Doubts on ability of Mugabe cohort to bring change
JOHANNESBURG — Zimbabwe’s incoming leader Emmerson Mnangagwa, widely known as the Crocodile, is seen as a smart, ruthless politician, and many question if he will be able to bring the change the country craves.
“We are witnessing the beginning of a new, unfolding democracy,” the 75-year-old announced Wednesday upon his return to the country, two weeks after his firing by longtime mentor Robert Mugabe led to the president’s downfall.
Mugabe, who was ousted in a military intervention last week, will continue to live in the country with his wife, Grace, after Mnangagwa takes over, his spokesman said Thursday. Mugabe, 93, who has not spoken or appeared in public since resigning as president Tuesday, does not wish to live anywhere else, his spokesman said.
Despite Mnangagwa’s message of inclusion, Zimbabweans noted that he made his first public remarks outside ruling ZANU-PF party headquarters and, switching to the local Shona language, praised the party.
They ask whether Mnangagwa will be adequately independent from ZANU-PF to revive the battered economy and restore democracy with the backing of the opposition and others.
Opposition MDC-T party said Thursday it had not been invited to Mnangagwa’s inauguration Friday morning at a 60,000-seat stadium. That’s after the MDC joined the efforts to remove Mugabe, seconding the motion in Parliament to impeach him.
Mnangagwa’s remarkable rise to power — from being sacked as vice president and fleeing the country to being named Zimbabwe’s next leader — was largely thanks to the military, which put Mugabe under house arrest, and ruling party lawmakers who introduced the impeachment proceedings.
It is widely expected that Mnangagwa will continue to rely on them.
“Can a crocodile change its scales? Everybody is asking that question. Certainly his first speech was a lost opportunity. He did not speak about the need for an inclusive government,” said Piers Pigou, southern Africa expert for the International Crisis Group. “He has a long past with ZANU-PF and the military and that past may stick to him like chewing gum on a shoe.”
Mnangagwa served for decades as Mugabe’s enforcer and among Zimbabwe’s population, he is more feared than popular. He now urges the country to come together, to “bury our differences and rebuild a new and prosperous Zimbabwe, a country that is tolerant to divergent views.”