Zimbabwe’s new leader stirs familiar fears
Initial jubilation gives way to trepidation
HARARE, Zimbabwe — When Robert Mugabe stepped down as president this week, Mevion Gambiza, 28, quickly joined the throng of people celebrating the sudden end of his 37-year rule. Mr. Gambiza jumped on the roof of a taxi and rode around as the driver honked through the streets of the capital.
But by Friday morning, Mr. Gambiza, like many other Zimbabweans, had sobered up. When he came to the National Sport Stadium to watch the swearing-in of the new president — Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mr. Mugabe’s longtime right-hand man — it was more to witness history than from any enthusiasm.
“Nothing will change; poverty and suffering will continue,” said Mr. Gambiza, a graduate of the University of Zimbabwe. The only difference now, he said, was that one faction of the governing party had “outcompeted its rival, and now Mnangagwa’s bootlickers will have their full turn to loot from the state coffers.”
Mr. Mnangagwa, who fled into a brief exile after losing a power struggle less than three weeks ago, became Zimbabwe’s new president Friday, succeeding Mr. Mugabe, 93, the leader he had backed for decades before helping to oust him last week.
It was a rapid reversal of fortunes that abruptly ended Mr. Mugabe’s rule — one of the longest reigns in Africa’s post-colonial history — and set off a complex mix of exhilaration, hope and deep skepticism among Zimbabweans.
In his address, Mr. Mnangagwa said that the country’s domestic politics had “become poisoned and rancorous and polarizing,” apparently referring to the factional fighting inside the governing party, ZANU-PF.
“We should never remain hostages of our past,” Mr. Mnangagwa said, adding that his compatriots should “let bygones be bygones, readily embracing each other in defining a new destiny in our beloved Zimbabwe.”
The tens of thousands present in the stadium — most of them ZANU-PF diehards who had been bused into the capital, Harare, from distant towns and villages in the party’s rural strongholds — loudly cheered Mr. Mnangagwa and hailed him as a “hero” and “liberator.”
Emerson Zinyera, 54, a retired police officer, said: “Today is true independence day. The one that was there was false. Today is independence that everyone, every Zimbabwean, can enjoy, not independence enjoyed by two people, Mugabe and his wife, Grace.”
But even as Mr. Mnangagwa promised a new era of democracy, the new leader, who was long known as Mr. Mugabe’s ruthless enforcer, faced a far more doubtful nation.
As the euphoria over the end of the Mugabe era began to subside, many opposition politicians, rights activists, ordinary citizens and even some party members were expressing concerns about entrusting a new Zimbabwe to a leader so closely tied to the old.
“This is a happy day,” said Virginia Kamoto, 34, a ZANU-PF member who was bused in with other supporters from southern Zimbabwe. “I was personally tired of Mugabe, who had stayed for far too long in power. I hope President Mnangagwa will not overstay in power. I hope he will not repress the people or tolerate corruption so that our country will be counted among the great nations of the world.”