Zimbabwe’s New President To Be Sworn In Friday

Former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa will be sworn in as president on Friday, according to Zimbabwe’s state broadcaster.

The report by the government-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) said Mnangagwa will arrive in the capital Harare later on Wednesday.

Mnangagwa, 75, had not been in the country since November 6 when he was sacked by Robert Mugabe, his former ally.

Mugabe resigned as president on Tuesday evening after a week of intense pressure following a military takeover.

Much of that pressure stemmed from Mugabe’s decision to remove Mnangagwa, who is seen as close to the Zimbabwean armed forces.

Shortly after being sacked, the former vice president fled the country claiming that he and his family had been threatened by Mugabe.

The former president’s wife, Grace Mugabe, called Mnangagwa a “coup plotter” and a “coward” in a speech shortly after his sacking.

That incident was also said to have ruffled feathers within Zimbabwe’s ruling establishment.

Mnangagwa, like Mugabe, is a veteran of the struggle for independence from Britain. He is considered by the military to be an appropriate replacement for the former president, who at 93 was Africa’s oldest leader.

Grace Mugabe’s ambitions for the presidency were fiercely opposed by the armed forces, who warned that they would not allow someone who had not fought in the independence war to take helm of the country.

Despite their relationship taking a sharp turn in recent months, Mnangagwa and Mugabe had once been strong allies, even sharing a cell during their imprisonment.

Mnangagwa had been a member of Mugabe’s cabinet since the country’s independence and vice president since 2014.

Source: Al Jazeera