President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe

South African President Thabo Mbeki met Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Saturday to try to help end a political crisis after a violent election that extended Mugabes 28-yearrule.

President Robert Mugabe devoted his first major speech since the unresolved presidential election three weeks ago to denouncing whites and former colonial ruler Britain, blaming them for the countrys political and economictroubles.

Last week, President Robert Mugabe said the spread of cholera had been halted.

Fridays Herald newspaper quoted Mugabes spokesman George Charamaba as saying Mugabe had been sarcastic and wanted to make the point that the crisis was contained.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has said there is no cholera in his country - as the United Nations warned the deadly epidemic was getting worse.

I am happy we are being assisted by others and we have arrested cholera, Mr Mugabe said in a speech.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has said there is no cholera in his country - as the United Nations warned the deadly epidemic.

Robert Mugabe has fuelled both international and domestic condemnation again, this time by denying that ZImbabwe is in the grips of a fierce chlorea epidemic,even though according to the UN, hundreds of people have died as a result of infection.

Can someone have a quiet word in his ear please?Robert Mugabe has fuelled both international and domestic condemnation again, this time by denying that ZImbabwe is in the grips.

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For many years in the '60s and '70s Mugabe was a political prisoner in Rhodesia.

Mugabe has described his critics as "born again colonialists", and both he and his supporters claim Zimbabwe's problems are the legacy of imperialism, aggravated by Western economic meddling.

Robert Gabriel Karigamombe Mugabe was born in Matibiri village near Kutama Mission in the Zvimba District north east of Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia.

Through his youth, Mugabe was never socially popular nor physically active and spent most of his time with the priests or his mother when he was not reading in the school's libraries.

In 1964 Mugabe was arrested for “subversive speech” and spent the next 11 years in Salisbury prison.

In 1974, while still in prison, Mugabe was elected—with the powerful influence of Edgar Tekere—to take over the reins of ZANU after a no-confidence vote was passed on Ndabaningi Sithole - Mugabe himself abstained from voting.

However, Mugabe was torn between this objective and pressures to meet the expectations of his own ZANU followers for a faster pace of social change.

Mugabe has been accused by the BBC's Panorama programme of committing mass murder during this period of his rule.

Mugabe has been the Chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe since Parliament passed the University of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill in November 1990.

Mugabe has waged a violent campaign against homosexuals, arguing that before colonisation Zimbabweans did not engage in homosexual acts.

Banana's trial proved embarrassing for Mugabe, when Banana's accusers alleged that Mugabe knew about Banana's conduct and had done nothing to stop it.

Mugabe was blamed for Zimbabwe's participation in the Second Congo War in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Mugabe accepted a "willing buyer, willing seller" plan as part of the Lancaster House Agreement of 1979, among other concessions to the white minority.

President Mugabe is like a lion — when he roars, he leaves some quotable quotes that linger in the mind for a very long time.

Robert Gabriel Mugabe was born at the Jesuit mission of Kutama in northwest Mashonaland, in the north of the British colony of Southern Rhodesia.

While imprisoned Mugabe remained an extremely popular nationalist figure, and many ZANU members came to support him as leader of the party instead of Sithole.

Mugabe was freed in 1974 and became active in the further development of ZANU’s guerrilla army.

In addition, Mugabe was an important supporter of the Frelimo (Front for the Liberation of Mozambique) government in Mozambique during the Mozambican civil war of the 1980s and early 1990s.

Robert Mugabe has beaten Morgan Tsvangirai to win a controversial fifth term as Zimbabwe's president.

Many Zimbabweans, and others, are asking why he does not just put his feet up and enjoy his remaining years with his young family.

Having realised his political mistake, Mr Mugabe is now trying to disenfranchise the young, who generally want political change - and jobs.

But, in his own way, Mr Mugabe is indeed a clever politician.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu said that Mr Mugabe is becoming a cartoon figure of the archetypal African dictator.

