Zimbabwe has officially declared February 21 Robert Gabriel Mugabe National Youth Day, thereby making the former president\u2019s birthday a public holiday, the Herald newspaper reports.<\/p>\n
New president Emmerson Mnangagwa is expected to form a cabinet this week.<\/p>\n
Mugabe resigned last week after a military intervention and days of mass protests.<\/p>\n
The police and army are to stage joint patrols as the country returns to normal, the authorities have said.<\/p>\n
They have already received reports of looting and illegal occupation of properties, particularly farms and houses.<\/p>\n
Calls for the former president\u2019s birthday to be made a national holiday were adopted by the government in August, following intense lobbying by the Zanu-PF Youth League, the Herald reports.<\/p>\n
The decision was officially recorded on Friday, it adds.<\/p>\n
Last week, Mnangagwa said the former president needed to be given the respect and recognition he deserved as one of the founders and leaders of Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me personally, he remains a father, mentor, comrade-in-arms and my leader,\u201d he said during his acceptance speech at his inauguration on Friday.<\/p>\n
Reports that Mugabe was granted $10 million (\u00a37.5 million) to ease him out of office have not been confirmed.<\/p>\n
There is speculation as to whether Mnangagwa will select a broad-based government or keep figures from the Mugabe era.<\/p>\n
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change has called for an inclusive \u201ctransitional authority\u201d to mark a break with his 37-year rule and bring in reforms to pave the way for free elections next year.<\/p>\n
There are fears that Mnangagwa, who is associated with some of worst atrocities committed under the ruling Zanu-PF party since independence in 1980, will not usher in the democratic reforms that many in Zimbabwe are hoping for.<\/p>\n
Mnangagwa was sworn in to replace Mugabe as president on Friday.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Mnangagwa was sacked as vice-president, triggering a political crisis that led to the army taking control and Mugabe eventually standing down.<\/p>\n
Mugabe and his wife, Grace, remain at their house in the capital, Harare, and have no plans to leave the country<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Zimbabwe has officially declared February 21 Robert Gabriel Mugabe National Youth Day, thereby making the former president\u2019s birthday a public holiday, the Herald newspaper reports. New president Emmerson Mnangagwa is expected to form a cabinet this week. Mugabe resigned last week after a military intervention and days of mass protests. The police and army are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56857,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56853\/revisions\/56857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}