Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa was given a mansion in Equatorial Guinea which he will use every time he is in the country, the Herald reported.
The mansion, dubbed “Villa Zimbabwe” in Malabo, the capital, was presented by Equatorial Guinea’s president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
Mnangagwa, 80, is on a three-day state visit to Equatorial Guinea, his second visit in two months, after attending President Nguema’s inauguration in December last year.
Mnangagwa was the only southern African leader at the inauguration after Nguema won the election with a 99% majority.
Maxwell Ranga, Zimbabwe’s west African envoy, said the fully furnished home with a gymnasium and full staff complement, was a testament to good relations between the two countries.
Mnangagwa is in Malabo with his foreign affairs minister, Frederick Shava, and finance minister, Mthuli Ncube, as well as numerous senior government officials.
During the visit that ends on Thursday, the two leaders signed eight agreements, some of them to do with cooperation in sectors such as tourism, mining, and agriculture.
Nguema was last in Zimbabwe in 2018 a year after the late former president Robert Mugabe was ousted from power.
Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea’s relations go back to 2004, during Mugabe’s reign when Zimbabwe thwarted a team of mercenaries led by Simon Mann and financed by Mark Thatcher, the former British prime minister’s son, who were on their way to execute a coup in Equatorial Guinea.
Since then, Zimbabwe has been a security advisor to Nguema, who has since pardoned 64 mercenaries recruited in South Africa drawn from the apartheid-era special forces 32 Battalion.
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In 2020, President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed into law the Education Amendment Act, which compels the State to provide free basic education in line with provisions of section 27 of the Constitution.Learn More
