Zimbabwe - as it happened: Emmerson Mnangagwa inaugurated as President while Mugabe barred from attending
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Your support makes all the difference.Emmerson Mnangagwa has been inaugurated as Zimbabwe's new President.
Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans gathered at Harare's National Sports Stadium for the swearing-in event, following the ouster of Robert Mugabe.
Former defence chief Mr Mnangagwa is just the second president in independent Zimbabwe's 37-year existence.
Mr Mugabe had sacked the incoming leader as vice president, leading the country's army to move against him.
Mr Mnangagwa was a key Mugabe confidant for decades until they fell out because of the presidential ambitions of Mr Mugabe's wife, Grace. Despite his long association with the government, Mr Mnangagwa has promised democracy.
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Zimbabwe's politics has become "rancorous" and divided, Mr Mnangagwa, says.He announces that "harmonised, democratic" elections will be held "as scheduled" in 2018.
Economics now."Our economic policy will be predicated on our agriculture ... which is the mainstay, and will create the conditions for an investment-led economic recovery that puts a premium on job creation.
"Key choices will have to be made to attract foreign direct investment to tackle high levels of unemployment while transforming our economy.
"The many skilled Zimbabweans who have left the country over the years, for a variety of reasons, must now come into the broad economic calculus."
Another passage of the speech that stood out:"The principle of repossessing our land cannot be challenged or reversed. The dispossession of our ancestral lands was the fundamental reason for waking the liberation struggle.
"It would be a betrayal of the brave men and women who sacrificed their lives if we were to reverse the gains we have made in reclaiming our land.
"Therefore, I exhort beneficiaries of the land reform programme to show their deservedness by demonstrating commitment to the utilisation of the land now available to them for national food security and for the recovery of our economy.
"My government is committed to compensating those farmers from whom land was taken in terms of our laws."
Emmerson Mnangagwa walks after he is sworn in as Zimbabwe's president in Harare (Reuters)
David Coltart, an opposition politician and senator, wrote on his Facebook page: "Overall it is pretty much as I expected. His model has been the Chinese - he will drive to make Zimbabwe a more attractive investment location, and more efficient, but like China will not tolerate dissent. If you 'behave' you will be secure."So the good is that the extravagance and brazen corruption of the Mugabe era may not be tolerated and the country made to work better.
"The reality is however that, like China, anyone who thinks that constitutional freedoms, such as an independent electronic media, will be respected is going to be disappointed.
"Not a bad speech - none of the belligerency of Mugabe - but little to give hope that the Constitution in all its fullness will be respected and embraced."
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