Mugabe won’t quit

THE struggle to oust Robert Mugabe from power in Zimbabwe dragged on a bit longer on Sunday night when the 93-year-old president went on television and did not resign.

Uniformed officers arrayed to his right sat expressionless and even helped Mr Mugabe shuffle the pages of his rambling, 20-minute speech, making clear that after negotiating with him for several days the military was not prepared to depose him by force. In the chaotic context, that passed as good news. Mr Mugabe’s refusal to go gently into the night after 37 years of despotic rule was bound to be a major immediate disappointment to many of his countrymen. But after a specially convened meeting of the ruling Zanu-PF party expelled him as its leader on Sunday and ordered him to resign by noon Monday or face impeachment, it was all but certain that he would soon be out of office.

How the ousting plays out, and whether Mr Mugabe’s most likely successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa, proves to be less authoritarian, remain major questions. But for now, the military’s decision to intervene while not taking power outright was preferable to a coup d’état.

It is better for Zimbabwe, which has known only one leader since the end of white-minority rule, and for Africa, where many countries are under despotic “big man” rule, that the expulsion of Mr Mugabe follows democratic norms.

Beyond that, whoever takes the helm as the country enters a post-Mugabe era should heed the crowds who cheered the despot’s fall from power and take serious steps to end the cronyism, corruption and poor economic management that has kept Zimbabwe from enjoying the prosperity that its resources and geography should bring.