As Mnangagwa Becomes President, Zimbabwe Hungers for Change
- Repeal of indigenization laws, restoring land rights are key
- Emmerson Mnangagwa to be sworn in as president on Friday
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As Emmerson Mnangagwa took the oath of office as Zimbabwe’s president, there’s a public hunger for a real break from the policies of Robert Mugabe, whose resignation on Tuesday after 37 years in power sparked scenes of jubilation in the streets of the capital.
Skepticism that he will do so abounds. Mnangagwa, 75, was Mugabe’s right-hand man for half a century through the liberation war against white-ruled Rhodesia and since independence in 1980 until their rupture in recent months. Yet his hand may be forced by a dire economic situation: a 90 percent jobless rate and a cash shortage so severe that some people sleep near banks in the streets of the capital, Harare, to ensure they can make withdrawals.