By KATHARINE CHILD, TIMESLIVE, REUTERS, JAMES THOMPSON, RAY NDLOVU, AND NICO GOUS
The end of an era that saw the extremes of both liberation and tyranny has arrived in southern Africa as Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, 93, falls from power.
Mugabe was removed by his Zanu-PF ruling party as its president late yesterday, and has been told to resign as president of Zimbabwe by noon today – or face impeachment.
Amid cheers from 200 party members, Minister Patrick Chinamasa announced the results of a Zanu-PF party central committee meeting‚ broadcast live on television from the party’s headquarters in Harare. Zimbabwe came under military rule last week, and yesterday after 37 years, Mugabe was fired in a de facto coup.
Chinamasa – the Cyber Security‚ Threat Detection and Mitigation Minister – announced that Mugabe had been recalled as party leader, and that should he not accept this he would be impeached tomorrow.
He said Grace Mugabe‚ 52, her husband’s chosen successor, had been expelled from Zanu-PF for “promoting hate speech‚ divisiveness and assuming roles and powers not designated for her office”.
The party appointed Mugabe’s former deputy‚ Emmerson Mnangagwa‚ to take charge of the party “in the interim”.
Higher Education Minister Jonathan Moyo‚ who was part of the Mugabe’s Zanu-PF faction – nicknamed “G40” – has also been expelled.
Mnangagwa was fired earlier this month by Mugabe and left the country but has since returned.
Thousands took to the streets of Harare this weekend, and Cape Town’s parade ground was one of the first venues for mass outpourings in SA. It all began a week ago when the military – once the bedrock of Mugabe’s rule – broke ranks with him.
Mugabe’s last days in power saw his former loyalists one after the other throwing him under the bus.
Yesterday Obert Mpofu, the most senior Zanu-PF member in the absence of those in hiding or detention, presided over the sacking of the man who had made him Minister of Mines and Mining Development in 2013 when the government was enjoying the benefits of a newly found wealth of diamonds.
Mpofu, who once signed letters to Mugabe as “Your Obedient Son”, yesterday told the Zanu-PF Central Committee: “Today is a very important day as we recall the outgoing president.”
Despite prolonging Mugabe’s eventual demise, Zanu-PF yesterday gave notice that it intended to give Mugabe a dignified exit and to “have him as an elderly statesman”.
Charges await “criminal elements” Professor Jonathan Moyo, Savior Kasukuwere, the detained Dr Ignatius Chombo and Mugabe’s nephew Patrick Zhuwao, who is currently visiting regional governments trying to rally support to help his uncle stay in power. The army accuses them of corruption and reversing the gains of the liberation struggle.
A host of smaller players in the G40 faction were also given marching orders. Mugabe is still the president but if he refuses to comply, Zanu-PF has options to look at such as impeachment.
So far, the army has kept a distance from the party process.
Mugabe is the only leader Zimbabwe has known since independence from Britain in 1980, more than a generation ago.
Speaking before the meeting, war veterans’ leader Chris Mutsvangwa said 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.
He followed up with threat to unleash the mob on Mugabe if he refused to go.
Moments after the vote was taken to remove Mugabe, the delegate hall erupted in cheering.
“The president is gone. Long live the new president!” shouted Mutsvangwa, who has led an 18-month campaign to remove Mugabe. 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 stabilising 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.
The EFF welcomed Mugabe’s removal calling it “long overdue. For the longest time‚ South Africa has been saying that Zimbabwe should solve its own problems without external influence”. The EFF accused Mugabe of undermining the land reclamation process.
The EFF earlier called on the ANC to grant Mugabe asylum in South Africa to allow Zimbabwe to “move faster into a better future under a democratic civilian rule”.
“I don’t think you will find any government on the continent that will react to an announcement by a political party recalling its president‚” the SA Department of International Relations and Cooperation spokesperson Clayson Monyela said yesterday.
