Mugabe outta here
Zimbabwe erupts in celebration as 37-year dictator quits
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Celebrations erupted in the streets after Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, resigned Tuesday, a stunning end to nearly 40 years of leadership announced in parliament during impeachment proceedings against him.
Car horns were blasting across Harare, the capital, as Zimbabweans expressed their joy at Mugabe’s departure and people sang and danced in the streets.
The resignation came with Mugabe facing a possible swift removal by parliament through impeachment and after only a handful of Cabinet ministers appeared at a meeting he called Tuesday.
Parliament’s speaker stopped proceedings to say lawmakers had received a letter from the president indicating his resignation was effective immediately. Parliament erupted into cheers. Minah Mandaba, a member of the ruling ZANU-PF party’s Central Committee, danced and cheered as she left the joint sitting of parliament, where the resignation was announced.
“I’m overjoyed. This is a wonderful day, not only in the history of Zimbabwe but for the world,” Mandaba said. “We did this with no bloodshed. We had peace and tranquility. This has been done with much love for each other. It’s a lesson to the rest of the world.
Mugabe had been facing immense pressure to quit after 37 years in power, during which he evolved as a leader in the fight against white minority rule to a person considered most responsible for such problems as a collapsing economy and human rights violations.
He had led the country since independence from Britain in 1980, first as prime minister and then as president. But he presided over a country struggling with unemployment of around 90%, a dire currency crisis and impoverished health and education sectors.
He managed to hang on for a week after Zimbabwe’s military took control, stripped him of executive power, confined him to his house and arrested his political allies, including a group of senior government ministers. But as the pressure mounted, he resigned.
When he came to power in 1980, Mugabe was seen as one of Africa’s great liberation heroes, and he still sees himself, one of the continent’s elder statesmen, with no political peers. But ruthless and oppressive, his popularity declined when he sent security forces to arrest and beat up opposition activists during several violent, flawed elections.
In 2007, Zimbabwe experienced galloping hyperinflation that saw the country forced to print $100 trillion notes that were virtually worthless, a crisis that wiped out savings and left many destitute.
The ZANU-PF party was beginning impeachment proceedings against Mugabe after its Central Committee ousted him as party leader Sunday and replaced him with Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former state security minister nicknamed “the Crocodile.” Mnangagwa served for decades as Mugabe’s enforcer, with a reputation for being astute and ruthless, more feared than popular.
U.S. Secretary of State Tillerson called for democratic reforms and free elections to move the country forward. “Zimbabwe has an extraordinary opportunity to set itself on a new path,” Tillerson said.