Robert Mugabe
Robert Gabriel Mugabe
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidents_of_Zimbabwe"]President of Zimbabwe[/ame]
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incumbent"]Incumbent[/ame]Assumed office
31 December 1987Prime Minister[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Tsvangirai"]
Morgan Tsvangirai[/ame]Vice President[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Muzenda"]
Simon Muzenda[/ame]
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Msika"]
Joseph Msika[/ame]
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joice_Mujuru"]
Joice Mujuru[/ame]Preceded by[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaan_Banana"]
Canaan Banana[/ame]
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Zimbabwe"]Prime Minister of Zimbabwe[/ame]
In office
18 April 1980 31 December 1987President[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaan_Banana"]
Canaan Banana[/ame]Preceded by[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_Muzorewa"]
Abel Muzorewa[/ame]
([ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Rhodesia"]
Zimbabwe Rhodesia[/ame]
)Succeeded byPost abolished
Revived 2009: [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Tsvangirai"]
Morgan Tsvangirai[/ame]
Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement
In office
6 September 1986 7 September 1989Preceded by[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zail_Singh"]
Zail Singh[/ame]Succeeded by[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janez_Drnovsek"]
Janez Drnovsek[/ame]Born21 February 1924 (1924-02-21) (age 85)
Kutama, [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harare"]
Salisbury[/ame], [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Rhodesia"]
Southern Rhodesia[/ame]Political party
ZANU-PF (1987 present)
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe_African_National_Union"]
ZANU[/ame]
(19631987)
ZAPU (19611963)Spouse(s)[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Hayfron"]
Sally Hayfron[/ame] (deceased)
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Marufu"]
Grace Marufu[/ame][ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alma_mater"]
Alma mater[/ame][ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Fort_Hare"]
University of Fort Hare[/ame]
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Oxford"]
University of Oxford[/ame]
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_South_Africa"]
University of South Africa[/ame]
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_London"]
University of London[/ame]Religion[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Church"]
Roman Catholic[/ame]Signature
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Signature_of_Robert_Mugabe_clear.svgRobert Gabriel Karigamombe Mugabe (born 21 February 1924) is the current [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidents_of_Zimbabwe"]
President[/ame]
of [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe"]
Zimbabwe[/ame]
. He has held power as the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_of_government"]
head of government[/ame]
since 1980, as [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Zimbabwe"]
Prime Minister[/ame]
from 1980 to 1987, and as the first executive [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_of_state"]
head of state[/ame]
since 1987. In 2008, his party suffered a defeat in national elections, but Mugabe retained power after his party's violence against opposition supporters caused the opposition candidate to pull out of a subsequent run-off.[2]
Mugabe rose to prominence in the 1960s as the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_General"]
Secretary General[/ame]
of the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe_African_National_Union"]
Zimbabwe African National Union[/ame]
(ZANU). For many years in the 1960s and 1970s Mugabe was a political prisoner in [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodesia"]
Rhodesia[/ame]
. His goal was to replace white minority-rule with a one-party [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist"]
Marxist[/ame]
regime.[3] Having been a political prisoner for 10 years, on release with [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Tekere"]
Edgar Tekere[/ame]
, Mugabe left Rhodesia in 1975 to join the Zimbabwe Liberation Struggle ([ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodesian_Bush_War"]
Rhodesian Bush War[/ame]
) from bases in [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozambique"]
Mozambique[/ame]
. At the end of the war in 1979, Mugabe emerged as a hero in the minds of many Africans.[4][5] He won the general elections of 1980, the second in which the majority of Black Africans participated in large numbers (though the electoral system in Rhodesia had allowed Black participation based on qualified franchise), amid reports of violent intimidation by the militants he now controlled. Mugabe then became the first [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Zimbabwe"]
Prime Minister[/ame]
after calling for reconciliation between formerly warring parties, including the white people as well as rival parties.
The years following Zimbabwe's independence saw a split between the two key belligerents who had fought alongside each other during the 1970s against the government of Rhodesia. An armed conflict between Mugabe's [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoist"]
Maoist[/ame]
-oriented Government and dissident followers of Joshua Nkomo's pro-[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist"]
Marxist[/ame]
ZAPU erupted. Following the deaths of thousands, neither warring faction able to defeat the other, the heads of the opposing movements reached a landmark agreement, whence was created a new ruling party, ZANU PF, as a merger between the two former rivals.
Since 1998 Mugabe's policies have elicited domestic and international condemnation. Mugabe's [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Zimbabwe"]
government[/ame]
supported the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_African_Development_Community"]
Southern African Development Community[/ame]
's intervention in the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Congo_War"]
Second Congo War[/ame]
; expropriated thousands of [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whites_in_Zimbabwe"]
white-owned[/ame]
farms; printed hundreds of trillions of [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwean_dollar"]
Zimbabwean dollars[/ame]
, causing [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation"]
hyperinflation[/ame]
; and harassed and intimidated such political opponents as the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The resulting downward spiral in Zimbabwe's [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Zimbabwe"]
economy[/ame]
has been accompanied by [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil"]
oil[/ame]
and [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine"]
food shortages[/ame],
massive internal displacement and [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emigration"]
emigration[/ame]
. During this period Mugabe's policies have been denounced in the West and at home as racist against Zimbabwe's white minority. In July 2008, referring to the Mugabe regime, the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G8"]
Group of Eight[/ame]
released a collective statement saying that they "do not accept the legitimacy of a government that does not reflect the will of the Zimbabwean people".
On September 15, 2008, a [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Zimbabwe_political_negotiations"]
power-sharing agreement[/ame]
brokered by then-[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa"]
South African[/ame] [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_South_Africa"]
President[/ame] [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thabo_Mbeki"]
Thabo Mbeki[/ame]
was signed. Under the deal, Mugabe remained President, [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Tsvangirai"]
Morgan Tsvangirai[/ame]
became [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Zimbabwe"]
Prime Minister[/ame]
,[19] the MDC controls the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe_Republic_Police"]
police[/ame]
, Mugabes Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front commands the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_Zimbabwe"]
army[/ame]
, and [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Mutambara"]
Arthur Mutambara[/ame]
became [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deputy_Prime_Minister_of_Zimbabwe"]
Deputy Prime Minister[/ame]
. This deal has remained precarious, with Mugabe's party ceding little actual power and pursuing questionable legal proceedings against MDC members.
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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