In the short term, Mr Mugabe has overcome yet another challenge.

The key to understanding Mr Mugabe is the 1970s guerrilla war where he made his name.

But in political terms, Mr Mugabe has outsmarted his enemies - he is still in power.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu says that Zimbabwe's long-time president has become a cartoon figure of the archetypal African dictator.

Mr Mugabe was 73 when she gave birth to their third child, Chatunga.

But if nothing else, Mr Mugabe is an extremely proud man.

One of Mr Mugabe's closest associates, Didymus Mutasa, once told the BBC that in Zimbabwean culture, kings are only replaced when they die "and Mugabe is our king.

Indeed, many suggest President Robert Mugabe is using the delay to steal the vote.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe described the US.

President Robert Mugabe is "out of touch" with the magnitude of the cholera crisis gripping his country and should step down, the US.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe "has blood on his hands" after the violence leading up to last week's election and should step down, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says.

African Union leaders are huddled in Egypt to address demands they reject the results of Zimbabwe's widely discredited runoff in which President Robert Mugabe was handed a shallow victory.

President Robert Mugabe was sworn in Sunday after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission declared he overwhelmingly won the country's disputed runoff election.

Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu labeled Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe "Frankenstein" and called for other countries to intervene before the country descended into bloodshed.

HARARE, (AFP) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has appointed eight acting ministers days after firing a number of ministers from his.

Reuters - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is expected to form a new government by the end of February despite stalled talks with the main.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is expected to form a new government by the end of February despite stalled talks with.

Western diplomats have openly questioned whether President Mugabe is still in charge.

DUGGERThe government of President Robert Mugabe is accused of misspending funds donated to fight killer diseases.

Mugabe Preparing to Install New Cabinet in ZimbabweBy REUTERSPresident Robert Mugabe has started preparations to form a new government, firing a dozen ministers from his party to clear the way for a new cabinet, state news media reported Saturday.

Wasteland: Comrade Mugabe is clinging to power, and taking his country down with him.

His people have recently re-elected him as President of Zimbabwe, the country over which Mugabe has held humble stewardship since 1980.

On February 24th, 1924, Robert Mugabe was born in Matibiri village, Southern Rhodesia.

Robert Mugabe was often alienated during his student years due to his habit of talking to himself and yelling obscenities at anyone who didn't share in his radical hatred of the governing authorities.

Around the world Mugabe was hailed as a statesman, diplomat and hero to the anti-imperialist cause.

Mugabe was free to launch a brutal attack on the opposition-supporting Ndebele people.

In recent years Mugabe has been praised locally and internationally for his excellent management of Zimbabwe's economy, introducing the theorem of de-digitation where the value of a currency is protected by removing several digits to prevent inflation.

Mugabe has stated that simply ignoring all economic problems and passing blame is more effective than reform, giving such examples as China's great leap forward.

As of 2008, Zimbabwe is one of the richest countries on earth, where the average citizen is a trillionaire.

Mugabe is one of Africa's greatest politicians, whose charm, natural wit and legions of government-sponsored thugs have maintained a longstanding love affair with the Zimbabwean people.

His great personal popularity is such that despite the minor inflation problems, the agricultural slowdown and the widespread hatred directed towards his government, Mugabe was still expected to win the 2008 general election.

Mugabe is thought to have done well with urban voters, white farmers, and even managed to convert many MDC supporters after reminding them that 'the devil man' Gordon Brown was trying to lay claim to Mr Mugabe's economic successes as President.

The love of his people means that Robert Mugabe has been showered with many awards.

Mr Mugabe was also an honorary British Knight of the Garter but he was stripped of this in 2008 to which he responded "Fuck that old bitch, I don't want her cracker medal.

Subsequently to this, Mugabe was raised to the position of President of the 'Fuck Britain Society (African branch.

Personal life: Mugabe was married to Ghanian national Sally Hayfron, a teacher and political activist, in 1961.

