Robert Mugabe

===Relations with ZAPU and the Gukurahundi ===
{{Main|Gukurahundi}}
[[File:Zimbabwe African People's Union flag.svg|thumb|The flag of ZAPU, which was largely eliminated by ZANU-PF in the Gukurahundi]]
Under the new constitution, Zimbabwe's presidency was a ceremonial role with no governmental power; the first President was [[Canaan Banana]].{{sfn|Norman|2008|p=74}} Mugabe had previously offered the position to Nkomo, who had turned it down in favour of becoming Minister of Home Affairs.{{sfnm|1a1=Meredith|1y=2002|1p=39|2a1=Norman|2y=2008|2p=74}} While working together, there remained an aura of resentment and suspicion between Mugabe and Nkomo.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=39}} Mugabe gave ZAPU four cabinet seats, but Nkomo demanded more.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|pp=59–60}} In contrast, some ZANU–PF figures argued that ZAPU should not have any seats in government, suggesting that Zimbabwe be converted into a one-party state.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=60}} Tekere and [[Enos Nkala]] were particularly adamant that there should be a crackdown on ZAPU.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=60}} After Nkala called for ZAPU to be violently crushed during a rally in [[Entumbane]], street clashes between the two parties broke out in the city.{{sfnm|1a1=Blair|1y=2002|1p=30|2a1=Meredith|2y=2002|2p=61|3a1=Norman|3y=2008|3p=76}}

In January 1981, Mugabe demoted Nkomo in a cabinet reshuffle; the latter warned that this would anger ZAPU supporters.{{sfnm|1a1=Blair|1y=2002|1p=30|2a1=Meredith|2y=2002|2p=61}} In February, violence between ZAPU and ZANU–PF supporters broke out among the battalion stationed at [[Ntabazinduna]], soon spreading to other army bases, resulting in 300 deaths.{{Sfn|Meredith|2002|pp=61–62}} An arms cache featuring land mines and anti-aircraft missiles were then discovered at Ascot Farm, which was part-owned by Nkomo. Mugabe cited this as evidence that ZAPU were plotting a coup, an allegation that Nkomo denied.{{sfnm|1a1=Blair|1y=2002|1p=30|2a1=Meredith|2y=2002|2pp=62, 64|3a1=Norman|3y=2008|3p=77}} Likening Nkomo to "a cobra in the house", Mugabe sacked him from the government, and ZAPU-owned businesses, farms, and properties were seized.{{sfnm|1a1=Blair|1y=2002|1p=30|2a1=Meredith|2y=2002|2p=63|3a1=Norman|3y=2008|3p=78}}

Members of both ZANLA and ZIPRA had deserted their positions and engaged in [[banditry]].{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=60}} In [[Matabeleland]], ZIPRA deserters who came to be known as "dissenters" engaged in robbery, holding up buses, and attacking farmhouses, creating an environment of growing lawlessness.{{sfnm|1a1=Blair|1y=2002|1p=30|2a1=Meredith|2y=2002|2p=64}} These dissidents received support from South Africa through its [[Operation Mute]], by which it hoped to further destabilise Zimbabwe.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=64}} The government often conflated ZIPRA with the dissenters,{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=66}} although Nkomo denounced the dissidents and their South African supporters.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=65}} Mugabe authorised the police and army to crack down on the Matabeleland dissenters, declaring that state officers would be granted legal immunity for any "extra-legal" actions they may perform while doing so.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=65}} During 1982 he had established the [[Zimbabwean Fifth Brigade|Fifth Brigade]], an elite armed force trained by the North Koreans; membership was drawn largely from Shona-speaking ZANLA soldiers and were answerable directly to Mugabe.{{sfnm|1a1=Blair|1y=2002|1p=30|2a1=Meredith|2y=2002|2p=65|3a1=Norman|3y=2008|3p=77}} In January 1983, the Fifth Brigade were deployed in the region, overseeing a campaign of beatings, arson, public executions, and massacres of those accused of being sympathetic to the dissidents.{{sfnm|1a1=Blair|1y=2002|1p=30|2a1=Meredith|2y=2002|2p=67}} The scale of the violence was greater than that witnessed in the Rhodesian War.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=67}} Interrogation centres were established where people were tortured.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=70}} Mugabe acknowledged that civilians would be persecuted in the violence, claiming that "we can't tell who is a dissident and who is not."{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=33}} The ensuing events became known as the "Gukurahundi", a Shona word meaning "wind that sweeps away the chaff before the rains".{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=31}}

