By Abdul Tejan-Cole
In 1980, Siaka Probyn Stevens, then President of Sierra Leone, was keen to bolster his stature in the continent by hosting the 17th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of States and Governments of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), now the African Union. While most Sierra Leoneans quietly opposed Stevens’ grandiose plans, I secretly hoped and prayed that Sierra Leone would host the OAU Summit. I fully appreciated the dire economic consequences of hosting the summit that many predicted, but like many youths I wanted to see in person, flesh and blood, the illustrious ‘pan Africanist’, the ‘revolutionary’ who had jointly led the Patriotic Forces (ZANU and ZAPU) at the all-party talks at Lancaster House in London that led to a ceasefire which ended Zimbabwe’s war of liberation and the adoption of a new constitution; and who on 18 April 1980 took over as Prime Minister of independent Zimbabwe, Robert Gabriel Mugabe. As the OAU’s 50th member, Mugabe was in Freetown from July 1-4 1980, to attend the summit and thank other African leaders for their assistance during the struggle for liberation from white rule. For most Africans then, Mugabe embodied hope. He was an eloquent orator, revolutionary and man of immense intellect. He inspired us and was at the time, the “vanguard of the African revolution.”
By the time of his demise in Singapore on September 6th, his legacy was very much in tatters. He had gone from a celebrated Pan African liberation icon to a reviled autocrat. Only the most loyal hailed him. Some tried to whitewash his legacy, but his state funeral held in a mostly-empty National Sports Stadium in Harare spoke volumes about the way ordinary Zimbabweans, or Harareians, perceived him. Mugabe was not laid to rest as the Government had planned at the official mausoleum at Heroes’ Acre in the heart of Harare. He was instead buried in the Catholic Kutama Mission in his hometown, Zvimba, 80 kilometers southwest of Harare.
Like most, I wish that the good, bad and ugly legacy of Mugabe did not live after him but was interred with his bones. But this is just wishful thinking. Much has been and will continue to be said about the man and his legacy. His tenure of office from 1980 until he was “overthrown” by his comrades in a coup in November 2017 provided many lessons current African leaders must not ignore.
The first and probably most difficult to adhere to is don’t stay too long in power. Term limits serve a useful purpose. The most spiteful statement I read regarding Mugabe’s death was the comment by a Zimbabwean who wished Mugabe had died 20 years ago. History would no doubt have judged him differently. In an article in the Atlantic entitled “Robert Mugabe Died Too Late,” Graeme Wood, noted that “It is usually in bad taste to say of the recently deceased that his death came far too late. But even those most sentimental about Robert Mugabe, the first leader of Zimbabwe, will admit that if he had been hit by a bus on the streets of Harare 25 years ago, or crushed by a landslide of Chanel bags after one of his wife Grace’s shopping sprees in London or Paris, the world would be a better place.”
Most of the African leaders we hail today are the ones who died early or did not stay too long in power. Madiba served only one term (1994-1999) as President of South Africa. Democratic Republic of Congolese first Prime Minister (June-September 1960), Patrice Émery Lumumba, was assassinated in 1961. The Kenyan trade unionist and Minister for Economic Planning and Development, Thomas Mboya, was assassinated at the young age of 38 in 1969. The OAU’s first Secretary-General and ex-Minister of Justice of Guinea, Boubacar Diallo Telli, died in Cell 52 in the infamous Camp Boiro in 1977 having been put on “Diète Noire,” no food, no water, limited light and air. South African Bantu Steve Biko’s black consciousness was extinguished by the apartheid government at the tender age of 30. And the visionary Burkinabe and “upright revolutionary”, Thomas Sankara was assassinated by troops led by his right-hand man, Blaise Compaoré, at the young age of 37 and after only four years in power. Save maybe for Thomas Sankara, most of these leaders might have been regarded differently had they lived and ruled as long as Mugabe. Many of Mugabe’s critics would have wished for a better ending for him. Even the best of humanity ends up messing up when they stay too long in power. Had Mugabe served two five year terms and ended his tenure in 1990, he would have been hailed today as a hero. By the time of his overthrow, Mugabe was a pale shadow of his former self. He gave long and rambling speeches, dozed off in public and struggled to walk and fell on at least one occasion.
Clinging on to power for too long gives leaders an air of invincibility. Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Like Louis XIV who ruled France for 72 years and is quoted as saying, “L'etat c'est moi” ('I am the state'), for most of his tenure Mugabe ruled Zimbabwe as if it was his personal property. At the Earth Summit in South Africa in 2002, he told his bête noire, former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, “Blair keep your England, and let me keep my Zimbabwe."
Mugabe regularly held elections, but many of those elections were rigged, deeply flawed or an outright farce. I recall being in Zimbabwe for the 2013 elections and was shocked to see the Electoral Commissioner and her deputy peacefully having dinner just after the polls closed. I had assumed it would have been a busy time for them, but I was wrong. There was no need to worry. Mugabe and Zanu-PF won the elections with a resounding 61.09%.
Most observers believed that Mugabe lost the first round of the 2008 presidential elections. Rumour has it that he was willing to concede. But after a month’s delay and a recount, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) confirmed that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai won with 47.9%; while Mugabe got 43.2%. A runoff election was required. After sustained political violence, Tsvangirai pulled out of the runoff, thus handing victory to Mugabe. Mugabe should have seen the writing on the wall then and realized he had lost the support and confidence of his people.
