Key Dates in Zimbabwe's new president's career

pulse

November 24, 2017 11:23 AM

Born in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia but moves as a teenager with his family to Zambia, known at the time as Northern Rhodesia

Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was inaugurated on Friday as Zimbabwes new president, is a political veteran and party hardliner who for decades worked closely with Robert Mugabe.

Here are key dates in his career:

- September 15, 1942: Born in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia but moves as a teenager with his family to Zambia, known at the time as Northern Rhodesia

- 1960s: Joins the struggle for independence after military training in China and Egypt but is arrested and spends 10 years in prison

- 1980: After Zimbabwe wins independence, he is appointed security minister in Robert Mugabe's first post-independence government. In this position, he oversees a crackdown on suspected opposition dissidents that leaves thousands dead

- 1983: Directs a brutal crackdown on opposition supporters in the provinces of Matabeleland and Midlands, which leaves thousands dead

- 2000: As justice minister, a post he has held since 1989, he announces moves to seize white-owned farms

- December 2004: Sidelined for the post of vice president when Mugabe appoints a rival

- 2008: After Mugabe loses the first round of presidential elections, Mnangagwa allegedly supervises the wave of violence and intimidation that forces the opposition to withdraw from the run-off vote

- December 10, 2014: Is named vice president and deputy head of the ZANU-PF, putting him in pole position to one day succeed Mugabe

- November 6, 2017: Mugabe sacks Mnangagwa on grounds of disloyalty in a dispute over succession, triggering the country's worst political crisis since independence. Two days later he flees the country

- November 22, 2017: Returns triumphantly after Mugabe's shock resignation to eventually take over as president, tells crowds they are witnessing "unfolding full democracy"

- November 24, 2017: Mnangagwa is sworn in as the country's second post-independence leader at an inauguration ceremony in the capital Harare, in front of thousands of supporters, dignitaries and foreign diplomats and amid tight security.

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