The ManicaPost
Samuel Kadungure Senior Reporter
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa will today visit Zambia on the fifth leg of his tour of Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries to update his regional counterparts on political developments in Zimbabwe.
He will meet President Edgar Lungu and Zimbabweans living in that country. President Mnangagwa will use the visit to elucidate opportunities presented by the new dispensation ushered into power following the resignation of former President Mugabe on November 21, 2017.
Since his takeover, President Mnangagwa has embarked on a regional tour to appraise fellow Sadc leaders on political developments in the country.
The visit is unique as his journey to political stardom began in Zambia, when the repressive political situation of the time forced his family to flee to that country in 1955.
He later became a member of Zambia’s United National Independence Party (UNIP). He was tasked to help organise the party at Chililabombwe until the end of 1961.
He had joined the UNIP student movement at college and had been elected into its executive. When he returned to Lusaka he became secretary for the UNIP Youth League while working for a private company.
He did military training in China and Egypt and went on to lead a group of freedom fighters nicknamed the Crocodile Gang who committed sabotage and attacks onisolated farms. President Mnangagwa was captured and spent seven years in jail in Zimbabwe and was deported by the Ian Smith regime to Zambia in 1972 on his release.
President Mnangagwa devoted his time in prison to study, and upon release the party resolved that he completes his law degree first and he enrolled at the University of Zambia from 1973 to 1974.
In 1975, he did his post-graduate LLB degree and another postgraduate programme in advocacy.
After successfully completing his law studies, he was admitted to the Bar of the High Court of Zambia in 1976.
He practised law with the late Cde Enoch Dumbutshena and doubled up as Secretary for ZANU for the Zambia division in Lusaka.
The close relationship was honoured when Zambia dispatched its triumvirate of founding president Cde Kenneth Kaunda, the surviving predecessor Rupiah Banda and President Lungu at his inauguration on November 24, 2017.
President Mnangagwa has already visited South Africa, Angola, Namibia and Mozambique.
Since his ascension to the throne, he has been widely endorsed by whole world amid optimistic that the new political era will deliver robust economic development and reposition Zimbabwe on the international scene.
