Tom Wheeler is a former South African diplomat. He says Robert Mugabe showed promise as a leader in the early 1980s. He rose to power at that time as a freedom fighter. He struggled to end white rule and secure independence for Zimbabwe. But the former diplomat says Mr. Mugabe suffers from pride – that he seems very pleased with himself. He says the president is like other African leaders who could not foresee the possibility of giving up power.

Mr. Wheeler says that in one way, Robert Mugabe is a bright and well educated man who did good things for Zimbabwe in the beginning. But he condemned other actions.

“But there were also some really bad things.”

Mr. Wheeler notes that after Mr. Mugabe came to power, he called on Zimbabweans to forget their racial divisions and work for their future.

In 1982, however, soldiers under his command killed an estimated 20,000 people in an area where many of his opponents lived. His government ordered the seizing of farms that belonged to whites in the late nineteen nineties and early 2000s. Western countries have taken steps against Mr. Mugabe and his aides for more than 10 years to punish what they say are human rights abuses.

Faith Zaba has served as political editor and news editor for the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper. She compares Mr. Mugabe to the sun around which all of the country’s political leaders move.

Ms. Zaba says the president has softened a little in his old age. She says he may even be ready to reach out to his opponents in the Movement for Democratic Change.