[[File:Matabeleland.svg|thumb|left|upright|The Gukurahundi took place in Zimbabwe's western provinces of Matabeleland (highlighted).]]
In 1984 the Gukurahundi spread to [[Matabeleland South]], an area then in its third year of drought. The Fifth Brigade closed all stores, halted all deliveries, and imposed a curfew, exacerbating starvation for a period of two months.{{sfnm|1a1=Blair|1y=2002|1p=32|2a1=Meredith|2y=2002|2p=69}} The [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bulawayo|Bishop of Bulawayo]] accused Mugabe of overseeing a project of systematic starvation.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=70}} When a Roman Catholic delegation provided Mugabe with a dossier listing atrocities committed by the Fifth Brigade, Mugabe refuted all its allegations and accused the clergy of being disloyal to Zimbabwe.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|pp=67–68}} He had the [[Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe]] suppressed.{{sfn|Holland|2008|pp=148–149}} In 1985, an [[Amnesty International]] report on the Gukurahundi was dismissed by Mugabe as "a heap of lies".{{sfnm|1a1=Meredith|1y=2002|1p=73|2a1=Norman|2y=2008|2p=79}} Over the course of four years, approximately 10,000 civilians had been killed, and many others had been beaten and tortured.{{sfnm|1a1=Meredith|1y=2002|1p=75|2a1=Norman|2y=2008|2p=109}} [[Genocide Watch]] later estimated that approximately 20,000 had been killed{{sfn|Tendi|2011|p=308}} and classified the events as genocide.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Smith|first=David|date=6 September 2019|title=Zimbabwe's intellectual despot: how Mugabe became Africa's fallen angel|language=en-GB|work=[[The Guardian]]|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/06/zimbabwes-intellectual-despot-how-mugabe-became-africas-fallen-angel|access-date=10 October 2020|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

[[Margaret Thatcher]]'s UK government was aware of the killings but remained silent on the matter, cautious not to anger Mugabe and threaten the safety of white Zimbabweans.{{sfnm|1a1=Holland|1y=2008|1p=66|2a1=Tendi|2y=2011|2pp=308–309}} The United States also did not raise strong objections, with President [[Ronald Reagan]] welcoming Mugabe to the [[White House]] in September 1983.{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=34}} In October 1983, Mugabe attended the [[Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 1983|Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting]] in New Delhi, where no participating states mentioned the Gukurahundi.{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=34}} In 2000, Mugabe acknowledged that the mass killings had happened, stating that it was "an act of madness&nbsp;... it was wrong and both sides were to blame".{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=74}} His biographer [[Martin Meredith]] argued that Mugabe and his ZANU–PF were solely to blame for the massacres.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=74}} Various Mugabe biographers have seen the Gukurahundi as a deliberate attempt to eliminate ZAPU and its support base to advance his desire for a ZANU–PF one-party state.{{sfnm|1a1=Blair|1y=2002|1p=32|2a1=Meredith|2y=2002|2p=74}}

There was further violence in the build-up to the 1985 election, with ZAPU supporters facing harassment from [[ZANU–PF Youth League]] brigades.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=71}} Despite this intimidation, ZAPU won all 15 of the parliamentary seats in Matabeleland.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=71}} Mugabe then appointed [[Enos Nkala]] as the new police minister. Nkala subsequently detained over 100 ZAPU officials, including five of its MPs and the Mayor of Bulawayo, banned the party from holding rallies or meetings, closed all of their offices, and dissolved all of the district councils that they controlled.{{sfn|Meredith|2002|pp=71–73}} To avoid further violence, in December 1987 Nkomo signed a Unity Accord in which ZAPU was officially disbanded and its leadership merged into ZANU–PF.{{sfnm|1a1=Blair|1y=2002|1p=34|2a1=Meredith|2y=2002|2p=73|3a1=Norman|3y=2008|3p=79}} The merger between the two parties left ZANU–PF with 99 of the 100 seats in parliament,{{sfnm|1a1=Blair|1y=2002|1p=36|2a1=Meredith|2y=2002|2p=79}} and established Zimbabwe as a ''de facto'' one-party state.{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=34}}