Sign up for our daily briefing
Make your busy days simpler with Axios AM/PM. Catch up on what's new and why it matters in just 5 minutes.
Stay on top of the latest market trends
Subscribe to Axios Markets for the latest market trends and economic insights. Sign up for free.
Sports news worthy of your time
Binge on the stats and stories that drive the sports world with Axios Sports. Sign up for free.
Tech news worthy of your time
Get our smart take on technology from the Valley and D.C. with Axios Login. Sign up for free.
Get the inside stories
Get an insider's guide to the new White House with Axios Sneak Peek. Sign up for free.
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Want a daily digest of the top Denver news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Denver
Want a daily digest of the top Des Moines news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Des Moines
Want a daily digest of the top Twin Cities news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Twin Cities
Want a daily digest of the top Tampa Bay news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Tampa Bay
Want a daily digest of the top Charlotte news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Charlotte
Mnangagwa at his inauguration. Photo: ZINYANGE AUNTONY/AFP/Getty Images
The first challenge for Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe’s President and successor to the iron-fisted Robert Mugabe, is to stabilize, then revitalize, an economy Mugabe left in ruins.
That means showing the public he’s made progress on fighting corruption and bringing back money that wealthy Zimbabwean companies and individuals have moved abroad.
- First, he offered an amnesty along with a limit of 90 days to bring the money back. That netted just under $600 million, according to the government, less than half the hoped-for sum. This week, Mnangagwa, known to friends and foes as “the Crocodile,” published the names of hundreds of companies, individuals, and even churches that, he says, still have a total of $827 million stashed outside the country’s borders. Return the money, he warns, or risk prison.
- Second challenge: What to do with Mugabe, who appears unwilling to go quietly off to Strongman Heaven? Out of power now for four months, the elderly former dictator still has much to say to anyone who will listen. After praising his successor and calling for unity in the immediate aftermath of his ouster, he now claims he has been treated disgracefully and was the victim of a coup.
Mnangagwa has no interest in a fight with his larger-than-life predecessor. “The former president is our founding father, we respect him. He is now 94 and he is bound to forget what he says,” Mnangagwa said this week.
But it’s not helping the new president’s reputation as a corruption fighter that Mugabe’s sons have lately posted video on social media of lavish parties, flash clothes, and expensive cars paid for with taxpayer money.
Sign up for Signal, a twice-weekly newsletter from GZERO Media, a Eurasia Group company.