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Amid a sombre mood in Zimbabwe’s capital city Harare, President Emmerson Mnangagwa was sworn in today. It marks a new phase for a country in desperate need of certainty, following years of stunted economic growth under former leader Robert Mugabe, who was ousted in November.
The July 30 election outcome, in which Mnangagwa won by a narrow margin ahead of opposition leader Nelson Chamisa, had been touted as an important step forward for Zimbabwe.
However, the post-election period degenerated with the killing of six protesters after skirmishes broke out between security forces and opposition supporters.
On Friday, the Constitutional Court in Harare upheld Mnangagwa’s victory in the presidential vote. And yesterday, Zimbabwe’s justice minister, Ziyambi Ziyambi, confirmed Mnangagwa’s inauguration.
President Cyril Ramaphosa and other regional leaders had confirmed they would attend the Harare event before it was postponed – pending the court’s decision in response to a legal challenge instigated by opposition party the MDC Alliance against the election results.
The announcement by the apex court, whose decision cannot be appealed, plunged Harare into sadness as opposition supporters weighed their future prospects.
It was a bitter pill to swallow for many, although the court’s decision had been widely anticipated to be against Chamisa, who replaced the late Morgan Tsvangirai as leader of a somewhat united opposition alliance.
“There is nothing we can do,” said 28-year-old Nigel Muripo, who runs a car-wash business on the outskirts of Harare. “We just hope that they will sort out the economy and allow people to do their jobs freely. We can give Mnangagwa the benefit of the doubt; at least he has promised to be different from Mugabe. But this is daylight robbery of our votes.”
The Constitutional Court’s ruling, delivered exactly two weeks after Chamisa filed papers to oppose the declaration of Mnangagwa as winner, was unanimous, said Chief Justice Luke Malaba. He said there was no strong evidence in Chamisa’s court papers that the vote was stolen.
In his ruling, Malaba said Chamisa “failed to provide direct and substantial evidence to allegations of vote rigging, which would be sufficient for the court to invalidate the election [results]”.
“Had the applicant placed all the V11 forms (which contain voting data from polling stations) from all polling stations before the court, they could have been compared with the residue in sealed ballot boxes, and that would have addressed the allegations of over-voting, the differences in presidential and parliamentary tallies, the alleged surge of voters (in the last hour of voting day) in some provinces, and the question of probability of some polling stations having similar results.”
Chamisa’s party called for peace after the ruling and promised to “pursue all constitutionally permissible avenues to ensure that the sovereign will of the people is protected and guaranteed”.
Sources in the opposition said Chamisa had limited options as the judgment was final, although some said he would push for a role in the new government, which Mnangagwa will announce.
Senior officials, who held a meeting with Chamisa late on Friday night, said the possibility of protests had been raised but was undecided as others in attendance said the security forces were on high alert.
MDC spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka said the mood in Zimbabwe was “sombre” and that Zimbabweans had received the judgment with a “heavy heart”.
A separate MDC statement said there would be a “vigorous programme of action in response to this electoral theft of the century”.
Zanu-PF celebrated the ruling at the party’s headquarters in Harare. Foreign Affairs Minister Sibusiso Moyo, a retired military hardliner who played a key role in the removal of Mugabe, tweeted that he was certain that “Zimbabwe will improve from this day forward, but only through hard work, perseverance and unity”, and called on Zimbabweans to “work together to build the Zimbabwe we want”.
