Mugabe’s last stand
HARARE Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s own ruling Zanu-PF party says it wants him to step down – and it organised a rally in the capital, Harare, overnight to make the point.
Mugabe, who led Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle and has been at the nation’s helm since independence from Britain in 1980, faces the starkest challenge ever to his rule after the army seized power on Wednesday, saying it was targeting ‘‘criminals’’ around the nonagenarian leader.
Zanu-PF called yesterday for Mugabe to resign, main state newspaper The Herald reported, a clear sign that the ageing leader’s authority has collapsed after the army takeover.
The paper said Zanu-PF branches in all of Zimbabwe’s 10 provinces had met and had passed no-confidence motions in Mugabe. They had also called for his wife, Grace, whose ambitions to succeed her husband triggered the political crisis, to resign from the party.
A senior member of Zanu-PF earlier said the party wanted the long-serving president gone.
‘‘If he becomes stubborn, we will arrange for him to be fired on Sunday,’’ the source said. ‘‘When that is done, it’s impeachment on Tuesday.’’
The Herald reported that ZanuPF would convene a special Central Committee meeting today to ‘‘realign the revolutionary party with current political developments’’.
Pointedly, the military said it ‘‘fully supports’’ a ‘‘solidarity march’’ – apparently separate from the Zanu-PF event – in Harare, part of an apparent groundswell of anti-Mugabe sentiment unleashed by the dramatic events of the past few days.
The army said it had been ‘‘approached by several private volunteer organisations seeking to freely move and express their desires’’, and they could do so if they were orderly and peaceful.
Harare has been calm as the coup has unfolded, but the armed forces also said in a statement that ‘‘people have been warned against looting’’.
The army appears to want Mugabe to go quietly and allow a transition of power to Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose sacking last week as vice-president sparked the army’s action. A goal of the generals is to prevent Mugabe handing power to his wife, 41 years his junior, who appeared to be on the cusp of power after Mnangagwa was pushed out.
Mugabe, 93, who calls himself the ‘‘grand old man’’ of African politics, looks to be running out of options. The army is camped on his doorstep, his wife is under house arrest, and her key political allies are in military custody.
All the main pillars of Mugabe’s rule have turned on him or have offered no support. The police have shown no resistance, while Chris Mutsvangwa, the leader of Zimbabwe’s influential war veterans, said yesterday that Mugabe would not be allowed to resist the military and remain in power.
Zanu-PF, which built a cult of personality around Mugabe, has now deserted him. He has little popular backing in Harare, a stronghold of support for opposition parties that have tapped into the anger and frustration at his handling of the economy, which collapsed after the seizure of white-owned farms in 2000.
Mugabe appeared in public yesterday for the first time since the army took charge, opening a graduation ceremony at Zimbabwe Open University in Harare. He wore blue and yellow academic robes and a mortarboard, and appeared to fall asleep in his chair.
The military has so far treated Mugabe carefully. It said in a statement on national television it was ‘‘engaging’’ with Mugabe, referred to him as commander in chief and said it would announce an outcome as soon as possible.
Many Zimbabweans suspect that the military’s plan is to hand power to Mnangagwa, a longserving Mugabe confidant and liberation war veteran nicknamed ‘‘the Crocodile’’. If so, the generals may be waiting until Mnangagwa can be reinstated as vice president before arranging for Mugabe to resign.
Mugabe is revered as an elder statesman and independence leader but he is also viewed by many in Africa as a president who crippled his country by REUTERS remaining in power too long.
After stabilising briefly when Mugabe was forced to work with the opposition in a 2009-13 unity government, the economy has collapsed again.
Mugabe has won a series of elections but his critics in Africa and the West say his handling of the economy has been disastrous and he has used violence to maintain power.
Botswana’s President Ian Khama yesterday told him to resign. ‘‘I don’t think anyone should be president for that amount of time. We are presidents. We are not monarchs. It’s just common sense.’’
Dumiso Dabengwa, a Zimbabwean liberation war veteran and KGB-trained former intelligence chief, said Mugabe’s fate was sealed but old age was causing him to dig in his heels.
‘‘At his age, everybody becomes very stubborn, and he would be no exception,’’ he said in Johannesburg. ‘‘He certainly will not do it easily, but I think the people will show him that he’s no longer wanted.’’ Reuters