Robert Gabriel Mugabe KCB (born on February 21, 1924) has served as the head of government in Zimbabwe since 1980, as Prime Minister from 1980 to 1987 and as the first executive President since 1987.He rose to prominence in the 1970s as a leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) in guerrilla warfare against white-minority rule in Rhodesia in the Bush War (1964–1979).Mugabe is an outspoken, controversial and polarizing figure. He is considered by many members of the African public a hero of the fight for independence. However, particularly in the United States, Europe, and British Commonwealth countries, the Mugabe administration has been accused of corruption, suppression of political opposition, mishandling of land reform, economic mismanagement, and deteriorating human rights in Zimbabwe. According to critics, his administration's policies have led to economic collapse and massive starvation over the course of the last ten years. Zimbabwe has the highest inflation rate in the world predicted to hit 1.5 million % by the end of 2007, and is, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Africa's worst economic performer. With a record 85 % unemployment and ~8000 % inflation rates, Zimbabwe is in its worst economic crisis since Mugabe took power. British Foreign Minister Peter Hain, senior Zimbabwean Roman Catholic bishops and John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York and others accused Mugabe's government of racist policies. Mugabe, in turn, has called his critics "born again colonialists," and his allies in the African community respond to his critics by saying that Zimbabwe's problems are the legacy of colonialism.