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| Robert Mugabe resigns: Zimbabwe dictator steps down after 37 years in power after military coup, says parliament speaker | Robert Mugabe resigns: Zimbabwe dictator steps down after 37 years in power after military coup, says parliament speaker |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Robert Mugabe has resigned after 37 years as Zimbabwe's leader, the speaker of the country's parliament has said. | Robert Mugabe has resigned after 37 years as Zimbabwe's leader, the speaker of the country's parliament has said. |
| Wild jubilation broke out among MPs when Speaker Jacob Mudenda told the House and suspended the process that had begun to impeach the president. | |
| “I Robert Gabriel Mugabe in terms of section 96 of the constitution of Zimbabwe hereby formally tender my resignation... with immediate effect,” said Mr Mudenda, reading the letter. | |
| The president's letter said he was resigning immediately and voluntarily in order to have a "smooth transfer of power" | |
| The sound of car horns filled the air in Harare, as thousands poured onto the streets to celebrate. | |
| The chief whip of the ruling ZANU-PF party, which Mr Mugabe leads, said that he was happy the president had decided to resign voluntarily. | |
| Lovemore Matuke said that if Mr Mugabe had not taken this step, the situation would have ended in “serious embarrassment”. | |
| The origin of Mr Mugabe's sudden downfall lies in rivalry between members of Zimbabwe's ruling elite over who will succeed him, with the army seizing power after Mr Mugabe sacked the favourite to succeed him, then-Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, to smooth a path to the presidency for his wife Grace. | |
| Mr Mnangagwa, a former security chief known as "The Crocodile", is expected to take over as president, with one ZANU-PF official suggesting that will happen within 48 hours. | |
| More follows… | More follows… |