In 1996, Mugabe married his onetime secretary, Grace Marufu, who is more than four decades younger than Mugabe, and with whom he had two children while his wife Sally's health was failing.

Political affiliation: Mugabe leads the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front, a socialist party founded in 1987.

Future: Mugabe has faced probably the strongest, most organized opposition in the Movement for Democratic Change.

Mugabe has dominated Zimbabwe's political landscape for the past 30 years and in many ways his story is the story of Zimbabwe.

Annabelle Quince: And that was the Rhodesia that Robert Mugabe grew up in, isn't it?Lawrence Vambe: That's right, Robert Mugabe is a product of the unfortunate and chequered history of our country.

Iden Weatherell: The African National Congress, led by Joshua Nkomo and very closely modelled on the South African National Congress, when that was outlawed, it was succeeded by the National Democratic Party, and in turn when that was outlawed by Zimbabwe African People's Union, ZAPU, Mugabe had his grounding in those parties, and was then part of the schism which broke with ZAPU, broke with Joshua Nkomo, and established ZANU as an alternative formation.

Lawrence Vambe: Now Joshua Nkomo you know, was a very conservative and cautious leader, and Robert Mugabe was young and very radical and impatient, along with a few others.

Iden Weatherell: Essentially Mugabe said that Nkomo's vision of a country of a revolution led by the urban working class, as in South Africa by the Trade Unions, was inappropriate in Zimbabwe's or Rhodesia's circumstances of the 1960s, that liberation when it came would be through the peasants.

In 1963 Mugabe was charged with subversion after making a speech in which he charged the 'gangster' government of 'planning murder.

Iden Weatherell: Mugabe came across as somebody who was immensely articulate, very thoughtful, clearly an intellectual, and so whilst the whites in Rhodesia hadn't seen really very much of him up until this, he was an unknown quantity to them.

Annabelle Quince: The British journalist and author, Martin Meredith, argues that Mugabe was disappointed by the agreement, as he wanted a military victory against the white Rhodesian government.

There were a number of dissidents who had never fully accepted the fact that Mugabe had won and Nkomo had not.

Behind the scenes already Mugabe was prepared to use ruthless force to crush any dissidents or even any perceived dissidents.

Also a growing consensus that ZANU-PF had become arthritic, that it had no solutions to offer to growing problems, that Mugabe was becoming increasingly totalitarianist, that he was out of touch, I think all those issues combined to persuade the leaders of the trade unions and civil society that a viable opposition party should be formed.

Robert Mugabe was born on February 21, 1924, at Kutama Mission in Zvimba, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) four months after it became a British Crown colony.

Mugabe was the son of a peasant farmer and carpenter.

When ZAPU was banned in 1962, Mugabe was restricted for three months, but he eluded imprisonment and fled to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which had become the party's operational headquarters in exile.

Resentment smoldered when Mugabe was once again reelected over Nkomo, spilling over into fighting and murder until finally the two leaders agreed to settle their differences.

Robert Gabriel Mugabe was born in 1924, four months after Southern Rhodesia became a British crown colony.

Robert Mugabe was one of the few who escaped this fate.

By the time Robert Mugabe came home to start his teaching career in 1946, about 300,000 black families had been displaced from their homes and packed into already overcrowded areas.

Mugabe was astounded by their bold new vehemence and the protest groups they had formed to express it.

Mugabe was persuaded to address the gathering.

Along with other ZAPU supporters, Mugabe was so furious about these equivocations that he openly began to advocate a guerrilla war.

In prison Mugabe was not as isolated as the police hoped.

Mugabe had been in prison for about two years when ex-Royal Air Force Pilot Ian Smith became Rhodesia's prime minister.

In other innovations, Mugabe had city boundaries reshaped to ensure multiracial political representation and replaced whites with educated blacks in key positions relating to educational institutions.

One week later Mugabe was installed as the country's new president, while Nkomo was named one of three supervising senior ministers.

