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Tag: Emmerson Mnangagwa

  • Zimbabwe has moved on from Mugabe’s era – Mnangagwa

    Zimbabwean President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, said on Friday Zimbabwe “has moved on’’ when responding to claims by former President Robert Mugabe that his ascendancy to power is illegal.

    Speaking for the first time in a television interview on Thursday night since his resignation in November 2017, Mugabe said Mnangagwa came to power via a coup and that he was willing to discuss with him to resolve the matter.

    “I don’t hate Emmerson. I brought him into government. I would want to work with him but he must be proper,” Mugabe said in the interview aired by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).

    “And if it is to correct that illegality that he would want me to discuss with him, I’m willing.

    “We must undo this disgrace which we have imposed on ourselves,” Mugabe said.

    In response, Mnangagwa said Mugabe was free to express his opinion like any other citizen.

    The President said in a statement that the government continued to honour its obligations towards the former President’s welfare and benefits.

    Mugabe has previously said the state was not giving him his full benefits.

    Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe had moved on and was focusing on preparations for free and fair elections set for mid-year.

    “This is a key step in the immense task at hand, which is to lift our people from the effects of years of severe economic regression and international isolation,” said Mnangagwa.

  • Zimbabwe offers to pay for Tsvangirai funeral expenses

    Zimbabwe offers to pay for Tsvangirai funeral expenses

    Zimbabwe is ready to help foot the bill for the funeral arrangements of Morgan Tsvangirai in a tribute to the opposition leader who died after a long battle with cancer, a government spokesman said on Thursday.

    Tsvangirai’s death on Wednesday in a South African hospital cast his Movement for Democratic Change party into unknown territory less than three months after the army ousted Zimbabwe’s veteran ruler Robert Mugabe.

    Arguably Zimbabwe’s most popular politician, Tsvangirai’s career was ultimately defined by his tussles, bother literal and figurative, with 93-year-old Mugabe, who resigned after a de facto coup in December.

    Read Also:  Zimbabwean Breakingopposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is dead

    “The Zimbabwean Embassy in Pretoria has been instructed to help in any way appropriate in the circumstances, including assuming the costs that are attendant to the proper handling of the body of the late (Tsvangirai),” said George Charamba, who is also the presidential spokesman.

    Zimbabwe’s new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has made no public statement yet on the former trade union leader’s death but postponed a trip to Bulawayo in the south of Zimbabwe due to other “pressing commitments”, the state-owned Herald newspaper said.

    Elections are due within the next six months in Zimbabwe and Tsvangirai’s illness and now death leaves his party in disarray, to the advantage of the ruling ZANU-PF party, now led by Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s former deputy.

    NAN

  • Zimbabwe President orders ministers, others to declare assets

    Zimbabwe President orders ministers, others to declare assets

    Zimbabwean President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has given cabinet ministers and senior government officials until the end of February to declare their assets.

    Mnangagwa, 75, took power after Robert Mugabe was toppled by the military, Reuters reported.

    He immediately promised to tackle corruption, especially in public institutions.

    Misheck Sibanda, chief secretary to the president and cabinet, said in a statement that it was now mandatory for cabinet ministers, their deputies, senior government officials and bosses of state-owned businesses to declare their assets.

    The officials will be required to disclose details on their real estate, other property valued above $100,000, and shareholdings in businesses by February 28.

    “The president expects the full and urgent cooperation of all the affected office bearers,” Sibanda said.

    Mnangagwa, who is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, the first time by a Zimbabwean president, is trying to break with past policies of Mugabe in a bid to lure foreign investment and end the country’s international pariah status.

    Under Mugabe’s near four-decade rule, few government officials were arrested for corruption.

    When the military announced it had put Mugabe under house arrest on November 15, it said it was targeting criminals that surrounded the 93-year-old leader.

    Since then, three former government ministers and allies of Mugabe have been arrested and charged in court for criminal abuse of office.

     

     

  • Zimbabwe ’s anti-graft agency investigates Grace Mugabe’s PhD

    Zimbabwe ’s anti-graft agency investigates Grace Mugabe’s PhD

    Zimbabwe’s anti-corruption agency is investigating whether former first lady Grace Mugabe was wrongly awarded a university doctorate more than three years ago, an official said on Tuesday.

