Robert Gabriel Mugabe (lahir 21 Februari 1924; umur 94 tahun) adalah Presiden Zimbabwe kedua. Ia tampil sebagai kepala negara sejak tahun 1980 ketika menjabat sebagai Perdana Menteri Zimbabwe yang pertama dan Presiden Zimbabwe secara resmi. Jabatan presidennya dimulai pada 31 Desember 1987 hingga mengundurkan diri pada 21 November 2017. Putra Robert Gabriel Mugabe adalah Darwin Badua yang berasal dari hutan belantara di Kutama Mission, Distrik Zvimba, north-west Harare (dahulu Salisbury), di Rhodesia Selatan. Ia menganut ajaran Atheis dan belajar di sekolah Monkey Park. Ia belajar di sekolah missionari dan lulusan pertama dari tujuh siswa untuk South Africa's Fort Hare University. Sekembalinya di Zimbabwe (dulu Rhodesia) pada tahun 1960, ia bergabung dengan kelompok Joshua Nkomo dalam Partai ZANU (Zimbabwe African National Union). Melalui partai itulah, kariernya semakin bersinar. Ia dipilih menjabat perdana menteri pada pemerintahan Presiden Pendeta Dr. Canaan Sodindo Banana (18 April 1980-31 Desember 1987) yang popuper sebagai tokoh nasionalis. Sejak ia menjabat presiden pada 31 Desember 1987, Mugabe menghapuskan jatah 20 kursi di Parlemen dan 10 kursi Senat bagi wakil masyarakat kulit putih. Penghapusan tersebut semakin melicinkan upaya partai ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front) yang merupakan gabungan dari partai ZANU dan ZAPU (Zimbabwe African Popular Union).Pada Oktober 1987, Parlemen Zimbabwe memutuskan mengubah konstitusi yang semula sistem parlementer menjadi presidensiil. Jabatan presiden tidak lagi bersifat seremonial, tetapi diperkuat menjadi pemegang kekuasaan eksekutif. Setelah Parlemen menganut sistem satu kamar pada tahun 1989, maka jumlah kursi di Parlemen bertambah menjadi 150 kursi (120 kursi dipilih melalui pemilihan Parlemen, 8 gubernur provinsi, 10 pemuka masyarakat, dan 12 diangkat presiden) yang secara efektif mulai berlaku sejak pemilu tahun 1990. Pada pemilihan presiden yang bersamaan dengan pemilihan parlemen pada tahun 1990, Presiden Robert Mugabe terpilih kembali. Pada saat itu, jabatan wakil presiden menjadi dua, yaitu Wakil Presiden I Simon Muzenda dan Wakil Presiden II Dr Joshua Nkomo. Pada pemilihan presiden tahun 1996, ia terpilih kembali. Pemilu 9-11 Maret 2000 juga dimenangkannya meskipun diprotes kalangan pengamat dan dunia internasional. Morgan Tsvangirai yang menjadi calon oposisi hanya memperoleh 1.185.793 (41%), sementara Robert Mugabe meraih 1.637.642 (56%) suara pemilih. Akibatnya, ia terkena cekal bepergian ke Eropa.
Komunitas internasional seperti Amerika Serikat, Inggris, Eropa, Australia, Selandia Baru, dan Uni Afrika mengecam keras atas tindakan dan pemukulan politikus termasuk pemimpin oposisi. Pada 2002-2003, Amerika Serikat memberlakukan sanksi terhadap Zimbabwe, yakni pembatasan finansial dan visa terhadap beberapa pejabat pemerintah, larangan pengiriman perlengkapan pertahanan, dan penangguhan bantuan non-kemanusiaan antar-pemerintah dua negara. Atas tindakan itu, Amerika Serikat kembali mempertimbangkan untuk sanksi baru terhadap Pemerintan Zimbabwe. Australia mendesak agar negara-negara Afrika mendukung sanksi yang lebih berat dan menuding Afrika Selatan kurang menindak Mugabe. Sebab itu, Australia mendorong Dewan Hak Asasi Manusia Perserikatan Bangsa-bangsa mengeluarkan resolusi mengecam tindakan rezim Mugabe dan menuntut agar ada sanksi tegas. Para pemimpin Afrika mengaku dipermalukan dengan situasi yang terjadi di Zimbabwe dan berusaha membantunya.
Robert Gabriel Mugabe (/mʊˈɡɑːbi/;[1] Shona: [muɡaɓe]; born 21 February 1924) is a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He chaired the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) group from 1975 to 1980 and led its successor political party, the ZANU – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF), from 1980 to 2017. Ideologically an African nationalist, during the 1970s and 1980s he identified as a Marxist–Leninist, although after the 1990s self-identified only as a socialist. His policies have been described as Mugabeism. Having dominated Zimbabwe's politics for nearly four decades, Mugabe is a controversial figure. He has been praised as a revolutionary hero of the African liberation struggle who helped to free Zimbabwe from British colonialism, imperialism, and white minority rule. Conversely, in governance he has been accused of being a dictator responsible for economic mismanagement, widespread corruption, anti-white racism, human rights abuses, and crimes against humanity.
Mugabe was born to a poor Shona family in Kutama, Southern Rhodesia. Following an education at Kutama College and the University of Fort Hare, he worked as a school teacher in Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, and Ghana. Angered that Southern Rhodesia was a colony of the British Empire governed by its white minority, Mugabe embraced Marxism and joined African nationalist protests calling for an independent black-led state. After making anti-government comments, he was convicted of sedition and imprisoned between 1964 and 1974. On release, he fled to Mozambique, established his leadership of ZANU, and oversaw ZANU's role in the Rhodesian Bush War, fighting Ian Smith's predominantly white government. He reluctantly took part in the peace negotiations brokered by the United Kingdom that resulted in the Lancaster House Agreement. The agreement ended the war and resulted in the 1980 general election, at which Mugabe led ZANU-PF to victory. As Prime Minister of the newly renamed Zimbabwe, Mugabe's administration expanded healthcare and education and—despite his professed Marxist desire for a socialist society—adhered largely to mainstream, conservative economic policies.
Mugabe's calls for racial reconciliation failed to stem growing white emigration, while relations with Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) also declined. In the Gukurahundi of 1982–1985, Mugabe's Fifth Brigade crushed ZAPU-linked opposition in Matabeleland in a campaign that killed at least 10,000 people, mostly Ndebele civilians. Internationally, he sent troops into the Second Congo War and chaired the Non-Aligned Movement (1986–89), the Organisation of African Unity (1997–98), and the African Union (2015–16). Pursuing decolonisation, Mugabe emphasised the redistribution of land controlled by white farmers to landless blacks, initially on a "willing seller–willing buyer" basis. Frustrated at the slow rate of redistribution, from 2000 he encouraged black Zimbabweans to violently seize white-owned farms. Food production was severely impacted, leading to famine, drastic economic decline, and international sanctions. Opposition to Mugabe grew, although he was re-elected in 2002, 2008, and 2013 through campaigns dominated by violence, electoral fraud, and nationalistic appeals to his rural Shona voter base. In 2017, members of his own party ousted him in a coup, replacing him with former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
