Zimbabwe publication ZimLive has reported that the country’s former President Robert Mugabe has passed away, after a long battle with ill health. The Mirror reports that Mugabe passed away in a hospital in Singapore.
In August, it was reported that Mugabe was responding well to treatment in Singapore. Earlier that month, Mugabe made headlines last week after a recent picture of him looking rather frail surfaced on social media. The picture was reportedly shared by his son Robert Mugabe Jr.
He was ousted in a military coup in November 2017, ending three decades in power.
He won Zimbabwe’s first election after independence, becoming prime minister in 1980. He abolished the office in 1987, becoming President instead.
Mugabe’s early years were praised for broadening access to health and education for the black majority. But his controversial land reform programme sparked an economic collapse and his latter years were marked by rights abuses and corruption.
Mr Mugabe was born on 21 February 1924, in what was then Rhodesia.
He was imprisoned for more than a decade without trial after criticising the government of Rhodesia in 1964.
In 1973, while still in prison, he was chosen as president of the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu), of which he was a founding member.
Mr Mugabe was known as a highly courageous man.
