Robert Mugabe as Zimbabwe pres

Robert Mugabe as Zimbabwe president: A timeline of tyranny

With the fall of Robert Mugabe and his four-decade regime, we look at the key moments on his watch – from deaths and intimidation to hyperinflation.

Robert Mugabe as Zimbabwe pres

1980

Robert Mugabe is named the first prime minister of newly-named Zimbabwe, following independence from Britain.

He had spent a decade in jail for his part in the fight for independence from colonial rule.

1982

Thousands of Zimbabweans are reported to have been killed, many of them in Matabeleland province.

The region was home to former ally and leader of the ZAPU party, Joshua Nkomo.

The North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade carried out a series of savage attacks in the area.

It is seen as Mugabe’s first real effort to create a one-party state.

1987

ZANU-PF forms as Mugabe’s ZANU party swallows up Nkomo’s ZAPU.

This paves the way for Mugabe to tighten his grip on power by changing the constitution – and becoming president.

1992

Mugabe’s first wife, Sally, dies after a period of ill health. The president had already begun a relationship with Grace, a member of his secretarial team, by this time.

Grace left her first husband and married Mugabe, over four decades her senior, in a lavish ceremony in 1996.

2000

Constitutional changes are rejected in a referendum by the Zimbabwean people, much to the leader’s dismay.

His response is to fast-track land reform programme as hundreds of white-owned farms are seized.

Foreign aid is slashed and international uproar surrounds the move.

Morgan Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change party are narrowly defeated in parliamentary elections later the same year.

2002

Mugabe’s re-election following dubiously managed elections see his country suspended from Commonwealth councils and sanctioned by the European Union.

Severe food shortages follow and a state of disaster is declared.

2003

Tsvangirai zimbabwe coup
HARARE, ZIMBABWE – JULY 29: Zimbabwean Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai addresses the crowd at a MDC rally on July 29, 2013 in Harare, The Movement For Democratic Change held its final campaign rally yesterday. The general elections are set for July 31. (Photo by Gallo Images / Foto24 / Herman Verwey)

Widespread protests and strikes lead to a clampdown as vocal opposition against the Mugabe regime grows.

Tsvangirai is arrested twice in the space of a week and charged with treason for a second time. One charge is dropped the following year and the other in 2006.

2005

Opposition parties cry foul as ZANU-PF receive two-thirds of the vote in parliamentary elections once again.

As foreign opposition continues, the USA slams Mugabe’s Zimbabwe as “an outpost of tyranny.”

2008

Hyperinflation, which began two years previously, really hits home with the Zimbabwean Dollar rendered almost worthless.

MDC gains more votes than ZANU-PF, only for a run-off with Tsvangirai for the presidency to be declared.

The opposition leader later pulls out of the race amid claims of mass-intimidation.

2011

Tsvangirai declares his fragile power-sharing agreement with Mugabe a failure, having been made prime minister in 2008.

Widespread violence goes on across the country.

2014

AfriForum begin court battle to revoke Grace Mugabe's diplomatic immunity

Vice-president Joyce Mujuru is sacked along with seven other ministers, as Mugabe claims to have uncovered a plot to kill him.

The influential ZANU-PF Women’s League nominate Grace Mugabe as leader, despite her having no political experience.

2017

A bizarre appearance at a graduation ceremony and a rambling late-night television speech punctuates a week under house arrest after the military move in following the president’s sacking of former ally Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The 93-year-old finally resigns – and brings to end nearly four decades of rule in Zimbabwe.

Streets fill in capital city Harare as Zimbabweans celebrate the end of an era.