Can new leader bring change, residents ponder

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.

Despite the message of inclusion, Zimbabweans noted that Mnangagwa 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 of ZANU-PF to revive the battered economy and restore democracy with the backing of the opposition and others.

The ruling party has proven it protects its own. It assured Mugabe he would not be prosecuted if he stepped down, ZANU-PF chief whip Lovemore Matuke said: “He is safe, his family is safe and his status as a hero of his country is assured.”

On Thursday, the opposition MDC-T party said 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.