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Emmerson Mnangagwa became Zimbabwe’s second president in 2017 after outmaneuvring long-time tyrant Robert Mugabe in a military-backed coup — and at 80, he shows no signs of wishing to step down.
Mnangagwa, dubbed “The Crocodile” for his ruthlessness, is aiming to consolidate his authority in an election that few expect to be free and fair. Analysts believe he is more dictatorial than his predecessor and lacks Mugabe’s intellectual flare and ideological vision.
After ruling over a collapsing economy characterized by hyperinflation, unemployment, and corruption allegations, critics say he has attempted to muzzle criticism and tighten down on the opposition.
“He is a very repressive, authoritarian figure,” said Brian Raftopoulos, a Zimbabwean political researcher.
Mnangagwa was appointed president after a battle to secure the top job ahead of Mugabe’s wife Grace that he initially looked to have lost.
In 2017, then 93-year-old Mugabe dismissed Mnangagwa as vice president, clearing the way for the first lady.
Fearing for his life, the veteran hardliner made a dramatic escape across the border to Mozambique.
His son, who was with him, described Mnangagwa sitting at a bus stop wearing a dusty suit and tattered shoes after a night-time mountain trek.
He had no belongings except a briefcase containing dollars.
But the situation turned on its head within weeks when military chiefs launched a brief takeover and Mnangagwa emerged as their chosen successor.
International Isolation
Mugabe’s 37-year rule was brought to an end and Mnangagwa made a triumphant return home.
Lawmakers with the ruling ZANU-PF swung behind him and he was sworn into office.
“I never thought he whom I have nurtured… that one day he would turn against me,” a mournful Mugabe said afterwards.
Mnangagwa won an election the following year with a wafer-thin majority of 50.8 percent. Opposition protests were thwarted by the army who shot dead six people.
Youthful opposition leader Nelson Chamisa challenged the results in court, but lost.
The two are squaring off for a second bout on August 23.
The 2018 vote came with gargantuan expectations of more freedom and economic revival, but these were swiftly dispelled.
Zimbabwe remains internationally isolated, its leadership targeted by Western sanctions.
Mnangagwa blames the sanctions for the country’s woes.
His supporters credit him for infrastructure projects including building schools, bridges and repairing roads.
Mnangagwa’s rise to the presidency came after decades of working closely with Mugabe after Zimbabwe won independence from Britain in 1980.
In 2008, he allegedly supervised a wave of violence that forced the opposition to pull out of a run-off vote.
He then became defence minister in a troubled power-sharing government formed with the opposition in 2009, and vice president in 2014.
Scarves And Massacres
Since taking office, he has tried to fashion himself as a down-to-earth politician.
Often wearing a suit, he always sports a striped scarf in Zimbabwe’s national colours at public appearances.
Several apparent assassination attempts have been made against him, including a bombing at a rally in 2018 that killed two people.
In 2017, he was airlifted to South Africa for emergency treatment after consuming ice cream from a dairy company controlled by his arch-rival Grace Mugabe, which his associates said was spiked with poison.
Mnangagwa, who is laconic, thick-set, and has dyed black hair, characterizes himself as a born-again Christian. He claims to abstain from alcohol for six months out of the year.
Born in 1942 as Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa (his middle name means “adversity” in Shona), he completed his primary and secondary education in Zimbabwe before moving to neighboring Zambia with his family.
In 1966, he joined the struggle for independence from British colonial rule, becoming one of the young combatants who helped direct the war after undergoing training in China and Egypt.
His nickname can be traced back to his ferocious “Crocodile Gang” guerrilla unit.
After blowing up a train, he was arrested in 1964 and sentenced to death, later commuted to 10 years in prison because of his young age — leaving him a life-long vocal opponent of the death penalty.
Following independence, he was allegedly partially responsible for a brutal crackdown on opposition supporters that claimed thousands of lives of mainly the minority Ndebele ethnic group in what is commonly known as the “Gukurahundi massacre”.
The massacre remains one of the biggest stains on his reputation. Mnangagwa has admitted it was “a bad patch” in Zimbabwe’s history.
Since taking power he has held talks with tribal chiefs in a bid to settle the long-standing grievances.
Two years ago he set up a panel of chiefs to probe the massacres which the Zimbabwe Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace estimate claimed 20,000 lives.
But the hearings are yet to open.
