This article is from the source 'independent' and was first published or seen
on .
It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
Robert Mugabe will be removed as Zimbabwe president on Sunday, ruling Zanu-PF party sources say
Robert Mugabe's rule nearing an end as party poised to dismiss him as President of Zimbabwe
(about 3 hours later)
Robert Mugabe will be removed as Zimbabwe president, two sources from the country's ruling Zanu-PF party have said.
Robert Mugabe’s reign as Africa’s longest-serving head of state appears to be nearing an end, with a massive crowd laying siege to his home in Zimbabwe’s capital and strong indications that his party is poised to dismiss him.
The party will reportedly hold a special central committee meeting on Sunday morning to dismiss the 93-year-old as leader.
The hierarchy of the ruling Zanu-PF are due to meet as early as Sunday morning, it is believed, to begin the process of formally removing Mr Mugabe from office and reinstating Emmerson Mnangagwa, the recently sacked Vice President who has returned from exile in South Africa following the military coup six days ago.
The meeting is due to start at 10.30am local time and is also set to see the removal of Mr Mugabe's wife, Grace, as head of the Zanu-PF Women's League.
The meeting of Zanu-PF central committee is also due to fire Grace Mugabe, the President’s wife and a deeply divisive figure who has faced scathing criticism for her lavish lifestyle in this deeply impoverished country, from her post as the head of the party’s women’s league. Mrs Mugabe is widely believed to have instigated the sacking of Mr Mnangagwa, which was the catalyst of the current crisis and army takeover.
Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was ousted by Mr Mugabe earlier this month as Zimbabwe's vice-president, will be reinstated.
Mr Mugabe will still remain titular President under the country’s constitution even after his party’s move against him. But his ability to govern has ended with the military coup and the projected action by Zanu-PF leaves him without a power base and totally isolated. He is due to meet General Constantino Chiwenga, the head of the Zimbabwean military who had led the putsch, on Sunday with a senior official insisting that “a solution to the problem was imminent”.
The move comes amid what has been a day of celebrations in the capital Harare.
Branch after branch of the party had voted for motions of no confidence in Mr Mugabe in the last 24 hours, triggering the numbers needed to begin impeachment proceedings by MPs. On Friday evening, it has emerged, the 93-year-old President made a desperate attempt to cling on by seeking to suspend parliament. But National Assembly speaker Jacob Mudenda refused the President’s demands and, according to officials, senior Zanu-PF figures began talks with opposition parties to agree on a course of action.
There had been calls for a "Day of Rage", but tens of thousands poured into the streets today convinced that they were seeing the end of Mr Mugabe's 37-year rule.
The outpouring of protest against the Mugabes in Harare on Saturday, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets, was sign for Zanu-PF to move at speed, calling an extraordinary meeting of the central committee at 10.30am on Sunday. General Chiwenga is said to have given his backing as Mr Mnangagwa prepared himself for inauguration.
Protesters even began marching towards Mr Mugabe's residence, live television pictures showed.
A motorcade left State House, the presidential residence in Harare, in the afternoon. It is not known whether Mr Mugabe and his wife were being escorted out. Their fate remains unclear and there have been demands that Mrs Mugabe, nicknamed ‘Gucci Grace” and “DisGrace” by her many enemies should face trial on charges of corruption and abuse of power. But the more likely scenario would be for them both to go into exile when he steps down from office.
In scenes reminiscent of the downfall of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, men, women and children ran alongside the armoured cars and troops that stepped in this week to oust the only ruler Zimbabwe has known since independence in 1980.
There were cheers and car horns began to sound as news began to filter out that Mr Mugabe’s 37-year rule may be coming to an end. “Is this really true? I am glad I am alive to see this take place,” exclaimed 68-year-old Mercy Zikhali. “This news would have been impossible even a few weeks ago, so it is difficult to accept it. We had so much hope after independence, but Mugabe and his people ruined the country. I hope that I will see a big improvement for us in my remaining years and at least my children and grandchildren have a good future”.
The 93-year-old Mugabe has been under house arrest in his lavish 'Blue Roof' compound in Harare, from where he has watched support from his Zanu-PF party, security services and people evaporate in less than three days.
The rally was called by the association of veterans of the war against white rule. The original plan had been for demonstrators to gather at the city’s Freedom Square, but soldiers asked them to go on to Harare stadium at the outskirts of the city. It was a far bigger venue, but also symbolic. This was the place where another huge crowd had gathered 37 years ago to welcome Mr Mugabe on his return from exile following independence.
Mugabe's nephew, Patrick Zhuwao, told Reuters on Saturday that the elderly leader and his wife were "ready to die for what is correct" and had no intention of stepping down in order to legitimise what he described as a coup.