As is usual in most authoritarian governments, challenges to power are crushed. His quest to maintain a strong grip on power had devastating consequences for Zimbabwe. There was no room for opposition. In the 2008 election year, the Zimbabwe NGO Human Rights Forum in its political violence report recorded 107 murders, 137 abductions/kidnappings, 1,913 cases of assault, 19 cases of disappearances and 629 displacements. According to the Forum, the human rights violations point to an organized and well-orchestrated plan of action and collusion between private individuals and state security with the intention of annihilating the opposition MDC.
This was not Mugabe and Zanu’s first resort to violence. From 1983 to 1987, the International Association of Genocide Scholars estimates that Mugabe’s Fifth Brigade Army, trained in North Korea, murdered at least 20,000 Ndebeles “dissidents” in Matabeleland and its surrounding areas. The operation dubbed, ‘gukurahundi’ – a shona word meaning the early rains that come before spring, the rains that wash away the useless chaff and give the crops space to grow - was primarily aimed at squashing opposition from his chief political rival, Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo, leader of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU).
Throughout his tenure, Mugabe stifled democratic dissent. He cracked down hard on anyone who threatened or had the potential of threatening his hold on power. When his former crony and loyalist, Edgar Tekere, became critical and stated that Mugabe was surrounded by criminals who were “stealing money and opening bank accounts in Switzerland”, he was fired as a Minister and Secretary-General of Zanu and later expelled from the party. In his memoirs, “A Lifetime of Struggle” published in 2007, Tekere wrote that he accepted his “share of responsibility” for the failure to build democratic institutions in Zimbabwe. He blamed Mugabe for building a nation whose people “live mostly in fear of their own government, of a state machinery, born out of the forces of liberation, but now, regrettably, more associated with ruthlessness and naked force.” Another comrade and former Minister, Eddison Zvobgo, broke both legs in a suspicious accident after he became critical of Mugabe. There is a long list of former comrades who suffered similar fates or kept their mistrust quiet because they were too scared to challenge him.
In eliminating anyone with the potential to succeed him, Mugabe did not put in place any succession plan. In a TV interview in 2016, he stated that “(G)rooming a successor, is it an inheritance In a democratic party, you don't want leaders appointed that way. They have to be appointed properly by the people." By all accounts, Mugabe had no plans to let the people’s will prevail even within Zanu-PF. He was Zanu-PF and Zanu-PF was him. His party exercised no control or check on him. He got whatever he wanted. There were speculations that he was preparing his wife, Grace for the presidency. It was this fear and the growing power of “Gucci Grace” that ultimately led the current President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, and other comrades to stage the 2017 coup.
Perhaps one of the critical reasons for Mugabe’s downfall was the poor management of the economy. At the time of independence, Zimbabwe was a self-sufficient food producer. In the 1990s and 2000s, the economy seriously deteriorated. As a result of massive financial mismanagement and rampant corruption, GDP fell by more than half and over 40% of the population lived on less than the international extreme poverty line for lower-middle-income countries. Sanctions, withdrawal of foreign credit lines, drought and poor investor confidence led to hyperinflation skyrocketed, unemployment rose, the Zimbabwe dollar was drastically devalued, and life expectancy dropped. Many competent and highly qualified Zimbabweans were forced to flee the country and seek refuge elsewhere.
Although he is credited for providing quality access to education for black youths that made Zimbabwe one of the most literate countries in Africa, yet almost all other public services performed poorly. In an article in the Observer titled “Robert Mugabe left millions of us in poverty and despair,” Zimbabwean Journalist Hopewell Chin’ono noted that “Hospitals have been turned into death traps; there is no medication for the poorest of the poor.” According to Zimbabwean lawyer, Siphosami Malunga, the fact that Mugabe died in Singapore is “testament of his catastrophic and shameful failure not just to build a viable health system but to simply maintain what he inherited from the Rhodesians.”
Mugabe even poorly managed a popular initiative. Land reform was needed to redress the inequitable distribution of arable land, which was mostly in the hands of a small group of white large-scale commercial farmers. It was a long-overdue response to the violence and inequality of colonialism. However, the best and larger lands and farms were distributed to those with political connections, notably war veterans.
Africans leaders must learn from Mugabe’s mistakes. In particular, former liberation movements must not repeat the mistakes of Zanu-PF. In a Financial Times article titled, “With Robert Mugabe gone, only the young can save Zimbabwe”, Africa Editor, David Pilling, noted that “(T)oo often, having overthrown the oppressor, liberation heroes have merely stepped into the shoes of their former overlords. They have taken the trappings of power for themselves, as reward for the hardship they suffered.” In a speech in 2003, Mugabe is said to have noted that “I am still the Hitler of the time. This Hitler has only one objective: justice for his people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people and their rights over their resources. If that is Hitler, then let me be Hitler tenfold.” It was a sad and unfortunate comparison and a blatant falsehood. Mugabe, like Kamuzu Banda of Malawi, Idi Amin Dada of Uganda, Mobutu Sese Seko of DRC, Macias Nquema of Equatorial Guinea and Hissène Habré of Chad, never cared for justice, sovereignty and independence for his people. He squandered and mismanaged the public resources treating them as his own. The present crop of African leaders will do well not to repeat his mistakes.
© 2019 Politico Online
