Zimbabwe Braces for Turmoil

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe addresses a speech, on April 18, 2008 during celebrations for the country's independence. Photograph: Alexander Joe/AFP

New York Times: Seeing President Mugabe’s Frailty, Zimbabwe Braces for Turmoil

HARARE, Zimbabwe — The independence festivities took place just as they have for decades: led by President Robert Mugabe, the only leader Zimbabwe has ever had.

But as Mr. Mugabe, 92, inspected a military parade during the celebrations last month, he did something unusual. When his vehicle stopped in front of a framed picture of the president, Mr. Mugabe bowed before his own portrait. Zimbabweans were stunned. Had their president grown so feeble, they wondered, that he could no longer recognize the person in front of him?

Mr. Mugabe, the world’s oldest head of state, said this year that he would preside over Zimbabwe “until God says, ‘Come.’ ” His increasingly powerful wife, Grace, vowed that her husband would rule from a special wheelchair until he was 100.

But the end of an era looms over this capital. As Mr. Mugabe has grown visibly weaker in the past year, talk of his death dominates the private conversations of the governing class, leading to some cutthroat maneuvering for the endgame.

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WNU Editor: When tyrants leave (naturally or not) the outcome is usually harsh. In the case of Zimbabwe it is easy to predict what will happen after Mugabe has died .... a power struggle that will be eventually decided by who controls the guns and security apparatus. And as for Robert Mugabe's legacy .... another revolutionary leader whose claim to fame will be the methods that he used to impose harm and brutality among many of his citizens.