Zimbabwe's Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose sacking as vice president sparked the crisis that led to Robert Mugabe's resignation, could be named as the country's new leader on Wednesday, a ruling party spokesman told AFP.

"I believe that the fired vice president Mnangagwa, who the party central committee endorsed... will come back in the next 24 hours or so and he will be the one who will be sworn in to be president for 90 days," said ZANU-PF spokesman Simon Khaya Moyo on Tuesday.