After the ousting of his mentor Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s new president Emmerson Mnangagwa is showing signs of charting a path differently, as he looks to win over the citizens before next year’s elections.
Emmerson Mnangagwa is expected to be endorsed as the President and party leader for his presidential run on Friday by ZANU-PF. The elections will be the key test of his vows to strengthen Zimbabwe’s democracy and to attract much needed foreign investment for reviving the devastated economy.
Describing Mugabe as a “father, comrade-in-arms and my leader”, Mnangagwa preferred to call his swearing-in the day as “Zimbabwe renews itself.”
Emmerson Mnangagwa to be sworn in as Zimbabwe president on Friday
Zimbabweans are expecting if Mnangagwa can step out of his mentor Mugabe’s shadow who was his longtime ally. It was the unexpected firing of Mnangagwa as vice president which led the country to turn against the president after 37 years in power.
It seems that Mnangagwa has definitely made some bold moves, despite stocking the new Cabinet with military and ruling party members and shutting out the opposition.
President Mnangagwa will Name & Shame People who Externalized Money
On Thursday, Mnangagwa vows for the “unconditional lifting” of sanctions that according to him have slowed down the country’s economy. He also said he has a list of people who illegally moved money outside the country and will be publicly shamed if the money isn’t returned by March.
The foreign ownership of businesses in the country is about to be set to no more than 49 percent of shares according to the Mugabe-backed indigenization law which is soon going to be implemented under the new leadership.
Cabinet ministers who rarely attended parliamentary question-and-answer sessions have been asked to amend their bureaucratic lifestyle. Even the Zimbabwe’s police, known for demanding bribes, have been warned to prohibit themselves significantly from such activities and to reform themselves with immediate effect.
Such changes would have been unthinkable under Mugabe, who was widely criticized for mismanaging the economy so badly that millions of people fled abroad and many qualified people were reduced to street vending.
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