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Zimbabwe's next leader Emmerson Mnangagwa faces huge challenge to kickstart economy

Zimbabweans are hopeful as Emmerson Mnangagwa is inaugurated, but can "The Crocodile" restore his country to former glories?

Emmerson Mnangagwa
Image: Emmerson Mnangagwa is sworn in as Zimbabwe's president
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To get under the skin of the problems facing the incoming Zimbabwean president, you need to get out of the big cities and into rural areas where the bulk of the population live.

Many eke out an existence in this economically crippled nation. People like Olivia Mshunga, who lives as the youngest of three generations on a small piece of land in Domboshava.

Planting ground nuts in the sandy soil, she wants President-designate Emmerson Mnangagwa to lift her out of subsistence farming.

She says: "We are struggling for a long time, no money, no jobs in Zimbabwe, so we want to change our life."

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Mnangagwa promises 'new democracy'

Her next door neighbour Viola Shamuyarira has similar hopes, while Ms Shamuyarira's 18-year-old daughter Yardley just wants a better wheelchair so she can get a job as a seamstress.

:: The thrill of being swept up in Zimbabwe's joy

Jobs are central to most Zimbabwean wish lists.

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Chipiwa Pirokai doesn't need one for herself, but does for her two sons.

She says: "I carried my sons as a single parent, they've finished school now, but I've still got them at home."

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Robert Mugabe: End of the dictator

Farming at this level is always tough, even when your oxen plough straight, and old habits die hard.

Emmanuel Neyakudya was clearly uneasy speaking about the new President or the old one.

"I'm afraid to answer your questions, politics is a dirty game," he told Sky News.

Zimbabwe's land does not only support agriculture beneath the soil - there are also minerals aplenty.

Justin Chingore provides transport for a nickel mine, but his workforce has been slashed from 40 to just 12.

  1. Mr Mugabe shakes hands with then prime minister Margaret Thatcher in 1980
    Image: 1980: Mr Mugabe and then UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher meet the year Rhodesia became Zimbabwe
  2. Robert Mugabe and ZAPU leader Joshua Nkomo at the Lancaster House talks in 1979
    Image: 1979: Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) leader Joshua Nkomo at the Lancaster House talks that led to the end of colonial rule
  3. 6th March 1980: Dr Robert Gabriel Mugabe, newly elected President of Zimbabwe, holds a Press Conference in his garden in Mount Pleasant, Salisbury
    Image: 1980: Mr Mugabe, then newly elected as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, holds a press conference in his garden
  4. Mugabe visits the Queen at Buckingham Palace with his first wife Sally in 1982
    Image: 1982: Mr Mugabe visited the Queen at Buckingham Palace with his first wife, Sally
  5. Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Robert Mugabe addresses the crowd in July 1984 in Harare stadium
    Image: 1984: Mr Mugabe addressing a crowd at Harare stadium - a year after suppressing an armed rebellion in Ndebeleland
  6. Mugabe looks on after being awarded Doctor Honoris Causa in July 1984 at the University of Harare
    Image: 1984: He was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa at the University of Harare, an institution he would later be chancellor of
  7. 1986: Mugabe leaves the scene of the African National Congress (ANC) offices that were bombed days earlier by a South African commando
    Image: 1986: Mr Mugabe leaves the scene of the African National Congress (ANC) offices that were bombed days earlier by a South African commando
  8. 1986: Cuban President Fidel Castro (C) shares a laugh with Zimbabwean President Canaan Banana (R) and Zimbabwean Prime Minister Robert Mugabe (L) as he arrives in Harare
    Image: 1986: Cuban president Fidel Castro (C) shares a laugh with Zimbabwean president Canaan Banana (R) and then prime minister Mr Mugabe (L)
  9. 1988: Mugabe speaks to the press at the United Nations about the Africa Prize for Leadership which he will receive in New York
    Image: 1988: Mr Mugabe speaks to the press at the United Nations, about the Africa Prize for Leadership
  10. Chinese President Jiang Zemin (L) welcomes Robert Mugabe (R) with a Chinese honour guard during a welcoming ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People on 7 May 1993 in Beijing
    Image: 1993: Chinese president Jiang Zemin (L) welcomes Mr Mugabe (R) with a Chinese honour guard during a welcoming ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing
  11. Robert and Grace Mugabe married at a catholic church in August 1996
    Image: 1996: Robert and Grace Mugabe married in a ceremony attended by 6,000 guests
  12. Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe with his wife Grace
    Image: The couple became known for their outfits. She was nicknamed 'First Shopper' and 'Gucci Grace'
  13. Mr Mugabe closes his eyes during an Africa Union meeting in July 2005
    Image: 2005: Mr Mugabe was sometimes seen asleep in public in later years, such as here at an African Union meeting, but friends insisted he remained sharp of mind
  14. Mugabe, addresses a rally in Sanyati, November 2005, on the eve of the senatorial elections
    Image: Mr Mugabe addresses a rally in Sanyati, November 2005, on the eve of the senatorial elections
  15. Pic: Herald newspaper
    Image: 2017: With his time in office drawing to a close, Mr Mugabe was seen negotiating with generals. Pic: Herald newspaper

He believes Mr Mnangagwa must get foreign investment into the country.

Mr Chingore said: "Our expectations of the new president is to open up to the markets, to bring in new investors."

Emmerson Mnangagwa and his party have much to do to raise this once bountiful country back to former glories.

Many of its citizens hover either side of the poverty line.