Mnangagwa catches critics off-guard, embraces surprising freedoms

On social media, on the streets and in political corridors, some criticize the President for taking his liberalization agenda too far.

"The government is setting us booby traps that will end up ruining our families. The government wants to spoil our youngsters," said former vice president and now opposition leader Joice Mujuru.

Others support the President, citing the economic benefits of commercial sex work and marijuana farming in the once-prosperous country whose economy collapsed under Mugabe.

"The level of liberalism in Zimbabwe is making heads spin," tweeted Nick Mangwana, a ruling party activist.

"We have sexual rights groups exhibiting at ZITF. Some are saying it's prostitutes galore, we are having (marijuana) being liberalized, but more important it's a very open and free political space. Take the good with the bad," Mangwana said.

Sex work is common but socially reviled in Zimbabwe and is banned by law, although the Constitutional Court in 2015 ruled that the practice of arresting women just for soliciting sex is illegal.

By legalizing marijuana farming, Zimbabwe has become the rare African country to do so.

Kizito Chisanza, who sells secondhand clothes in the capital, said he hopes it is the first step toward legalizing recreational use.

Such talk likely would have scandalized Mugabe, who was openly disdainful of the drug. During his rule, Parliament members who advocated for its legalization were openly jeered.

Some early critics of Mnangagwa say they are skeptical of his government's commitment to reform.

They cite incidents such as the banning of some civil society protests by police, the use of dogs and water cannon to put down student protests, slow-paced electoral reforms and the failure to solve the case of Itai Dzamara, an activist abducted in 2015 who remains missing.

He is widely seen as a symbol of resistance to Mugabe and abuses committed under his rule.

"Mnangagwa is going for populism. The substantive issues remain untouched. The economy is in bad shape and genuine political reforms are still a mirage," said Phillip Pasirayi, director of the Center for Community Development in Zimbabwe, a non-governmental organization.

Such critics are "still tied to the past which is now beyond us," Information Minister Simon Khaya-Moyo said at a public event on Thursday.

"There could still be a residual perception among some of our people that political change has been cosmetic," Khaya-Moyo said. "Of course this is not true."

By Farai Mutsaka for AP

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