Ruling party confident it can impeach president
It is time for the military to step back and let the parliament and, if necessary, demonstrators remove the longtime leader, said Chris Mutsvangwa, head of the association.
“We cannot continue to have the generals seen as arbiters of the political destiny of Zimbabwe. It is not their purpose,” Mutsvangwa said.
Later Monday, the military said in a statement that it held further meetings with Mugabe since his speech in which he ignored calls to resign. The statement said Mugabe is working toward “a definitive solution and roadmap for the country.”
In a news conference on state-run television, the military said it was encouraged by new developments that include “contact” between Mugabe and ousted VicePresident Emmerson Mnangagwa, who has close ties to the military and is poised to succeed him. The military said Mnangagwa will return to Zimbabwe “shortly.”
Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANUPF party expressed confidence that it could impeach Mugabe this week if it secures the support of opposition lawmakers in reaching a two-thirds majority in parliament. On Sunday, the party’s Central Committee stripped him of his ZANUPF leadership post in a decision to be ratified at a party congress in December.
The plan is to move a motion for impeachment on Tuesday, set up a parliamentary committee to investigate the matter, and then refer it to all lawmakers for a vote by Wednesday, said Paul Mangwana, the party’s deputy secretary for legal affairs.
The main charge against Mugabe is “allowing his wife to usurp government powers” and that “he is too old and cannot even walk without help,” Mangwana said.
However, some analysts believe the impeachment process could take weeks and would, if conducted properly, allow Mugabe to make a case in his defence.
Zimbabwe’s polarizing first lady, Grace Mugabe, had been positioning herself to succeed her husband, leading a party faction that engineered the ouster of Mnangagwa. The prospect of a dynastic succession alarmed the military, which threw its lot in with Mnangagwa by confining Mugabe to his home and targeting what it said were “criminals” around him who were allegedly looting state resources — a reference to associates of his wife.
Zimbabweans are disillusioned by the country’s economic collapse under Mugabe, who acknowledged “a whole range of concerns” about the national disarray on his watch, in his Sunday night address. He said he planned to preside over the party congress next month, a statement that struck many as either brazen or oblivious because the party is manoeuvring to replace Mugabe with Mnangagwa.