In 1996 Mugabe took the controversial stance of supporting the seizure of white-owned land without compensation in order to reverse the economic imbalances that disadvantaged the majority blacks.

But there were widespread allegations that Mugabe had stuffed the ballot box with enough votes to give him his margin of victory.

Though Mugabe was in control, he did face some uncertainty before the 2005 parliamentary elections.

During his campaign, Mugabe said he believed the mining industry would take Zimbabwe out its economic doldrums.

Despite being named one of the world's ten worst dictators by Amnesty International in 2004, Mugabe was expected to win the election and stay in power until at least 2008, when he said he would retire.

Mugabe denied any such situation and refused UN assistance for its alleged victims.

3 pages Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has always been the British government's bete noir.

During the armed struggle against Ian Smith's regime in what was then Rhodesia, Mugabe was denounced as a terrorist with whom the British government could not do business.

The son of a village carpenter, Mugabe was trained as a teacher in a Roman Catholic mission school.

In 1975 Mugabe was freed, and during the civil war that pitted Rhodesias black majority population against Prime Minister Ian Smiths white-ruled Rhodesian government (197579), Mugabe was joint leader, with Nkomo, of the Patriotic Front of Zimbabwe.

At the same time, Mugabe took steps to improve the lot of black Zimbabweans through increased wages, improved social services, and food subsidies.

Mugabe had always intended to convert Zimbabwe from a parliamentary democracy into a one-party socialist state.

Although Mugabe was reelected in 2002, the elections were tainted by violence and criticized by observers.

Despite this, Mugabe remained popular within ZANU-PF, and in December 2007 the party endorsed Mugabe as its presidential candidate in the 2008 elections.

On April 2 the MDC released its own account of presidential election results, which indicated that Mugabe had lost to Tsvangirai by capturing slightly less than half the votes; the MDCs claims were dismissed by ZANU-PF.

There was no official announcement of the final results for the presidential contest until May 2, when it was announced that Mugabe had received 43.

Nevertheless, the election was still held, and Mugabe was declared the winner despite assertions from independent observers that the election was neither free nor fair.

A leader during the Bush War (1964-1979)—a dispute stemming from the restrictive pubic hair regulations that governed Rhodesian strip clubs at the time—Mugabe was originally hailed as both a hero of Zimbabwean independence and as an educated, enlightened head of state.

In essence, Mugabe is that guy who shows up at your party and seems really cool at first, but then, somehow, gets way too drunk, stays after everyone leaves, and then hits on your girlfriend by asking her if she wants to shoot a homemade porno.

Interestingly enough, however, in the grand scheme of African dictators, Mugabe is kind of small time.

In 1964, Mugabe was arrested by Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith—a white, colonialist dick of the highest order—on charges of “subversive speech.

Many critics accuse him of conducting a “reign of terror,” and being an “extremely poor role model” for African leaders… unless, of course, those leaders are interested in conducting a reign of terror, in which case Mugabe is actually a pretty good role model.

Of course, it is impossible to tell, as Mugabe has not only been suppressing election results, but also arresting election officials.

Despite being disallowed from entering the country, Robert Mugabe was a knight of the British crown (British Dickipedia.

If Mugabe is truly going to fall, there needs to be quick and prolonged action.

In more than a quarter of a century in power, Robert Mugabe has turned one of Africa's most promising countries into a basket case.

Yet Mr Mugabe remains in power, calculating that the privileges afforded the top echelons of the security forces and the ruling party, Zanu-PF, will not only keep him there until his term ends next year but, through a constitutional amendment, could extend his rule to 2010.

With inflation running at 1,281 per cent – the highest rate in the world — Mr Mugabe finds himself locked in a vicious circle.

NOW that the Zimbabwean crisis has undeniably reached its tipping point with catastrophic failure looming on the horizon as everything for everyone everywhere across the country begins to rot or collapse beyond repair, it is alarming to observe that President Robert Mugabe remains doggedly in hot pursuit of a reckless three-pronged strategy to keep himself in power beyond 2008 without having to face the electorate ever again.

