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Former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s remains arrived in his home country yesterday, ahead of his funeral next week. Mugabe, 95, died in a Singapore hospital on 6 September. His death has yielded very different reactions: his supporters and admirers hailed him as a pan African liberator who stood up to colonial powers, while his opponents decried him as a "monster". Roger Southall examines this contested legacy, while David Moore outlines Mugabe's failures.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe is battling enormous political and economic pressures. Tapiwa Chagonda argues that a government of national unity could offer at least part of the solution to the nation's crisis. Brian Raftopoulos, meanwhile, says that President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s twin strategy of coercion and dialogue is doing more harm than good. And Robert Rotberg explains why Mnangagwa just can't mend the country's economic woes.
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Robert Mugabe during his swearing-in ceremony in Harare, 2008. The former Zimbabwean president has died aged 95.
EPA-EFE
Roger Southall, University of the Witwatersrand
Where should we place Mugabe among the pantheon of African nationalists who led their countries to independence?
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David B. Moore, University of Johannesburg
Robert Mugabe's years of playing one group off against the other to favour himself finally wore too thin in 2017.
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Brian Raftopoulos, University of the Free State
The Mnangagwa regime's coercive acts are a continuation of the violence and brutality of the Mugabe era, while he seeks global re-engagement and selective national dialogue.
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Tapiwa Chagonda, University of Johannesburg
It's time for a new approach as it becomes increasingly clear that protests won't topple the Zanu-PF government.
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Robert Rotberg, Harvard Kennedy School
Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration is struggling to overcome the national economic destruction wreaked on Zimbabwe over two decades under Robert Mugabe.
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