Mugabe's regime took what was a functional government where people could feed themselves and turned it into one that required foreign aid in order to subsist.
You probably mean functional economy because for starters, that statement doesn't make much sense as it is and secondly because the Zimbabwe government was dysfunctional long before the economy began to collapse. At that time, the West didn't really care because he was still playing by their rules.
They took the farms from the white farmers and handed them over to black farmers without regard for what the new farmers were going to do with it, and without giving any compensation at all to the farmers who through no fault of their own came into possession of the properties.
The main issue here is not that the farmers were handed over to irresponsible and uneducated peasant black farmers, it's that the land was ever taken away at all. How dare he right? Well, last I checked Zimbabwe was in Africa and was still a black majority country so the land has always been theirs to begin with. What exactly does "no fault of their own" mean anyway? While there were some white farmers who were dispossessed of land they purchased legitimately post-independence (these deserved compensations), the majority of them inherited it from their parents who inherited it from their parents and so on. At some point their ancestors bribed, cheated and most importantly, killed their way into owning that land.
The only compensation that could have been given was for the value additions made to such land such as housing and agricultural infrastructure.
As for the crimes against humanity, yes he has committed some and should face justice. However I find it sickening how it's only when they refuse to let the West bully them any longer that dubious Third-World leaders suddenly become international criminals worthy of facing condemnation at the Hague. Why him and not I don't know, well, George Bush or Tony Blair? Sorry, Mugabe is a smart guy and he sees through the West's double standards and hypocritical definitions of criminal and statesman.
