Army swoop spells end of era for Zim
Mugabe has phone contact with Zuma
ZIMBABWE’S military seized power yesterday saying it was keeping President Robert Mugabe and his family safe while targeting “criminals” in the entourage of the only ruler the country has known in its 37 years of independence.
Soldiers seized the state broadcaster and a general appeared on TV to announce the takeover. Armoured vehicles blocked roads to the main government offices, Parliament and the courts in Harare, while taxis ferried commuters to work nearby. The atmosphere in the capital remained calm.
In his first contact with the outside world since the takeover, Mugabe spoke by telephone to President Jacob Zuma and told him he was confined to his home but was fine, the Presidency said in a statement.
It was not clear whether the apparent military coup would bring a formal end to the 93-year-old Mugabe’s rule; the main goal of the generals appeared to be preventing Mugabe’s wife Grace, 41 years his junior, from succeeding him.
But whether he remains in office, it is likely to mark the end of the total dominance of the country by Mugabe, the last of Africa’s generation of anti-colonial state founders still in power and one of the continent’s most polarising figures.
Mugabe plunged Zimbabwe into a fresh political crisis last week by firing his vice-president and presumed successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa. The generals believed that move was aimed at clearing a path for Grace to take over and announced on Monday they were prepared to “step in” if purges of their allies did not end.
“We are only targeting criminals around him (Mugabe) who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country to bring them to justice,” Major-General SB Moyo, chief of staff logistics, said on TV.
“As soon as we have accomplished our mission, we expect that the situation will return to normalcy.”
By yesterday afternoon it was business as usual in Harare’s suburbs while there was less traffic than normal in the city. Soldiers continued to man armoured cars but had relaxed searches on vehicles at checkpoints. Residents spoke in awe of events that had previously seemed unthinkable.
Whatever the final outcome, the events could signal a once-in-a-generation change for the country, once a regional bread-basket, reduced to poverty by an economic crisis Mugabe’s rivals have long blamed on him. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change called for a peaceful return to constitutional democracy, adding it hoped the military intervention would lead to the “establishment of a stable, democratic and progressive nation state”.
Zuma, speaking on behalf of the Southern African Development Community, expressed hope there would be no unconstitutional changes, and urged Zimbabwe’s government and the military “to resolve the political impasse amicably”.