Mugabe agrees to quit after party sacks him
In scenes unthinkable just a week ago, his ouster drew cheers from the 200 delegates packed into the ruling party’s Harare headquarters
HARARE: Robert Mugabe agreed on Sunday to resign as Zimbabwe’s president hours after the ruling ZANU-PF party fired him as its leader after 37 years in charge, a source familiar with the negotiations said.
ZANU-PF had given the 93-year-old less than 24 hours to quit as head of state or face impeachment, an attempt to secure a peaceful end to his tenure after a de facto coup.
The source told Reuters the Zimbabwe military was working on a resignation statement by Mugabe. State broadcaster ZBC said Mugabe would address the nation later.
Robert Mugabe agreed on Sunday to resign as Zimbabwe’s president hours after the ruling ZANU-PF party fired him as its leader after 37 years in charge, a source familiar with the negotiations said.
ZANU-PF had given the 93-year-old less than 24 hours to quit as head of state or face impeachment, an attempt to secure a peaceful end to his tenure after a de facto coup.
The source told Reuters the Zimbabwe military was working on a resignation statement by Mugabe. State broadcaster ZBC said Mugabe would address the nation later.
Mugabe, the only leader the southern African nation has known since independence from Britain in 1980, was replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa, the deputy he sacked this month in a move that triggered the midweek intervention by the army.
In scenes unthinkable just a week ago, the announcement drew cheers from the 200 delegates packed into ZANU-PF’s Harare headquarters to seal the fate of Mugabe, whose support crumbled in the past few days.
LIBERATION HERO TURNED DESPOT
First heralded as a liberator who rid the former British colony Rhodesia of white minority rule, Robert Gabriel Mugabe was soon cast in the role of a despot who crushed political dissent and ruined the national economy.
After years behind bars as a political prisoner, Mugabe then led a bloody liberation war, which coupled with sanctions, forced the Rhodesian government to the negotiating table. The country finally won independence as Zimbabwe in 1980.
In elections that year, Mugabe swept to power as prime minister, initially winning international plaudits for his policy of racial reconciliation and for extending improved education and health services to the black majority. But his lustre faded quickly.
After his release from prison in 1974, Mugabe took over as head of the Zimbabwe African National Union, which joined forces in the liberation struggle with Joshua Nkomo’s Zimbabwe African People’s Union. Nkomo was one of the early casualties of Mugabe’s crackdown on dissent. In 1982, he was dismissed from government, where he held the home affairs portfolio.