Zimbabwe’s former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is expected to be sworn in as president following the resignation of Robert Mugabe, will return home on Wednesday, ruling party ZANU-PF official Larry Mavhima told Reuters.

Mavhima said Mnangagwa was expected to land in Zimbabwe at 1130 GMT, after he fled Zimbabwe in fear of his safety after being sacked earlier this month.

Mugabe resigned as Zimbabwe’s president on Tuesday, a week after the army and his former political allies moved to end four decades of rule by a man once feted as an independence hero who became feared as a despot.