Dambudzo Mnangagwa was born on 15 September 1942 in Shabani (now Zvishavane), a mining town in central Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). His parents, Mafidhi and Mhurai Mnangagwa, were politically active farmers. He came from a large family; his grandfather had six wives and 32 sons, including his father; Mnanganga himself is the third of ten siblings. His father had two wives, having inherited his wife Mhurai's sister after the death of her husband. Mnangagwa then had eight additional half-siblings who were also his cousins. The Mnangagwa family were members of the Karanga people, the largest subgroup of Zimbabwe's majority Shona ethnic group.

Mnangagwa is nicknamed "Garwe" or "Ngwena", which means "the crocodile" in the Shona language, initially because that was the name of the guerrilla group he founded, but later because of his political shrewdness. The faction within the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) that supports him is called "Lacoste" after the French clothing company whose logo is a crocodile.

On 19 November 2017, President Mugabe of Zimbabwe was sacked by ZANU–PF, and Grace Mugabe and 20 of her high-ranking supporters were expelled from the party. Mnangagwa was chosen as the party's new leader and was expected to become president. "The Crocodile" was sworn in as President of Zimbabwe on 24 November 2017.

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