Robert Mugabe’s Life Post Presidency

Steve Oke Chapchap Market No Comments

Late in December 2017, according to a government gazette, Mugabe was given full diplomatic status and, out of public funds, a five-bedroom house, up to 23 staff members, and personal vehicles. He further was permitted to keep the business interests and other wealth which he had amassed while in power, and he received an additional payment of about ten million dollars.^[406]

On 15 March 2018, in his first interview since removal from the presidency, Mugabe insisted that he had been ousted in a “coup d’état” which must be undone. He stated that he would not work with Mnangagwa and termed Mnangagwa’s presidency “illegal” and “unconstitutional”.^[407] In a lawsuit brought by two political parties, the Liberal Democrats and the Revolutionary Freedom Fighters, and others, the court found that the resignation was legal, and that Mnangagwa, as vice president, duly took over the presidency.^[405]

On the eve of the first general election without him in almost thirty years, on 29 July 2018, Mugabe held a surprise press conference, in which he stated that he would not vote for President Mnangagwa and ZANU-PF, the party he founded. Instead, he intended to vote for his long-time rival, the MDC party of Nelson Chamisa.^{[408][409][410][411]}

Illness and death

Mugabe was hospitalized in April 2019, making the last of several trips to Singapore for medical treatment, as he had done late in his presidency and in the months following its end.^[412][413] He died on 6 September 2019, at the age of 95.^[2]