Mugabe won’t quit

Impeachment on cards as ousted leader refuses to step down

ZIMBABWE’S President Robert Mugabe has refused to end his 37-year rule, despite being sacked as leader of his party.

Mr Mugabe has addressed national TV, where it was expected he would resign from his leadership role.

But the 93-year-old insisted he would preside over next month’s ZANU-PF Congress, despite being fired as party leader just hours previously.

Mr Mugabe ended his attimes rambling TV address with the words: “I thank you and good night” without addressing any expectations he was set to resign. He is now expected to be impeached.

Mr Mugabe’s grip on power was broken last week when the military took over, angered at his wife Grace’s emergence as the leading candidate to succeed him.

At a ruling ZANU-PF party meeting earlier in the day, delegates cheered wildly as a party official announced that Mr Mugabe had been ousted as party chief.

He was replaced by former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, who had been Mrs Mugabe’s chief rival.

With the generals responsible for the military takeover seated next to him, Mr Mugabe gave a lengthy speech acknowledging some problems with the economy and the ZANU-PF party but made no mention of leaving office.

The military takeover “did not amount to a threat to our well-cherished constitutional order, nor was it a challenge to my authority as head of state and government, not even as commander in chief of the Zimbabwe defence forces,” he said.

He added that the military had been polite and respectful since Wednesday’s events.

Earlier, Mr Mugabe was sacked as party leader and given an ultimatum of noon on Monday, local time, to resign or face impeachment proceedings in Parliament.

When it was announced that he would make a live televised address, some media reported it was to step aside.

“The congress is due in a few weeks from now. I will preside over its processes, which must not be prepossessed by any acts calculated to undermine it,” Mr Mugabe said of the party meet scheduled for December.

At the weekend, hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of Harare, singing, dancing and hugging soldiers in an outpouring of elation at Mr Mugabe’s expected overthrow.