As a result, Mugabe moved to
Mozambique, which became ZANU's main headquarters and staging
ground for guerrilla attacks. B.J. Vorster of South Africa and
Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia tried to get Smith to negotiate with
the nationalists, but talks broke off within a few hours. The
war resumed on three fronts: Tete, Manica, and Gaza. In 1976
ZANU and ZAPU formed the Patriot Front to establish a united
front to better prosecute the war. The new army was called the
Zimbabwe People's Army (ZIPA), which included cadres from ZANLA
and ZAPU's Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA).
Military and political pressures gradually pushed Smith towards
an internal settlement. In 1977 Smith rejected peace proposals
put forward by the United States and Britain, and instead opened
negotiations with three moderate African leaders: Bishop Abel
Muzorewa, Chief Chirau, and Sithole. In 1978 these leaders
agreed to form a transitional government which would proceed to
majority rule, and a year later a white referendum approved the
new Zimbabwe-Rhodesia constitution. Muzorewa won the subsequent
national election.
Both the international community and the Patriotic Front
rejected this compromise, and guerrilla activity continued
despite amnesty proposals. Britain, the United States, and the
Front-Line States (the African countries bordering Zimbabwe)
stepped up pressure on Smith and Muzorewa to hold another
constitutional conference which included the Patriotic Front. In
1979 at the Commonwealth summit in Lusaka, Britain's Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher agreed to convene a constitutional
conference. The resulting Lancaster House conference established
a new constitution, and a ceasefire took effect. In 1980 Mugabe
won British-supervised elections in an independent Zimbabwe and
became the first black prime minister and minister of defense in
Zimbabwe. After the election Mugabe presided over Zimbabwe's
difficult transition from a racialist settler regime to a
multi-racial socialist government. He brought his moral force,
personal discipline, and commitment to social justice to this
difficult task, although not always receiving full cooperation
from Nkomo's Matebele people.
Mugabe ignored the departure of the white population,
concetrating his efforts on improving the lot of the black
African peoples. By Jan 1, 1981, Zimbabwe boasted free primary
education for all students, guaranteed admission to secondary
school for all who qualified, free medical care for those with
low incomes and a new housing law granting freehold ownership to
home renters of 30 year's standing.
Many problems remained between Mugabe's forces and those of
Nkomo's. Resentment smoldered when Mugabe was once again
reelected over Nkomo, spilling over into fighting and murder
until finally the two leaders agreed to settle their
differences. In December 1987 the two rival factions merged with
Mugabe as President and Nkomo as a senior minister. With the
friction eased, attention could be turned to bettering the
economy.
By 1989 a five year plan was created to restructure the
government, relaxing price controls and giving farmers the right
to set their own prices. By 1994 the structural adjustment had
produced some improvements with slight growth showing in
agriculture, manufacturing, and mining. In 1996 Mugabe took the
controversial stance of supporting the seizure of white-owned
land without compensation in order to reverse the economic
imbalances that disadvantaged the majority blacks. He also
refused to revise the constitution that is tailored to a one
party state, or release his hold on the media.
In 1991 Mugabe's wife Sally died. He then married his long-time
mistress (and mother of his two children) Grace Marufu. While
the wedding was lavish and almost regal (Marufu invited 20,000
guests to attend the ceremony), it sparked anger among the
Zimbabwean people, causing them a disillusionment with the
president who led them to independence. Other signs of unrest
were that 60,000 civil servants went on strike over a 6 percent
pay raise when inflation was at 22 percent. Moreover, the
government revoked their traditional Christmas bonus, while
awarding themselves a 130 percent pay increase. Although the
Mugabe government negotiated a settlement to the strike, it
signaled a breakdown of the relationship between Mugabe and his
people.
JACANA HOME PAGE
|
CLASSIC VIDEO CLIPS
|
JACANA ASTRONOMY SITE
JACANA PHOTO LIBRARY |
OLD MAUN PHOTO GALLERY |
MAUN PHONE DIRECTORY
FREE FONTS |
PIC OF THE DAY
|
GENERAL LIBRARY |
MAP LIBRARY |
TECHNICAL LIBRARY
HOUSE PLANS LIBRARY
|
MAUN E-MAIL, WEBSITE & SKYPE LIST
|
BOTSWANA GPS CO-ORDINATES
MAUN SAFARI WEB LINKS |
FREE SOFTWARE |
JACANA WEATHER PAGE
JACANA CROSSWORD LIBRARY |
JACANA CARTOON PAGE |
DEMOTIVATIONAL POSTERS
This web page was last updated on:
13 December, 2008
  |
