Robert Mugabe

Robert Gabriel Mugabe graduated in 1951 with a BA from Fort Hare University College (whose students were registered as external students of Unisa). His later Unisa degrees include a Bachelor of Administration and a Bachelor of Education.

As President of Zimbabwe and leader of its ruling party ZANU–PF, Robert Mugabe became one of the world’s most controversial leaders. Although his anti-Western stance remained popular in some African and Asian political forums, his government faced widespread accusations ranging from gross economic mismanagement to media suppression and the manipulation of successive elections to retain power. Mugabe’s history as a student and educator is, nonetheless, in many ways outstanding. After graduating from Fort Hare, he earned six more degrees, including a Master of Laws undertaken while imprisoned by the authorities for his political resistance to white minority rule in then Rhodesia. Later, across the first decade of Zimbabwe’s independence (1980–1990), Mugabe’s government was applauded for its achievements in adult literacy, school enrolment and quality of education.  After 1990 he became a divisive figure, accused of dictatorial tendencies, corruption and human rights violations. He was ousted from power in 2017 after an internal coup.

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