Zim’s Mnangagwa on a roll

Although Zimbabwe’s executive has dissolved itself to make way for the eighth election since the country’s independence in 1980 today, President Emmerson Mnangagwa shows little sign of being a man who is spending his last days in office.

On the contrary, Mnangagwa, who has been in charge for about eight months, spent the final week ahead of tomorrow’s election, ramping up his “Zimbabwe is open for business” drive. He also attended the Brics summit in South Africa last week, briefly leaving the political campaign trail to his rival Nelson Chamisa, who has almost 100 election rallies under his belt.

Mnangagwa presided over several ceremonies, which included opening a platinum mine owned by Karo in Mhondoro-Ngezi, a chrome mine owned by African Chrome Fields in Kwekwe, and Harare airport’s $153-million (R2-billion) expansion. Earlier this month he attended the $241million (about R3-billion) ceremony for the upgrade of the Beitbridge border post, one of Southern Africa’s busiest inland borders and last month he presided over a ceremony for the $1.5-billion (about R19.7-billion) refurbishment of Hwange power station.

The government claims that investment inflows attracted in the first half of the year under Mnangagwa’s watch amount to about $15-billion (R198-billion).

“I am now Mr Groundbreaking,” said Mnangagwa.

His pro-business stance has endeared him to foreign investors. – Businesslive