Three decades of murder and misrule

24 February 2010

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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. 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 sub-Saharan 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.

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