was then also hiding in Mozambique, as the leader of the ZANU Patriotic Front (PF). After the ensuing guerilla war, which ended with the Lancaster House Agreement, and a brief interregnum of British government while new elections were organised, Mugabe was elected as the first prime minister of the new independent Zimbabwe and made Muzenda the deputy prime minister and foreign minister in 1980; Muzenda also retained political power over his home area. In 1987, when Mugabe became executive president, Muzenda was appointed as his vice-president. In Zimbabwe's early years, Muzenda was generally respected by the people as a no-nonsense, plain-spoken man from the working class, but in later years, he appeared more and more crude. In 1990, his campaign for a seat in Zimbabwe's parliament suffered a blow after opposition candidate Patrick Kombayi was shot and left permanently disabled; two state agents were convicted of attempted murder, but pardoned by Mugabe shortly after the trial ended, and even though Muzenda was not publicly accused of being involved in the shooting, it affected his standing with the public. During the years of Mugabe's rule, Muzenda always gave unreserved backing to the president, even when the regime began muzzling the independent press, curb the activities of foreign correspondents and crushing political opposition. He also participated in Mugabe's land redistribution programme, taking over the Chindito farm, south of Harare, in April 2002 and ejecting the white farm owner, Chris Nel; this incident caused a controversy with the Commercial Farmers Union. In addition, he was put on the United States sanctions list in 2003 and remained on the list until his death. Death In the two years preceding his death, Muzenda was in failing health, with problems including hypertension and diabetes; after returning from medical treatment in China in July 2003, he was admitted to the coronary care unit of Harare's main government facility, the Parirenyatwa Hospital, where, according to medical sources, he fell into a semi-conscious state. Two weeks before his death, Zimbabwe's state-owned media dismissed reports that he was in declining health, instead announcing that he was making "remarkable progress" towards a full recovery. Muzenda died on 20 September 2003; he was 80 years old. He was survived by a wife and six children. He had a State funeral, and he is buried at the National Heroes Acre. See also History of Zimbabwe Lancaster House Agreement Land reform in Zimbabwe Further