HUMILIATION FOR MUGABE
Enemies exploit his wife’s meddling to finally impeach him
THEY tried to get him to go quietly but the old dictator refused.
Now the gloves are off and the formal process of impeaching Robert Mugabe, 93, begins today.
The Zimbabwean despot is accused by the ruling Zanu-PF party – which he headed until he was expelled on Sunday – of allowing his 52-year-old wife Grace to ‘usurp constitutional power’.
In a statement yesterday, chief whip Lovemore Makuku outlined the charges that will be levelled against Mugabe when parliament meets today to begin proceedings to kick him out after 37 years of unchallenged power.
The motion also criticises Mugabe for his ‘inability to perform the functions of office because of physical or mental incapacity’ seemingly a reference to his habit of falling asleep at meetings.
‘He can be totally lucid one minute and then gone the next,’ one of his former political allies said last night.
His final humiliation comes after he refused to resign during a rambling TV address on Sunday, despite having agreed a statement with military chiefs who placed him under house arrest after last week’s coup.
General Constantine Chiwenga, the head of the armed forces who led the military action, can be seen trying to place the relevant paperwork in front of the dictator, only for Mugabe to shuffle the pages and miss the one in which he confirmed his resignation.
Afterwards, Mugabe can be heard to say ‘sorry’ to Gen Chiwenga, who had believed the despot had finally agreed to resign rather than face the disgrace of impeachment and being thrown out as president.
The impeachment motion spells out claims of ‘serious misconduct’ and ‘wilful violation of the consti- tution’ against Mr Mugabe. It also says he is the main source of ‘instability’ in the country, while rampant corruption – the president is worth an estimated £3billion – has spiralled out of control.
Noting the party is ‘gravely concerned’ about his leadership, the motion damns Mugabe for ‘ his poor sense of judgment and disrespect for the rule of law’.
He is attacked for allowing his second wife, who until last week was manoeuvring to become the next president, to ‘make public utterances on the issues of government’, including ‘appointing and dismissal of government ministers and senior civil servants’.
Parliament, which will debate the motion in a secret ballot, will hear the party Mugabe ruled with an iron fist is ‘alarmed that the president has abrogated his constitutional mandate’ to his wife.
‘Gucci Grace’ is despised in Zimbabwe for her extravagant spend- ing. Rather than ‘first lady’, she is referred to as ‘first shopper’.
Senior Zanu-PF member Paul Mangwana, emerging f rom a party meeting yesterday, said: ‘The main charge is that he has allowed his wife to usurp constitu- tional power when she has no right to run government.’
Mugabe is also criticised for firing cabinet members, including vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose sacking two weeks ago – on the orders of Mrs Mugabe – triggered his downfall.
Mnangagwa, known as The Crocodile, masterminded the military coup after fleeing the country in fear of his life, and is due to meet Mugabe for the first time today to discuss his exit.
With parliament expected to overwhelmingly back the impeachment motion, today will officially mark the end of the rule of Mugabe, who had previously insisted that he would remain in charge ‘until God says “come join the other angels”’.
Mugabe’s refusal to go caused alarm in Harare, the capital, yesterday, amid fears that loyalists in the despot’s intelligence services could launch a fightback.
It came after members of the secret police drinking at a hotel shouted and swore about the new regime and pledged to fight to the death. Army units and tanks remain at all key locations.
Meanwhile, China admitted last night that Gen Chiwenga was in Beijing for ‘biliateral exchanges’ days before t he coup, but denounced the ‘evil intentions’ of western claims that the country was involved in ousting Mugabe.
‘Lucid one minute, gone the next’