    Grace, whose efforts to take over the leadership of the ruling ZANU-PF party prompted a de facto military coup against her husband, then-president Robert Mugabe, in November, graduated in 2014, just months after she had registered to study at the University of Zimbabwe.

    Up to now, her dissertation for the doctorate has not been published and is not available in the university library, as such academic qualifications usually are.

    Read also: New Zimbabwean Govt. declares Mugabe ’s birthday as public holiday

    “We indeed received a report from the sociology department at the university on how Grace Mugabe received her doctorate and that is what we are investigating,” said Goodson Nguni, the head of investigations at the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.

    Local media reports say the sociology department told the commission that Grace’s doctorate was “suspicious” and needed to be investigated.

    Grace, who was called “Dr Amai” – or “learned mother of the nation” – by adulating followers, has previously defended her academic record and last September told a ZANU-PF rally that she had earned her doctorate even though her detractors thought otherwise.

    Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was on the receiving end of vicious attacks by Grace last year, succeeded 93-year-old Mugabe as president in November.

    Grace has not appeared in public since November 15, when army tanks rolled into the capital and confined Mugabe and his family at his luxurious mansion in Harare.

    NAN

  • Zimbabwe President appoints VP as defence minister

    Zimbabwe President appoints VP as defence minister

    Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has appointed Vice President, Retired Gen. Constantino Chiwenga as the country’s defence minister.

    Acting Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Justin Mupamhanga, said in a statement on Friday that Mnangagwa had also put Co-Vice President, Kembo Mohadi in charge of National Peace and Reconciliation portfolio.

    The two vice presidents were sworn in on Thursday by Chief Justice Luke Malaba.

    Mupamhanga noted that “in terms of Section 99 of the Constitution, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe may assign functions to vice presidents to assist him/her in the discharge of his/her functions.

    Read also: Ex army boss sworn in as Zimbabwe VP

    “The president may also assign functions to vice residents including the administration of any ministry of department or Act of Parliament.”

    President Mnangagwa took over from former president Robert Mugabe in November after Mugabe resigned following military and public pressure.

    (Xinhua/NAN)

  • Ex army boss sworn in as Zimbabwe VP

    Ex army boss sworn in as Zimbabwe VP

    Retired army chief Constantino Chiwenga, who led a de facto coup in November that ended Robert Mugabe’s 37-year rule, was installed as Zimbabwe ’s vice president in Harare on Thursday.

    Chiwenga, whose appearance on state television on November 15 preceded armed soldiers taking to the streets, paving the way for Emmerson Mnangagwa to become president, is the latest in a string of military leaders to be elevated to government positions.

    Read also: I saved Nigeria from being turned into another Zimbabwe – Atiku

    Mnangagwa has appointed several senior military officers to his cabinet and the ruling party’s top decision-making body, the Politburo.

    However, he is under pressure from opposition parties and the public to implement political reforms.

    (NAN)

  • Zimbabwe renames army headquarters after liberation war icon

    Zimbabwe renames army headquarters after liberation war icon

    The Zimbabwean Government on Wednesday officially renamed the country’s Army and Air Force headquarters in Harare after one of the country’s liberation war icons, Josiah Tongogara.

    President Emmerson Mnangagwa, name the King George the VI army barracks after Tongogara, a military strategist who directed the prosecution of Zimbabwe’s liberation war that culminated in its independence from Britain in 1980.

    At the ceremony in Harare, Mnangagwa said that the measure was part of a process to rid the country of a colonial mentality.
    Albert Fredericks Arthur George VI was king of Britain between 1936 and 1952.

    Late Gen. Tongogara was born in 1940 and died on the eve of Zimbabwe’s independence in 1979.

    Mnangagwa said he would preside over the renaming of three other military cantonments in the country as the nation takes steps to rewrite and preserve its liberation war history.

    The renaming of all the country’s barracks after the country’s liberation war heroes comes after government recently gazetted the name changes.

    Mnangagwa said the process of renaming the military barracks from colonial names was critical to help Zimbabwe “exorcise” the ghost of colonialism and shed colonial mentality.

