Emmerson Mnangagwa

Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa (born 15 September 1946) is a Zimbabwean politician who has been Vice-President of Zimbabwe since 2014. He was Minister of State Security from 1980 to 1988, Minister of Justice from 1988 to 2000, Speaker of Parliament from 2000 to 2005, Minister of Rural Housing from 2005 to 2009, Minister of Defense from 2009 to 2013, and has served as Minister of Justice since 2013.

Mnangagwa is thought to be one of the most powerful figures in the ruling ZANU-PF party, head of the Joint Operations Command and a leading candidate to succeed Robert Mugabe. He was ZANU-PF's Secretary of Administration from July 2000 to December 2004 and became its Secretary for Legal Affairs in December 2004.

On 10 December 2014, President Mugabe appointed Mnangagwa as Vice-President of Zimbabwe. In that post, Mnangagwa also continued to serve as Minister of Justice.

Education and training

He completed his early education up to Standard 4 at Lundi Primary School in Mnangagwa Village, Zvishavane, but the repressive political situation forced his family to relocate to Northern Rhodesia in 1955 where he completed Standard 4. He successfully completed his standard 5 and 6 at Mumbwa Boarding School from 1956–1957 and enrolled at Kafue Trade School for a Building course. Although it was a three-year course, he was selected to enter Hodgson Technical College. Since the college only accepted applicants with "O" Levels, he sat for an entry examination, and achieved a first class result. This enabled him to enroll for a four-year City and Guilds Industrial Building Course. With others, he was subsequently expelled from college in 1960 for political activism which led to the burning of some property. He had joined the UNIP student movement at the college and had already been elected into the executive.

Grace Mugabe

Grace Mugabe (née Marufu, 23 July 1965) is the wife of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and the First Lady of Zimbabwe from her marriage to the leader in 1996.

Grace was previously married to Stanley Goreraza, an air force pilot, who is defence attaché at the Zimbabwe embassy in China. As secretary to the president, she became his mistress while still married to Goreraza and together they had two children, Bona, named after Mugabe's mother, and Robert Peter, Jr. The couple were married in an extravagant Catholic Mass, titled the "Wedding of the Century" by the Zimbabwe press, after the death of Mugabe's first wife, Sally Hayfron.

In 1997, Grace Mugabe gave birth to the couple's third child, Chatunga.

In 2014, Grace Mugabe was given a doctorate in sociology by the University of Zimbabwe, only two months after registering at the university and although a dissertation does not exist. The degree was widely described as fraudulent. Grace Mugabe is under personal sanctions in the European Union and the United States for her role in the Mugabe regime.

Robert Mugabe

Robert Gabriel Mugabe (/muːˈɡɑːbiː/; born 21 February 1924) is the current President of Zimbabwe, serving since 22 December 1987. As one of the leaders of the rebel groups against white minority rule, he was elected as Prime Minister, head of government, in 1980, and served in that office until 1987, when he became the country's first executive head of state. He has led the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) since 1975.

Mugabe rose to prominence in the 1960s as the leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) during the conflict against the conservative white-minority government of Rhodesia. Mugabe was a political prisoner in Rhodesia for more than 10 years between 1964 and 1974. Upon release Mugabe, along with Edgar Tekere, immediately left Rhodesia with the assistance of Rekayi Tangwena in 1975 to launch the fight during the Rhodesian Bush War from bases in Mozambique. At the end of the war in 1979, Mugabe emerged as a hero in the minds of many Africans. He won the general elections of 1980 after calling for reconciliation between the former belligerents, including white Zimbabweans and rival political parties, and thereby became Prime Minister on Zimbabwe's independence in April 1980.

Vice president

A vice president (in British English: vice-president for governments and director for businesses) is an officer in government or business who is below a president (managing director) in rank. The name comes from the Latin vice meaning "in place of". In some countries, the vice president is called the deputy president. In everyday speech, the abbreviation VP can be used.

In government

In government, a vice-president is a person whose primary responsibility is to act in place of the president on the event of the president's death, resignation or incapacity. Vice presidents are either elected jointly with the president as their running mate, or more rarely, appointed independently after the president's election.

Most governments with vice presidents have one person in this role at any time, although in some countries there are two or more vice-presidents. If the president is not present, dies, resigns, or is otherwise unable to fulfill their duties, the vice president will generally serve as president. In many presidential systems, the vice president does not wield much day-to-day political power, but is still considered an important member of the cabinet. Several vice presidents in the Americas held the position of President of the Senate; this is the case, for example, in Argentina, the United States, and Uruguay. The vice president sometimes assumes some of the ceremonial duties of the president, such as attending functions and events that the actual president may be too busy to attend; the Vice President of the United States, for example, often attends funerals of world leaders on behalf of the president.

Emmerson

Emmerson may refer to:

Places

People