Robert Mugabe’s death in a Singapore hospital symbolized Zimbabwe’s economic collapse

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In his dying days, Robert Mugabe was cocooned in luxury medical care at an exclusive Singapore hospital, insulated from the economic misery and decaying health system that his policies had left behind in Zimbabwe.

When the former dictator died at Gleneagles Hospital in Singapore on Friday morning at the age of 95, doctors were still on strike at Zimbabwe’s hospitals, protesting the soaring inflation that had eroded their salaries, while the United Nations was appealing for funds for food aid to prevent starvation among millions of impoverished Zimbabweans.

The deep gulf between Zimbabwe’s ruling elite, who could afford medical treatment abroad, and the vast majority of ordinary people, who suffered from the collapse of the country’s health system and other public services, helps explain why so many Zimbabweans felt an ambivalent reaction to his death.

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While many people remembered his role in freeing the country from white minority rule in 1980 and building one of Africa’s strongest education and health systems in the early years of his government, they also remembered the massacres in Matabeleland, the arrest and torture of political opponents, the rigged elections, the hyperinflation of 2008 and the destruction of the manufacturing sector.

Mr. Mugabe, who ruled his country for 37 years until he was deposed in a military-led coup in 2017, had always preferred to avoid Zimbabwe’s hospitals. He made long annual visits to Gleneagles, a private 257-bed hospital where a suite can cost the equivalent of up to $7,265 per day, according to its website.

The Zimbabwean government continued to pay for his travel to Singapore, even after he was ousted from power. The country’s new President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, was a close lieutenant of Mr. Mugabe for decades and has continued his authoritarian style of rule.

On Friday morning, Mr. Mnangagwa cut short a visit to an economic conference in South Africa and flew back to Zimbabwe to begin preparations for a period of national mourning for Mr. Mugabe. State television described the former president as the country’s “founding father.”

But by the time of his death, Mr. Mugabe had little influence in Zimbabwe. After his ouster, he was rarely seen in public and seemed to have vanished from the political stage, although he gave a television interview last year in which he complained that the coup was “illegal” and “a disgrace.”

For many of his supporters, Robert Gabriel Mugabe was one of the last connections to the glories of the liberation struggle, when heroes and enemies were clear and the political narrative was simple.

For decades, he had helped lead the fight against white minority rule in a rebel British colony. After the country’s liberation in 1980, his government enjoyed strong international support. He was knighted by the Queen, and Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau invited him on a tour across Canada in 1983, despite growing evidence that the Mugabe government had massacred thousands of people in the Matabeleland region, an opposition stronghold.

The honeymoon eventually soured. Mr. Mugabe was stripped of his knighthood in 2008, while Canada and other countries imposed sanctions on him.

In a tweet on Friday, the Canadian embassy in Harare expressed its “sincere condolences” to the people of Zimbabwe. “Although his leadership was controversial in the later years, he will be remembered for the key role he played in the independence of Zimbabwe,” the Canadian embassy said.

Among Zimbabwe’s politicians, even the opposition expressed sadness. “We acknowledge his role in laying the foundation of an independent Africa and an independent Zimbabwe,” said the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the biggest opposition party.

David Coltart, a cabinet minister in a coalition government between Mr. Mugabe’s ruling party and the MDC from 2009 to 2013, said the former president’s “enduring positive legacy will be his role in ending white minority rule and expanding a quality education to all Zimbabweans.”

But the death of Mr. Mugabe did not mark the end of an era, Mr. Coltart said. “Regrettably the negative aspects of his legacy – violence, disrespect for the rule of law, corruption and abuse of power – live on in the new regime which overthrew him in the 2017 coup.”

Across Africa, many governments saw Mr. Mugabe as a hero. He was “a liberation fighter and a champion of Africa’s cause against colonialism,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement on Friday.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta declared three days of mourning and directed that flags be flown at half mast.

Mr. Mugabe lost much of his Western support after he encouraged the invasion and takeover of white-owned farms, beginning in 2000. The land invasions led to a sharp decline in Zimbabwe’s agricultural production and a growing dependence on food aid in recent years.

The UN World Food Programme estimated last month that five million Zimbabweans, a third of the population, need food aid to survive, and 2.5 million are “marching towards starvation” if they are not helped.

Under the policies introduced by Mr. Mugabe and continued by Mr. Mnangagwa, the country has suffered a collapsing currency, rising inflation, high unemployment and widespread poverty. Many people have been forced to become informal traders, selling a few meagre goods on the streets of Harare, often chased away by police raids.

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