In particular Mugabe is hoping to use the 2010 plan, supported by his new deadwood-cabinet and the proposed social contract, to move as early as March 2008 from executive president to a ceremonial non-executive president elected by the two houses of parliament sitting together as an electoral college.

Robert Mugabe has been the head of the government of Zimbabwe since its independence from white-minority rule in 1980.

On June 29, 2008, after a runoff election left him the only candidate still standing, Mugabe was sworn in for his sixth term as the President of Zimbabwe.

Despite criticism, Mugabe is still widely considered a hero of the wars of independence for his leadership of guerrilla groups against the government of Rhodesia.

While the election itself was largely peaceful, Mugabe has since been criticized for obstruction of the electoral process.

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Mugabe sworn in after disputed electionPresident Robert Mugabe was sworn in after the Electoral Commission declared he overwhelmingly won the disputed runoff election.

Robert Mugabe was the only candidate to run after the opposition boycotted the vote amid claims of state-sponsored violence.

Call me what you want, it doesn't matter.

Mugabe is an Anglophile, and so are many Zimbabweans.

Everyone's talking about the forthcoming elections—which Mugabe was clearly going to steal (and did)—and the vanishing or murdered opposition politicians, but they also crowd around TVs to watch Britain's Andy Murray advance to the semifinals at Wimbledon, and debate loudly whether he's too obnoxious to deserve victory.

Zimbabwe's self-declared president Robert Gabriel Mugabe has long been a lonely figure.

Robert Mugabe: 'Zimbabwe is mine'Posted on 12-19-2008President Robert Mugabe said Friday that "Zimbabwe is mine" and vowed never to surrender, saying no African nation is brave enough to topple him.

Mugabe has taken his 'presidency,' if one can call it that, by means that are hardy legal.

Funny how now Mugabe is such an oppressor.

gnolia SphereStumbleUponCLOSEFor, yes, Mugabe is in Rome, at the invitation of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, which is holding a conference to discuss the very real international food crisis.

David Plotz quipped that Robert Mugabe is "what would have happened if George Washington had turned out to be Richard Nixon.

This is not the first time Mugabe has taken advantage of this little loophole.

Meanwhile, Mugabe is notorious for using food aid as a political weapon, distributing it only to those who reliably vote for him.

By David PlotzPosted Friday, April 28, 2000, at 9:30 PM ETZimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has unleashed thousands of purported "war veterans" against Zimbabwe's 4,500 white farmers.

But the 76-year-old Mugabe is a character more familiar and more disappointing than those carnivorous dictators.

Mugabe is spending $1 million a day to fight a war in the Congo—a nation 1,200 miles away.

In the early '60s, Mugabe joined Rhodesia's black resistance and was almost immediately jailed by the thuggish white government of Ian Smith.

Released in 1975, Mugabe took command of one of Zimbabwe's two black guerrilla movements.

Mugabe was easily elected president.

And Mugabe was the smartest of the African revolutionaries.

Despite occasional threats against landowners, Mugabe supported white farmers, bankers, and manufacturers.

Most painfully, Mugabe found himself overshadowed by Nelson Mandela.

Mugabe has behaved petulantly since South Africa's revival.

Mugabe has used the Congo adventure for fund raising: Kabila has paid him off by giving diamond and cadmium concessions to Mugabe cronies.

And Mugabe is increasingly megalomaniacal in his dotage.

So Robert Mugabe is supposed to be "Africa's Richard Nixon.

To say that Mugabe was less a Marxist than a Mugabist is beside the point.

Mugabe is simply one of a number of Marxists who are still "doing their thing" to victims in countries all over the world--despite the reported death of communism.

If Mugabe was oppressing black landowners I'm not sure Slate would pay the slightest bit of attention to it.

Mr Mugabe has faced fierce criticism from his fellow Africans.

