Zimbabwe's newly sworn-in President Emmerson Mnangagwa praised outgoing leader Robert Mugabe as "the father of the nation" during his inauguration address on Friday.

"Let me at this stage pay tribute to one of the, and the only surviving, founding fathers of our nation, comrade Robert Gabriel Mugabe," Mnangagwa said in front of a crowd of tens of thousands at his inauguration ceremony. 

"Let us all accept and acknowledge his immense contribution to the building of our nation."