Mrs Zikhali’s nephew, Washington Chando, remembered being taken to the stadium that day, at the age of 10, by his parents. “Everyone thought he was a hero. I remember that day people were crying, but everything began to get worse after a while. I haven’t been able to find any permanent work for the last nine years, we have all had a very negative experience while people like Mrs Mugabe have got richer and richer.”
Speaking from a secret location in South Africa, Zhuwao said Mr Mugabe had hardly slept since the military seized power on Wednesday but his health was otherwise "good".
Christopher Mutsvangwa, the head of the veterans organisation, claimed that the President had been warned by the army during the height of the rally that they may not be willing to protect him and his family.
On Harare's streets, emotions ran high as Zimbabweans spoke of a second liberation for the former British colony, alongside their dreams of political and economic change after two decades of deepening repression and hardship.
“The army gave the dictator a message earlier today - either he steps down or they will let the people into his mansion to take him,” Mr Mutsvangwa stated. “The army is threatening to unleash the people and let Mugabe be lynched. The generals said they will not shoot the people for him. Instead, they will abandon their posts and leave him to his fate.”
"These are tears of joy," Frank Mutsindikwa, 34, said, holding aloft the Zimbabwean flag. "I've been waiting all my life for this day. Free at last. We are free at last."
But the troops did stop the crowd when it reached State House in the afternoon, leading to remonstrations and a sit-in protest. Last night the property was being heavily guarded although it was far from clear how much longer there will be anyone left to protect those inside.
Mugabe's downfall is likely to send shockwaves across Africa, where a number of entrenched strongmen, from Uganda's Yoweri Museveni to Democratic Republic of Congo's Joseph Kabila, are facing mounting pressure to step aside.
The secretary-general of Zimbabwe's War Veterans Association, Victor Matemadanda, called on those at an anti-Mugabe rally to march on Mugabe's residence, and live television footage showed hundreds of protesters marching in that direction.
"Let us now go and deliver the message that grandfather Mugabe and his typist-cum-wife should go home," Matemadanda told the crowd in the Harare township of Highfield.
The crowds in Harare have so far given a quasi-democratic veneer to the army's intervention, backing its claims that it is merely effecting a constitutional transfer of power, which would help it avoid the diplomatic backlash and opprobrium that normally follows coups.
Zimbabweans abroad were also awaiting the end of Mugabe's rule. Hundreds living in Britain gathered outside the country's embassy in central London calling on the leader to step aside.
"I am happy today because Bob Mugabe is about to go. He must go. At least if he goes, we'll have a change of president after so many years of injustice," said Florence, a 34-year-old who declined to give her last name.
For some Africans, Mr Mugabe remains a nationalist hero, the continent's last independence leader and a symbol of its struggle to throw off the legacy of decades of colonial subjugation.
But to many more at home and abroad, however, he was reviled as a dictator happy to resort to violence to retain power and to run a once-promising economy into the ground.
Although Mr Mugabe has been digging in his heels in the face of army pressure to quit, he appears to have run out of road, devoid of domestic or international support.
Political sources and intelligence documents seen by Reuters said Mr Mugabe's exit is likely to pave the way for an interim unity government led by Mr Mnangagwa, a life-long Mr Mugabe aide and former security chief known as "The Crocodile".
Stabilising the free-falling economy will be the number one priority, the documents said.
The United States, a long-time Mugabe critic, said it was looking forward to a "new era" in Zimbabwe, while President Ian Khama of neighbouring Botswana said Mr Mugabe had no diplomatic support in the region and should resign at once.
The scenes in Harare reflect the anger and frustration that has built up in nearly two decades of economic mismanagement that started with the seizure of white-owned farms in 2000, the catalyst of a wider collapse.
The central bank tried to print its way out of trouble by unleashing a flood of cash but that only made matters worse, leading to hyperinflation that topped out at 500 billion percent in 2008.
At least three million Zimbabweans emigrated in search of a better life, most of them to neighbouring South Africa.
After stabilising briefly when Mr Mugabe was forced to work with the opposition in a 2009-2013 unity government, the economy has collapsed again, this time due to a chronic shortage of dollars in the country of 16 million people.
In October, monthly inflation leapt to more than 50 percent, putting basic goods beyond the means of many in a country with 90 per cent unemployment.
Mr Mugabe's only public appearance since the military took over on Wednesday was at a university graduation ceremony on Friday morning. Decked out in blue and yellow academic gowns, he appeared tired, at one point falling asleep in his chair.
A senior member of the Zanu-PF ruling party said it was only a matter of time before he agreed to his own departure.
"If he becomes stubborn, we will arrange for him to be fired on Sunday," the source said. "When that is done, it's impeachment on Tuesday."
