Ruthless tyrant leaves behind chaotic legacy

It earned her the nickname Gucci Grace and she was also notorious for her violent temper.

Mugabe’s savage rule over Zimbabwe was dominated by murder, bloodshed, torture, persecution of political opponents, intimidation and vote-rigging on a grand scale.

He was the man who, in 1980, became the head of government of Zimbabwe, chosen to guide the country towards “democracy” after 14 years of rebellion against white Southern Rhodesian leader Ian Smith.

Much of Mugabe’s dirty work was carried out by his bullying henchmen, “veterans” of the guerrilla war against the Smith regime. They attacked and often murdered thousands of African and white opponents, burning their homes, looting their possessions and confiscating their land, while his political opponents were often beaten, sexually abused and sometimes charged with treason and homosexual offences.

The economy of this mineralrich country descended into chaos with thousands of people reduced to poverty. Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth in March 2002 after Mugabe was denounced for vote-rigging his own re-election.

Robert Gabriel Mugabe was born on February 24 1924 in Kutama. He was educated at Kutama Mission School and Fort Hare University and obtained degrees by correspondence courses with establishments, including London University.

He worked as a teacher at schools in Zimbabwe (or Southern Rhodesia as it was then) and in neighbouring countries.

He suffered political detention in 1962 and the following year cofounded and became secretarygeneral of ZANU.

Again he was sentenced, without trial, to political detention in 1964, but escaped in 1974 to Mozambique from where he led the armed struggle against the regime right up to 1979.

When, through Lord (Christopher) Soames, Margaret Thatcher brokered a deal in 1979 to end the Ian Smith rebellion, the Marxist Mugabe became prime minister.

From 1988 he was president of Zimbabwe.