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Zimbabwe’s Mnangagwa set to strengthen grip at party meeting
HARARE, Dec 15, 2017 (BSS/AFP) – Zimbabwe’s new president, Emmerson
Mnangagwa, is expected to use a conference of the ruling ZANU-PF party on
Friday to consolidate his grip on power after Robert Mugabe’s shock ouster
last month.
Mnangagwa took office after the military forced Mugabe to resign, ending a
37-year reign marked by brutal repression and economic collapse.
The new president will address a one-day extraordinary congress in Harare,
where he will be confirmed as the party’s presidential candidate in next
year’s general elections.
The military stepped in to clear Mnangagwa’s route to the presidency after
a long-running struggle with supporters of Mugabe’s wife Grace, who had
emerged as Mugabe’s chosen successor.
“The purpose is to consolidate President Mnangagwa’s position within the
party and to ensure that (Grace’s supporters) are put firmly in their place,”
lawyer and opposition politician David Coltart told AFP.
“Many people see this administration as a thin veneer over a military
junta and the question is whether the veneer is going to get thinner.”
Mnangagwa, 75, has appointed military officials to key government
positions, and has pledged to revive the shattered economy by boosting farm
production and luring foreign investment.
He is expected to soon appoint his two deputy presidents, but party
spokesman Simon Khaya Moyo said this key announcement may not be made on
Friday.
“The president will use his discretion whether to appoint his deputies at
the congress or not,” Moyo told AFP.
“We have a new dispensation and naturally the main item on the agenda is
that new president is going to be endorsed as president of the party and as
our presidential candidate for the 2018 elections.”
The nationwide ballot, which will vote in both the president and
lawmakers, is expected to take place before August.
ZANU-PF has been riven by division for years over Mugabe’s succession. The
93-year-old leader had been widely expected to rule until his death.
– Mugabe abroad –
Mnangagwa is referred to as “The Crocodile” for his ruthlessness, while
Grace’s younger supporters were known as the “G40” (Generation-40) group.
“The congress signifies his triumph over G40,” Takavafira Zhou, a
political scientist at Masvingo State University, told AFP.
“It’s a show of force, and we will also see more people with a military
background within the ZANU-PF structures.”
Speaking ahead of the conference, Mnangagwa vowed to create much-needed
employment and to tackle graft, as well as calling for remaining
international sanctions to be lifted.
“The corrupt tendencies that had in the recent past gripped our nation
will not and cannot be allowed to continue,” he said on Thursday.
“We cannot afford divisions which… dissipate our collective energies in
wasteful intra-party conflicts.”
Mugabe and Grace, 52, have not been seen in public since his resignation
was announced on November 21 to lawmakers who had convened to impeach him.
The former president this week flew to Singapore for a routine medical
check-up, government spokesman George Charamba told AFP.
Charamba said that the new government was keen to show respect to Mugabe.
“There is no quest to humiliate or ostracise him,” Charamba said. “His
legacy comes out shining.”
Mnangagwa was formerly one of Mugabe’s closest allies, and is a long-time
ZANU-PF loyalist with reputation as a hardliner.
He used his inauguration speech to pay tribute to Mugabe, describing him
as one of the “founding fathers of our nation”.
Many Zimbabweans took to the streets to celebrate the end of Mugabe’s long
rule, but have expressed fear that Mnangagwa could also oversee an
authoritarian regime.
Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe from its independence from Britain in 1980, is
in increasingly frail health and has reportedly battled prostate cancer.
BSS/AFP/RY/08:05 hrs