President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe was fired as leader of the ruling ZANU-PF party on Sunday and replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa, the deputy he sacked this month, sources at a special ZANU-PF meeting to decide Mugabe’s fate told Reuters.
He was replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa, the deputy he sacked this month, sources at a special ZANU-PF meeting to decide Mugabe’s fate told Reuters.
“He has been expelled,” one of the delegates said. “Mnangagwa is our new leader.” Mugabe’s wife Grace, who had harbored ambitions of succeeding Mugabe, was also expelled from the party.
Speaking before the meeting, war veterans’ leader Chris Mutsvangwa said the 93-year-old Mugabe was running out of time to negotiate his departure and should leave the country while he could.
“He’s trying to bargain for a dignified exit,” he said. Mutsvangwa followed up with threat to call for street protests if Mugabe refused to go, telling reporters: “We will bring back the crowds and they will do their business.”
Mnangagwa, a former state security chief known as “The Crocodile,” is now in line to head an interim post-Mugabe unity government that will focus on rebuilding ties with the outside world and stabilizing an economy in freefall.
On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of Harare, singing, dancing and hugging soldiers in an outpouring of elation at Mugabe’s expected overthrow.
His stunning downfall in just four days 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 quit.
Men, women and children ran alongside the armored cars and troops who stepped in this week to oust the man who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980.
Under house arrest in his lavish ‘Blue Roof’ compound, Mugabe has refused to stand down even as he has watched his support from party, security services and people evaporate in less than three days.
His nephew, Patrick Zhuwao, told Reuters Mugabe and his wife were “ready to die for what is correct” rather than step down in order to legitimize what he described as a coup.
On Harare’s streets, few seemed to care about the legal niceties as they heralded a “second liberation” for the former British colony and spoke of their dreams for political and economic change after two decades of deepening repression and hardship.
“These are tears of joy,” said Frank Mutsindikwa, 34, holding aloft the Zimbabwean flag. “I’ve been waiting all my life for this day. Free at last. We are free at last.”
The huge crowds in Harare have given a quasi-democratic veneer to the army’s intervention, backing its assertion that it is merely effecting a constitutional transfer of power, rather than a plain coup, which would entail a diplomatic backlash.
Inspite of the euphoria, some Mugabe opponents are uneasy about the prominent role played by the military, and fear Zimbabwe might be swapping one army-backed autocrat with another, rather than allowing the people to choose their next leader.
“The real danger of the current situation is that having got their new preferred candidate into State House, the military will want to keep him or her there, no matter what the electorate wills,” former education minister David Coltart 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 Mugabe had no diplomatic support in the region and should resign at once.
Meanwhile, the Youth League of ZANU-PF has called on President Robert Mugabe to step down.
The call came after a Sunday morning meeting by the Youth League executive “in solidarity” with the bloodless coup led by the country’s military, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corportion’s reported.
The Youth League also called for the reinstatement of Mugabe rival Emmerson Mnangagwa to the government and the expulsion of Mugabe’s wife Grace Mugabe from the party.
The organisation had previously been a supporter of Grace Mugabe as successor to her husband. The news comes as the coup leaders will likely try to pressure President Mugabe to step down from his office at a new round of negotiations.
New talks between army generals and Mugabe are set to be mediated on Sunday by Catholic priest Fidelis Mukonori, with representatives from intelligence agencies and the Ministry of Information also attending, state broadcaster ZBC reported.
The 93-year-old president, who has been under house arrest since Wednesday’s peaceful putsch, already met on Thursday with army leadership, headed by chief Constantino Chiwenga.
In the meantime, tens of thousands of Zimbabweans took to the streets of Harare to celebrate the end of the Mugabe era, with the army peacefully looking on.
The army wants an interim government set up and for elections to then be held. The Southern African Development Community also plans to hold a crisis summit in Angola on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Zimbabwe. Representatives from South Africa, Zambia, Tanzania and Angola are expected.
