Mnangagwa should restore democracy

Robert Mugabe’s ouster in a coup earlier in November, and his forced resignation last week, have momentarily refocused the world’s attention on Zimbabwe, and indirectly on Africa as a whole. The hope in Zimbabwe and elsewhere is that the sudden departure of one of the continent’s most despised despots marks the beginning of his country’s economic and democratic resurgence. But no one should set their hopes too high.

Zimbabwe’s economy is a basket case. The rampant corruption of Mugabe, his wife, friends and his Zanu-PF cronies, combined with disastrous economic policies and hyperinflation that reached the incomprehensible rate of 500-billion percent in the early 2000s, have reduced the economy to an informal barter exchange. The country has no money and no jobs for 90% of its working population.

Former vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa was sworn in as the interim president on Friday and will run the country until elections scheduled for 2018. Given how elections worked in Zimbabwe when he was Mugabe’s top lieutenant, there is reason to worry that his election has been preordained. He could win it fairly, though. The people of his country have been receptive to his rise and are happy to see the door shut behind the incompetent Mugabe. There is a good chance they will vote for him simply because of the optimism his takeover has spawned in a population that hasn’t had much to be positive about for an entire generation.

And Mnangagwa does indeed represent the possibility of a better future. He is as ruthless as the man he is replacing, but he is by all accounts more pragmatic. He has already sent signals that he is willing to work with the opposition and that Zimbabwe will be more open for business under his leadership. However, he needs to acknowledge that replacing bad economic policies with more enlightened ones will not, on its own, be enough. The interim president must make his country more democratic if he wants to improve its fortunes. Toronto, November 28