President Robert Gabriel Mugabe is the last of the old African nationalists who rode to power on the colonial winds of change.

After his wife, Sally, died in 1992, Mugabe married his secretary, Grace Marufu, 40 years his junior, with whom he already had two children.

Mugabe is worried, said Eldred Masunungure, a political commentator.

Lethukuthula, Victoria falls, ZimbabweThere's the evidence that Mugabe was always a dictator, and never won a fair election in his life.

And when someone like Mugabe turns against his own people it is fair to interfere to ensure that they CAN determine their own destiny.

G Fisher, Sydney, AustraliaMugabe is a relic of the past.

I am looking at one of the comments made here and Its Ironic how someone living in the USA would say Mugabe is right.

if Mugabe is so right, go back to Zimbabwe then.

Charan Muzaya, London, UKMugabe knows he can do what he wants because he knows western governments will never intervene.

Mugabe is a broken record who repeats the same rhetoric over and over.

One day they will answer to their own people!james, southampton, englandMugabe is using a WMD called starvation to win this election.

Mugabe is a post colonial, old cold war man.

So, Mugabe is right to see the white man as the enemy.

170608Lim, Johor Bahru, MalaysiaMugabe is the.

Mrs Mugabe joined other leaders wives shopping at high-fashion boutiques.

for outlawed individuals, enabling them to attend international conferences.

There is United states of America, United Kingdom why is there no United States of Africa? All the noise about Mugabe, is it really that the West has a heart for Zimbabweans? Mugabe is not a slave.

Mugabe is not a horse, but he is part of one.

If you think Mugabe is a good man try an experiment - Speak out against him publicly, outside your house.

Last summer because Mugabe was is Lisbon hence Gordon Brown was absent from a major conference.

Please, all the leaders of the world.

John, Atlanta, GAMugabe is not a dictator.

Everybody is happy to whine on about how beastly Robert Mugabe is but nobody is willing to do anything meaningful about it.

Do you know why Mugabe was knighted in 1994 ? Do you know if there is any difference between a township dweller in any of the countries of SADC? Do you know what a twnshp isRoger Ndaba , St Albans, UKWhere once the 3rd World hailed him as one of the finest leaders of great intellect when he became PM in 1980, sadly, like those who have tasted power and find it hard to relinquish office honorably, he's become another petty despot enjoying the good life while most of his people remain destitute.

UK dismisses Mugabe's claim that Zimbabwe chole.

Regional leaders hold Zimbabwe talks in South A.

Zimbabwe: Security Forces Placed On High Alert.

Everyone in Harare knew that Mugabe had to be up there; the soldiers of his presidential guard were still lolling around outside, in their distinctive gold berets.

Mugabe was chairing the meeting himself, in a dark suit and polka-dotted tie.

In the end Mugabe had decided that he intended to do everything necessary to retain his powers.

Mugabe is no swaggering Idi Amin, the onetime heavyweight boxing champion of Uganda.

Godfrey Chanetsa, his former secretary, described to me how Mugabe has always stayed aloof even from his Cabinet, rarely seeing them outside the scheduled Tuesday-afternoon meetings.

Throughout his life Mugabe has been essentially friendless.

Mugabe was politicized during a stint in Ghana in the late 1950s, just as that colony became the first in sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence from Britain.

Mugabe was in fact awarded an honorary knighthood in 1994 for his important contribution to relations between Zimbabwe and Britain.

You can never ever convince an Englishman that you are equal to him, never, never, Mugabe has said.

Marxist operatives and citizens to simply squat on the farmland in question.

more than a few demonstrators critical of his anti-homosexual remarks.

Mugabe was born in Matibiri village near Kutama.

Mugabe was born in Matibiri village near Kutama Mission in the Zvimba District northeast of Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia.

Mugabe was raised as a Roman Catholic, studying in Marist Brothers and Jesuit schools, including the exclusive Kutama College, headed by an Irish priest, Father Jerome O'Hea, who took him under his wing.