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?

David Bowden

Senior news correspondent

Friday 24 November 2017 21:55, UK

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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."

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.

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Jobs are central to most Zimbabwean wish lists.

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."

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.

Image: 1980: Mr Mugabe and then UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher meet the year Rhodesia became Zimbabwe
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
Image: 1980: Mr Mugabe, then newly elected as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, holds a press conference in his garden
Image: 1982: Mr Mugabe visited the Queen at Buckingham Palace with his first wife, Sally
Image: 1984: Mr Mugabe addressing a crowd at Harare stadium - a year after suppressing an armed rebellion in Ndebeleland
Image: 1984: He was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa at the University of Harare, an institution he would later be chancellor of
Image: 1986: Mr Mugabe leaves the scene of the African National Congress (ANC) offices that were bombed days earlier by a South African commando
Image: 1986: Cuban president Fidel Castro (C) shares a laugh with Zimbabwean president Canaan Banana (R) and then prime minister Mr Mugabe (L)
Image: 1988: Mr Mugabe speaks to the press at the United Nations, about the Africa Prize for Leadership
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
Image: 1996: Robert and Grace Mugabe married in a ceremony attended by 6,000 guests
Image: The couple became known for their outfits. She was nicknamed 'First Shopper' and 'Gucci Grace'
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
Image: Mr Mugabe addresses a rally in Sanyati, November 2005, on the eve of the senatorial elections
Image: 2017: With his time in office drawing to a close, Mr Mugabe was seen negotiating with generals. Pic: Herald newspaper