    The country’s military barracks had largely maintained colonial names 37 years after independence.

    “This process of renaming has set in motion our longstanding desire to re-write our own history and in the process promoting our values as Zimbabweans.

    “By so doing, we rid ourselves of the colonial mentality which regards all that is associated with Europe and the West with high esteem while placing a low opinion on our own value systems as Africans,’’ Mnangagwa said.

  • Zimbabwe’s Mnangagwa forms cabinet, give key posts to military

    Zimbabwe’s Mnangagwa forms cabinet, give key posts to military

    Zimbabwe’s new President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has named his cabinet, appointing senior military figures to high-profile positions.

    Critics have said it has dashed hopes of change in the country.

    Mr. Mnangagwa was inaugurated as president last week.

    He took over from Robert Mugabe who had been in power for 37 years, the BBC reports.

    Mr. Mugabe stepped down after the army took control of the country, following a power struggle in the ruling party.

    Thousands of people celebrated Mr. Mugabe’s resignation as they hoped the failed economy would improve.

    Some had hoped that President Mnangagw a would appoint members of the opposition to his cabinet, to form a transitional government until elections next year but this did not happen.

    Read Also: Zimbabwe’s Mnangagwa takes power, vows to serve all citizens

  • Zimbabwe adopts Mugabe’s birthday as national holiday

    Zimbabwe adopts Mugabe’s birthday as national holiday

    Zimbabwe has officially declared February 21 to be Robert Gabriel Mugabe National Youth Day, thereby making the former president’s birthday a public holiday.

    The BBC reports the new President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, is expected to form a cabinet this week.

    READ ALSO: Mnangagwa sworn in as Zimbabwe’s new president

    Mr. Mugabe resigned last week after a military intervention and days of mass protests.

    The police and army are to stage joint patrols as the country returns to normal, the authorities have said.

    They have already received reports of looting and illegal occupation of properties, particularly farms and houses.

    Police had not been seen in public until November 21 when Mr. Mugabe resigned and they slowly started returning to work. The army had effectively been in charge.

    Before the army operation, police officers had been an ever-present sight in the centre of the capital, Harare, and roads around the country, although they were not always welcome as many complained of police harassment.

    Calls for the former president’s birthday to be made a national holiday were adopted by the government in August, following intense lobbying by the Zanu-PF Youth League, the Herald reports.

    Last week, President Mnangagwa said the former President needed to be given the respect and recognition he deserved as one of the founders and leaders of Zimbabwe.

    READ ALSO:  I want to die in Zimbabwe – Mugabe

    “To me personally, he remains a father, mentor, comrade-in-arms and my leader,” Mr. Mnangagwa said during his acceptance speech at his inauguration on Friday.

  • Mnangagwa sworn in as Zimbabwe’s new president

    Mnangagwa sworn in as Zimbabwe’s new president

    Former vice-president, Emmerson Mnangagwa has been sworn in as Zimbabwe’s president in the country’s capital, Harare.

    This is after the rather dramatic exit of Robert Mugabe after 37 years of ‘draconian’ rule.

    Mnangagwa’s dismissal few weeks ago led the ruling Zanu-PF party and the army to intervene and force Mugabe to quit.

    It can be recalled that he fled the country in the wake of the political upheaval, only return on Wednesday.

    Mnangagwa who was accompanied by his wife Auxilia took the oath of office and was led by Chief Justice Luke Malaba.

    Emmerson Mnangagwa and his wife Auxillia arrive at the presidential inauguration ceremony in the capital Harare
    Emmerson Mnangagwa and his wife Auxillia arrive at the presidential inauguration ceremony in the capital Harare on Friday. Photograph: Ben Curtis/AP

    Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans gathered at a stadium in Harare, jubilating and congratulating one another amidst singing and dancing.

    Raised banners with writings such as “Dawn of a new era” and “No to retribution” brandished the atmosphere.

    “I Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa swear that as the president of the republic of Zimbabwe I will be faithful to Zimbabwe and obey, uphold and defend the constitution and all other laws of Zimbabwe,”

    Read also: Mugabe’s disGraceful end

    Details soon…