Absent some unforeseen contingency, Robert G. Mugabe, leader of Zimbabwe since 1980, is gone. His politically ambitious but unpromising wife, Grace, is out of the picture, too. Mr. Mugabe resigned Tuesday as impeachment proceedings were beginning in parliament.
Instead of a legacy as father of his country, as having led it to true independence based on majority rule, Mr. Mugabe, by hanging on until he was 93, in an exhibition of greedy personalized rule, clearly destroyed what was the flourishing economy he inherited as leader. Zimbabwe in 1980 had commercial and food-producing agriculture, profitable mining including of chromium, and some light industry. Now it suffers famine, its currency inflated until it became valueless, and both the African minority Ndebele and the whites have been persecuted and driven out by Mr. Mugabe’s majority Shona tribesmen.
His ouster must be seen, however, as only an essential first step, although there is every reason for those who wish Zimbabweans well to welcome it. Although there were those awaiting a burst of gunfire to end Mr. Mugabe’s rule, the Zimbabweans should be congratulated for achieving the first step in national change without violence.
Mr. Mugabe is likely to be succeeded as president in the short term by Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose firing early this month to clear the way for Mr. Mugabe’s wife’s succession to him led to the army’s ousting Mr. Mugabe himself. Mr. Mnangagwa is unfortunately a longtime colleague of the ousted president and is cast from the same mold in his ruling style as Mr. Mugabe himself. What Zimbabwe needs now is early free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections. It doesn’t need a transition to Mr. Mnangagwa without change, particularly in economic policy.
Whether Mr. Mugabe’s fall conveys a significant message to Africa’s and the world’s other muddled, aging, aspiring presidents for life remains to be seen. Africa, the Middle East, the Near East and even Latin America have a few of them, standing in the way of both democratic rule and economic development in their countries.
It may have taken Zimbabweans a long time, but so far they have set a reasonable example of executing necessary change in their country, relatively free of bloodshed. But there is still much more to do.
First Published: November 23, 2017, 5:00 a.m.
