The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
– Mugabe abroad –
Mnangagwa is referred to as “The Crocodile” for his ruthlessness, while Grace’s younger supporters were known as the “G40” (Generation-40) group.
“The congress signifies his triumph over G40,” Takavafira Zhou, a political scientist at Masvingo State University, told AFP.
“It’s a show of force, and we will also see more people with a military background within the ZANU-PF structures.”
Speaking ahead of the conference, Mnangagwa vowed to create much-needed employment and to tackle graft, as well as calling for remaining international sanctions to be lifted.
“The corrupt tendencies that had in the recent past gripped our nation will not and cannot be allowed to continue,” he said on Thursday.
“We cannot afford divisions which… dissipate our collective energies in wasteful intra-party conflicts.”
Mugabe and Grace, 52, have not been seen in public since his resignation was announced on November 21 to lawmakers who had convened to impeach him.
The former president this week flew to Singapore for a routine medical check-up, government spokesman George Charamba told AFP.
Charamba said that the new government was keen to show respect to Mugabe.
“There is no quest to humiliate or ostracise him,” Charamba said. “His legacy comes out shining.”
Mnangagwa was formerly one of Mugabe’s closest allies, and is a long-time ZANU-PF loyalist with reputation as a hardliner.
He used his inauguration speech to pay tribute to Mugabe, describing him as one of the “founding fathers of our nation”.
Many Zimbabweans took to the streets to celebrate the end of Mugabe’s long rule, but have expressed fear that Mnangagwa could also oversee an authoritarian regime.
Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe from its independence from Britain in 1980, is in increasingly frail health and has reportedly battled prostate cancer.
