PRETORIA - Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe's death is for the country to celebrate his achievements while picking up the lessons from his many transgressions, Zimbabwean academic and former deputy prime minister Professor Arthur Mutambara said on Saturday.
"We must accept the good with the bad – a conflicted and tortured legacy indeed. As we mourn him, let us celebrate his achievements and pick up lessons from his transgressions – learning what not to do," Mutambara said.
"As an opponent and critic of Robert Mugabe from 1987 to 2017 – 30 years of conflict and contradictions – I acknowledge his place in history as both a national and a Pan-African hero," he said.
Mugabe, 95, Zimbabwe’s first post-independence leader, died in a hospital in Singapore on Friday of an undisclosed illness. The former president had been battling poor health for some time.
It was announced by incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa two weeks ago that doctors in Singapore, who had been treating him since April, had discontinued his treatment.