A flawed 'hero', a tortured legacy :: Mmegi Online

Former Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe’s death has inevitably triggered global debate on his legacy. For some, he is a true son of the soil, boldly shaking his fist at Western neo-colonialists, speaking truth to power and steadfastly championing the continental dream of putting economic authority back in the hands of Africans.

For others, Mugabe is a murderous fraud. A man who skipped most of the liberation struggle, but claimed he was in the vanguard. A man who tricked and killed his way to the head of a party, while endearing himself to the same West he would conveniently use as scapegoats in later years.

A man who killed off his biggest challenger in a post-Independence genocide intended to entrench a one-party state. A man who when the economic goodwill he inherited after Independence began to peter out, embarked on ruinous populist programmes that he stubbornly persisted with despite the collapse of the country and its citizens.

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