ZIMBABWE
Breaking Free?
Zimbabwe’s new president has already shown signs he may deliver the democratic reforms he promised when he took over in November from longtime strongman Robert Mugabe. But not everybody is happy about the changes.
Some critics say President Emmerson Mnangagwa is going too far, while others say he’s just tinkering with fringe issues to burnish his image in the lead-up to elections this July, the Associated Press reported.
Last month, Zimbabwe welcomed a popular musician back from exile in the US to perform protest songs to huge crowds on the outskirts of Harare and allowed the capital’s annual arts festival to invite a South African band that had been banned for mocking Mugabe to headline the event.
The arrests of political activists and opposition officials have waned. And Zimbabweans are openly criticizing the government without fear of retribution.
Mnangagwa has mostly been lauded for those changes. But many decried his moves to legalize marijuana farming and allow commercial sex workers to exhibit at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair as taking liberalization too far.
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