Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe’s 37-year rule appeared at an end Sunday after a source confirmed he had agreed to resign and was preparing to address the nation.
Mugabe’s grip on power was broken last week when the military took over, angered at his wife Grace’s emergence as the leading candidate to succeed the 93-year-old president.
“Yes he has agreed to resign,” a source close to the presidency told AFP after Mugabe’s expected television address to the nation was delayed.
At a ruling ZANU-PF party meeting earlier in the day, delegates cheered wildly as a party official announced that Mugabe had been ousted as party chief.
He was replaced by former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, who had been Grace Mugabe’s chief rival.
In a stunning reversal of allegiances, the party added that it would impeach Mugabe if he did not resign by Monday, Mnangagwa would be its candidate in 2018 elections, and that Grace was expelled from the ZANU-PF ranks.
Robert Mugabe — the world’s oldest head of state — remained national president until his official announcement but was overwhelmed by opposition from the generals, much of the Zimbabwean public and from his own party.
“(Mugabe’s) wife and close associates have taken advantage of his frail condition to usurp power and loot state resources,” party official Obert Mpofu told the ZANU-PF meeting.
Army chief Constantino Chiwenga held further talks with Mugabe on Sunday at State House, the president’s official residence.
Official photographs of the meeting showed one officer saluting the president, who stood behind his desk, and several senior officers sitting in a formal room with white sofas and a bright red carpet.
No details of the meeting were released.
Comments
Post a Comment