Mugabe has fallen
‘This is a coup. The army has taken over and it is not reversible’
ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe, who was placed under house arrest by the military at 6pm on Tuesday in Harare, was yesterday locked in negotiations with top commanders for his exit from power, as his controversial rule draws to an inglorious end.
Discussions were under way in Mugabe’s $10 million (R144m) palatial home, known as the Blue Roof, with sources revealing that five military officers were involved in the talks, which would lay the groundwork for a swift exit, leading to what was anticipated to be a swift transition.
This as President Jacob Zuma, as the chair of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), dispatched Defence and Military Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and State Security Minister Bongani Bongo to speak to Mugabe and the army generals.
By last night, sources in Pretoria said Nqakula and Bongo were expected to bring the warring factions of Zanu-PF to agree on a “road map”, detailing who would lead the country in the interim while working towards an early election.
“This is a coup. They (the army) have taken over, and it is not reversible. The only logical expectation will be to agree on a road map to return Zimbabwe back to constitutional normalcy,” a senior diplomat said.
“Officially no one has called it a coup yet, even the generals themselves are not calling it a coup yet, but that is what it is. So the issue is how do you return the country to constitutional normalcy; what happens between now, what does the transition look like.
“Those are the discussions we will have with the old man (Mugabe). But he’s no longer in charge; he is basically under house arrest but they won’t call it that,” the diplomat added.
Yesterday, sources said there were two main options for Mugabe’s exit plan. The first entailed that he stepped down immediately, enabling Zanu-PF to choose a leader to govern the country until the end of the current presidential term.
Under this plan, the leader who takes over would be in office until June next year when general elections were due. This could open the way for Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was dramatically sacked by Mugabe as vice-president last week, to make a spectacular comeback and vie for power.
Mnangagwa, who has been Mugabe’s most loyal lieutenant for more than 40 years, enjoys the support of top commanders, who were unhappy with him being ousted.
The second but less likely exit plan for Mugabe entails his resignation and the establishment of a transitional authority to steer the nation until a general election is held.
“The military still has residual respect for Mugabe. They don’t want to stampede him out of power. They are looking for an honourable exit. But everything depends on the outcome of the discussions between the president, the commanders and the mediators.
“However, in the next few days there should be a clear direction as to where Zimbabwe is going,” a security source said.
It is also understood that two ministers who had sought refuge in the president’s imposing mansion, situated in the upmarket Helensvale area of Borrowdale, were eventually captured by the military, who demanded their arrest as a precondition to the opening of negotiations. Mugabe was with his wife Grace.
Higher Education Minister Jonathan Moyo, a US-trained political scientist who has played a leading role as Mugabe’s chief strategist, and Local Government Minister Saviour Kasukuwere, who is also the national commissar of Zanu-PF, were now in detention. Before agreeing to their arrest, Mugabe was said to have requested assurances from the military that the ministers would not be harmed.
A member of the police VIP protection unit was shot dead at the suburban house of Finance Minister Ignatius Chombo, who was captured after a gunfight.
During the co-ordinated manhunt for Mugabe’s ministers on Tuesday night, soldiers used an armoured personnel carrier to flatten the gate to the finance minister’s house. His bodyguard put up armed resistance but was outgunned.
The detained ministers all belong to a Zanu-PF faction known as Generation 40, which has coalesced around Mugabe’s increasingly ambitious wife Grace.
Apart from the ministers, the director in charge of security in the Central Intelligence Organisation and one of Mugabe’s closest aides, Albert Ngulube, is in detention. Zanu-PF Youth League leader Kudzanai Chipanga, who denounced military commander General Constantino Chiwenga on Monday, has also been locked up by the soldiers.
Two ministers, Foreign Minister Walter Mzembi and Labour Minister Patrick Zhuwao, who is also Mugabe’s nephew, escaped capture as they were abroad. Mzembi was on official duty in Zambia but has since travelled to South Africa, while Zhuwao is attending a conference in Argentina.
The whereabouts of Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko were unknown. He was believed to have been in the second capital, Bulawayo, when the rest of his comrades were snatched.
This would have enabled him to slip into neighbouring Botswana.
Chilling details have emerged of how Mugabe and his ministers were rounded up by the soldiers.
The turning point, sources said, came when the commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, comprising the army and the air force, was threatened with arrest upon his return from an official visit to China last week.
Police officers who had been assigned to nab him upon arrival were swiftly disarmed and overpowered by army commandos who had come to receive Chiwenga. He was whisked away to safety.
Soon after that, he had a private meeting with Mugabe. Sensing danger as threats of arrest loomed large, Chiwenga issued a stern warning to Zanu-PF leaders, demanding an end to the purging of liberation war stalwarts and calling for the sacking of “infiltrators” who were destroying the party from within. But when Zanu-PF responded by deploying the youth league and the party spokesperson to denounce the military chief and accuse him of treason, the crisis gained momentum.
Chiwenga took decisive action against Mugabe, deploying soldiers, rounding up ministers and placing the veteran leader under arrest.
Two main units of the army, namely a mechanised brigade armed with tanks and armoured personnel carriers and the presidential guard, played a decisive role in the operation.
Army tanks were positioned at strategic points, including outside Mugabe’s offices in central Harare as well as at his mansion.
At Harare’s main airport, which was recently named after Mugabe, soldiers were searching outbound travellers.
The military surrounded the armoury of the police’s paramilitary wing near Harare in a show of force that paralysed the police, which was accused of aligning itself with the G40 faction.
Mugabe confirmed to Zuma in a phone call that he was under house arrest, with his movement restricted.