“The time that government will react is when the head of state is removed or there’s an impeachment or he resigns.” — DDC
MUGABE, GRACE BOOTED OUT
The end of an era that saw the extremes of both liberation and tyranny has arrived in southern Africa as Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, 93, falls from power.
Mugabe was removed by his Zanu-PF ruling party as its president late yesterday, and has been told to resign as president of Zimbabwe by noon today – or face impeachment.
Amid cheers from 200 party members, Minister Patrick Chinamasa announced the results of a Zanu-PF party central committee meeting‚ broadcast live on television from the party’s headquarters in Harare. Zimbabwe came under military rule last week, and yesterday after 37 years, Mugabe was fired in a de facto coup.
Chinamasa – the Cyber Security‚ Threat Detection and Mitigation Minister – announced that Mugabe had been recalled as party leader, and that should he not accept this he would be impeached tomorrow.
He said Grace Mugabe‚ 52, her husband’s chosen successor, had been expelled from Zanu-PF for “promoting hate speech‚ divisiveness and assuming roles and powers not designated for her office”.
The party appointed Mugabe’s former deputy‚ Emmerson Mnangagwa‚ to take charge of the party “in the interim”.
Higher Education Minister Jonathan Moyo‚ who was part of the Mugabe’s Zanu-PF faction – nicknamed “G40” – has also been expelled.
Mnangagwa was fired earlier this month by Mugabe and left the country but has since returned.
Thousands took to the streets of Harare this weekend, and Cape Town’s parade ground was one of the first venues for mass outpourings in SA. It all began a week ago when the military – once the bedrock of Mugabe’s rule – broke ranks with him.
Mugabe’s last days in power saw his former loyalists one after the other throwing him under the bus.
Yesterday Obert Mpofu, the most senior Zanu-PF member in the absence of those in hiding or detention, presided over the sacking of the man who had made him Minister of Mines and Mining Development in 2013 when the government was enjoying the benefits of a newly found wealth of diamonds.
Mpofu, who once signed letters to Mugabe as “Your Obedient Son”, yesterday told the Zanu-PF Central Committee: “Today is a very important day as we recall the outgoing president.”
Despite prolonging Mugabe’s eventual demise, Zanu-PF yesterday gave notice that it intended to give Mugabe a dignified exit and to “have him as an elderly statesman”.
Charges await “criminal elements” Professor Jonathan Moyo, Savior Kasukuwere, the detained Dr Ignatius Chombo and Mugabe’s nephew Patrick Zhuwao, who is currently visiting regional governments trying to rally support to help his uncle stay in power. The army accuses them of corruption and reversing the gains of the liberation struggle.
A host of smaller players in the G40 faction were also given marching orders. Mugabe is still the president but if he refuses to comply, Zanu-PF has options to look at such as impeachment.
So far, the army has kept a distance from the party process.
Mugabe is the only leader Zimbabwe has known since independence from Britain in 1980, more than a generation ago.
Speaking before the meeting, war veterans’ leader Chris Mutsvangwa said 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.
He followed up with threat to unleash the mob on Mugabe if he refused to go.
Moments after the vote was taken to remove Mugabe, the delegate hall erupted in cheering.
“The president is gone. Long live the new president!” shouted Mutsvangwa, who has led an 18-month campaign to remove Mugabe. 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 stabilising 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.
The EFF welcomed Mugabe’s removal calling it “long overdue. For the longest time‚ South Africa has been saying that Zimbabwe should solve its own problems without external influence”. The EFF accused Mugabe of undermining the land reclamation process.
The EFF earlier called on the ANC to grant Mugabe asylum in South Africa to allow Zimbabwe to “move faster into a better future under a democratic civilian rule”.
“I don’t think you will find any government on the continent that will react to an announcement by a political party recalling its president‚” the SA Department of International Relations and Cooperation spokesperson Clayson Monyela said yesterday.
“The time that government will react is when the head of state is removed or there’s an impeachment or he resigns.” — DDC
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