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Africa|Zimbabwe’s Leader Faces Call for Removal From Within His Own Party
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/world/africa/zimbabwe-demonstrations-mnangagwa.html
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Nearly eight years after the coup that brought him to power, President Emmerson Mnangagwa is under threat from opponents within his governing ZANU-PF party, who have urged mass protests.
By Zimasa Matiwane and Jeffrey Moyo
Zimasa Matiwane reported from Johannesburg and Jeffrey Moyo from Harare, Zimbabwe.
March 31, 2025, 12:01 a.m. ET
Battling a yearslong economic crisis and persistent accusations of corruption, Zimbabwe’s president faces the greatest threat to his power since taking office in a coup nearly eight years ago, with members of his own party calling for mass demonstrations in the streets on Monday to unseat him.
The president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has vowed to crack down on dissent, saying in a speech at a meeting of his party, ZANU-PF, that calls for him to step down were a “treasonous” plot driven by “chameleon-like characters.”
The tensions over the president’s future have pushed this southern African nation, which has suffered decades of political and economic instability, to the brink of yet another crisis, with many anxious residents bracing for potential violence.
Over the past two decades, persistent hyperinflation in Zimbabwe has left the country struggling to keep a currency worth the paper it’s printed on, fueling acute poverty. The Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce estimates that 80 percent of jobs in the country are in the informal sector, with low pay and little security.
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Accusations of gross rights abuses, political repression, dubious elections and corruption have tarnished Zimbabwe’s international standing. The United States has imposed sanctions on members of the country’s ruling elite, including Mr. Mnangagwa.
