While justice minister, Mnangagwa also served as acting Finance Minister from November 1995 to April 1996, after the previous minister, Bernard Chidzero, stepped down due to health reasons, and his successor Ariston Chambati died. He was also acting Minister of Foreign Affairs for a short period. In 1998, Mnangagwa was put in charge of Zimbabwe's intervention in the Second Congo War, in which the Zimbabwe National Army entered the Democratic Republic of the Congo to defend Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila. A 2000 article in the Zimbabwean magazine "Moto" described him as Mugabe's heir apparent, and wrote "With the DRC issue at hand, it has been difficult to tell whether he is the Minister of Justice or the Minister of Defence as he has been shuttling between Harare and Kinshasa." During the war, Mnangagwa enriched himself through mineral wealth seized from the Congo. After Billy Rautenbach, a Zimbabwean businessman, was placed in charge of Gécamines, the Congolese state mining company, Mnangagwa began brokering deals between the company and Zimbabwean connections.