The incoming president of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has a monumental task ahead of him and many question whether he is up to it. At the age of 75, he is no longer a young man — even though he is almost 20 years younger than Mugabe. A new word has been coined in Zimbabwe in the past few days, "Mugabeism". It stands for all that destroyed the "jewel of Africa" over the past few decades: systemic corruption, vote-rigging, human rights abuses, rampant nepotism, looting of state resources by those in power — in short, a heartless dictatorship that has reduced 90% of Zimbabweans to unemployment and abject poverty. More than a quarter of the population has left the country over the past 20 years, the vast majority of them as economic migrants. Mnangagwa will have to dismantle Mugabe’s entire patronage system, a complex web of intrigue, deceit, greed and cruelty, with tentacles reaching through every echelon of society and every department of government. Even the private sector has not ...
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