Mugabe and Zimbabwe’s Pending Divorce

Published April 22, 2008

By Alex D. Pinto

Zimbabwe has reached a fork in the road. In one direction there is the success of a functional democracy; in the other there is continued political squabbling and economic disaster. It all depends on current president Robert Mugabe.

Robert Mugabe has what one could construe to be a heroic past. In the 1960’s and 1970’s he fought against white minority rule in Zimbabwe and, once president, employed measures to eliminate majority farmland ownership by a white class. He took power through the democratic system, though allegedly by questionable means, and made sweeping reforms. In the 1980’s, while Prime Minister, his land and health reforms helped lower mortality rates for children, raise the overall life expectancy, strengthen the economy, and make Zimbabwe’s education system a competitive one, with a high adult literacy rate. However, in 1987 he assumed the presidency, and in the 1990’s things took a turn.

With a government struggling for cash, he changed many policies, ultimately leading Zimbabwe to have what is now the lowest life expectancy in any country, and economic inflation that has been compared by analyst Robert Guest to the out of control inflation of the Weimar Republic in the 1920’s. In 2000 Mugabe forced a referendum that allowed Zimbabweans to take over land owned by white farmers without warning or monetary compensation. Since then, there has been food shortages and widespread starvation.

And all this, without mentioning the brutal tactics and intimidation he uses to stay in power, public hatred of homosexuals, and the fact that he funded and allowed ethnic massacres of certain tribes that killed tens of thousands. Bottom line: Mugabe is not a good man nor a good leader.

That is why many foreign leaders are watching closely as the Zimbabwe elections unfold this year. So far, we know that Mugabe’s political party, ZANU-PF, got fewer votes in the parliamentary elections than did the MDC party of the leading opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai. Led on by that result, many in the country believe that the results of the March 29th presidential election will follow suit. However, the results of the presidential election are being withheld. Mugabe’s party simply will not let them be released, most likely so that they have time to tamper with them, or simply because they did not produce the desired result.

Leaders of surrounding African countries are calling for Mugabe to cede power in what seems to be an obvious defeat. Tsvangirai, having been arrested several times in the last few years, and only last year been beaten almost to death by militants clearly on orders from Mugabe, continues to crusade for rightfulness in Zimbabwe. MDC activists, many of whom have been beaten, arrested, or killed in the last decade may finally get redemption.

Right now, a court is deliberating on a measure that will force the results to be published. That decision will come Monday. The MDC party has already planned a general strike, to be implemented Tuesday, after the court result is released. This week will be a big one in the history of Zimbabwe, and it may well be a big one for the successful institution of democracy in Africa.

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