Mnangagwa stages first re-election campaign rallies as inflation battle continues

By Bloomberg News

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa launched his party’s election campaign, seeking a second term running a nation struggling with high inflation and a plunging currency.

Mnangagwa predicted victory to party supporters of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front on Saturday in Mutema, 414 km (258 miles) east of the capital Harare. The president has promised to revive an economy that’s halved in size since 2000 after the government launched a land reform program that took property from white commercial farmers in the southern African nation.

The government has struggled to rein in inflation, with price growth running at 86.5% while the Zimbabwean dollar has lost more than 80% of its value against the greenback this year. The country is rich in natural resources with deposits of gold, coal and iron ore as well as the world’s biggest platinum reserves after South Africa.

“The farms we took are ours and they are not going back,” the 80-year-old Mnangagwa said. “This country will remain in the hands of the ruling party, ZANU PF. Our party is a colossal revolutionary party. No one will stop us.”

Mnangagwa will face off against 10 presidential hopefuls and his main opponent is Nelson Chamisa, leader of the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change. Mnangagwa defeated Chamisa in a disputed vote in 2018 and the opposition has since fractured.

Elections are due to be held on August 23 while a runoff will be held on October 2 if there is no clear outright winner. The southern African nation hasn’t had a peaceful political transition since white-minority rule ended in 1980.